Chapter 1. In The Beginning

Gulfcoaston, TX, Just Before The Millennium

The Visit

The house was what they called a "Galveston Raised Cottage" which was a sort of big shotgun flat raised up on two-foot-square pillars six feet off the ground. A long hall ran down one side of the house from front to back with the rooms opening off the hall to the right. There was a living room, a dining room and a kitchen on the first floor and two bedrooms and a sitting room on the second. It sat on a thirty foot wide lot that ran a hundred and twenty feet from Avenue M to the alley. The house was gaily painted and the lot was a riot of flowers such as are only seen in the near tropics in early May. There must have been nearly a thousand houses like this built on the Island during the boom times between 1914 and the end of the first World War as cattle, grain and lumber poured through the port on their way to war. Probably less than a hundred remained, generally lovingly restored, on the East End, in the Silk Stocking District, and a very small number here in Darktown.

A man in his early fifties, somewhat unusually dressed, stood on the front porch and knocked on the screen door gently. When there was no answer, he rapped a bit more forcefully. Presently a elderly man shuffled slowly to the screen door and unlatched it, beckoning the visitor in. In America we currently call men of the householder's complexion "Black" but in the man's distant youth he would have been described as High Yellow, or Light, or by his friends as "so high a creole youse a coon ass". The elderly black man was dressed identically as his white visitor, a light brown short-shelved shirt and medium green slacks, it was a uniform. Closer examination revealed they were dressed as Boy Scout leaders and the visitor had in his hand the sort of stiff, broad-brimmed hat formerly associated with Boy Scouts and Marine Drill Instructors but now favored by State Troopers. Beyond this similarity, the differences could not have been greater. The white man was tall, broad, late-middle-aged and beginning to run to fat as such men invariably do when thoroughly ensconced in a sedentary job. His full brown hair showed streaks of grey but his full beard was mostly white. The black man was short, stooped with his extreme years but moved with a grace that suggested athleticism in his youth and vigorous physical activity throughout his life. The black man, warmly greeted the white man "Come in, come in Doc. Let us sit on the back porch and visit for a while." The white man replied, "Thank you Mr. Smith, I am most grateful that you could see me." Despite their location on the upper Gulf Coast of Texas, neither man spoke with a readily identifiable accent. The affect of the black man's voice was welcoming while that of the white man was respectful and deferential. Although both men wore Scout uniforms, the decorations were vastly different. The tall white visitor's khaki shirt was a mass of campaign ribbons and embroidered patches that were it not for the man's reserved manner would have been ridiculous while the black man had two golden medals hanging from around his neck, one on a black and white ribbon and one from a yellow and white ribbon. These were obviously men of gravitas and this was obviously about as formal a meeting as could be held in a home.

On their way though the house to the back porch, Mr. Smith stopped by the refrigerator and extracted a pitcher of iced tea, added a couple of handfuls of ice cubes from the freezer section and grabbed a couple of glasses. He anticipated that the visit might go on for some time. Then he and the man he identified as Doc settled themselves into chairs in the deep shade of the southern-facing porch and enjoyed the breeze blowing in from the sea. In early May you could consider the Island almost idyllic. But then May could seem a long way from June when the oppressive heat and humidity set in to last until October. The two men sat and made the small take that exemplified civility between the races in this part of the country.

Doc initiated the real conversation "Mr. Smith, I bring greetings from Fr. LeBeaux. He says he misses you and doesn't get a chance to see you much. We were talking down at the Council 707 hall the other night and he alluded to a box. He said that he hoped that you had taken good care of the box. He said that the materials in the box could be dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands. He implied, and I have to admit that I did not push him in the matter, that the things in the box not only involved the Church but the BSA as well." James Smith looked at him for the longest time and belched. "It is a story from long ago that involved Fr. LeBeaux, Mr. Williams and I when we were just tiny little colored boys. It started the year we all joined the Boy Scouts, 1917. I guess that just about everybody that was involved in it is dead now except for us three. There aren't even very many people around that have even heard about it. I had thought, actually I had hoped, that Jean LeBeaux had forgotten about it. But I guess that it was not the sort of thing you ever forget." Then Mr. Smith returned to his silence.

Doc prompted again "What is it? Is it the box? I really don't know what this is all about?" Mr. Smith looked at him again, slowly and solemnly, and burped again. "Son, I don't know if you really want to know. I don't know if you have a need to know. You have been on this Island for nearly twenty years now and yet you have hardly touched the surface. I have to admit that you have been better accepted by the Islanders than any other outsider I have ever seen. In fact most of the outsiders, the doctors at the medical school, would prefer not to be accepted by the Islanders. But there is a lot that you don't know. Do you really want to know?" Doc nodded his assent. Mr. Smith belched again, looked the tall man deeply in the eyes and said, "No it just isn't the box. The box contains most of the evidence from something that happened during Mardi Gras and Lent in 1918. It involved seven deaths, the Church, the Boy Scouts, witchcraft and some very evil and twisted people. Well ultimately nine people really died because of it. People were beaten, almost to death, just for talking about it back in the old days in the twenties and thirties. You won't find anything about it in the newspaper files, or in the police records, or in the Church records. And yes, Jean LeBeaux, Cory Williams and I were thick in the middle of it. What was in the box. A gun, some diaries, a bunch of pamphlets, bunch of letters, a whole bunch of pictures and some other things. Things people usually don't talk about much. I guess you could say that I stole everything that was kept in 'the box'. I couldn't really see throwing it away, I felt that it should be saved. That someone should remember what happened. But no matter how things changed it never seemed right to bring what was in the box into the public eye. But on the other hand, it really wouldn't do to dump these things. So I kept them. Then my wife took ill. I began to realize that despite all the advances in medical science and your claim that I am going to live forever, I am not really immortal. And it would be best if these things were not discovered in my effects. No one would, or could understand what they involved and people would get all the wrong kinds of ideas." The ancient mulatto burped and stared off into space.

The tall Scout leader fidgeted back and forth on his chair and took small sips of his ice tea. "So what did you do with the box. James Smith once again looked him in the eye. "So I sold the contents of the box. Now don't jump to conclusions, sonny boy. I had been contacted by a fundamentalist Evangelical minister, a Rev. E. E. Norcod who had caught wind of what might just be in the box. How, I have no idea how he ever got wind of it. But now I do know something of this man and his penchant for secrecy. I don't see much risk of the cat getting out of the bag. Its not that he loves us Catholics. He probably hates us about as much as the rest of the Evangelicals do. The Whore of Babylon and all that sort of stuff. But his sub-sect tries to very much stay out of the public eye. And they are particularly desirous to avoid the scrutiny of the government and the new media. So I think our secrets are safe. Besides, it all happened over eighty years ago, eighty one years, all the principals are dead, all their children are dead, and soon enough those three little colored boys will be dead too."

At this point the negro nonagenarian looked off into space, burped, and muttered. "Pictures, eighty year old pictures. Pictures of white women. Some naked, some mostly naked. And nuns. And teenage schoolgirls. A lot of them were beat pretty bad. We knew about it, the three of us. We knew about the voodoo and the lady from New Orleans and her cook. And about the goings on that now-a-days is called lesbianism. It involved some of the grandest Island families. And the most ambitious priest in the Diocese. When it was all over, I stole all of the stuff, kept it. Blood spatters and all. Really strange stuff some of it. But it was really about the women. They called themselves the 'Belles of St. Mary's' ".

Tribes

"Ok Mr. Smith" observed Doc, "Now you have piqued my interest. As you say I have gotten about as deep into this community as any academic can and I have never heard of anything like this. Some sort of murder and sex scandal? In Gulfcoaston? About all I can remember specific to the history of The Island from that era is the hurricane of 1917 and then the political reforms of 1920. What are you talking about." James Smith went back into the kitchen and added some more iced tea and ice to his glass and came back out onto the porch and settled himself in. "Son, I have come to know and trust you these last dozen years or so. But on this matter you have to keep your mouth shut. Remember all the noise you made about the George Wolfe mess, the guy you caught stealing from those Cub Scouts. Yes, he had to be removed but you could have accomplished things in a much quieter fashion. In fact, you will recall that you did him in by a quiet piece of administrative trickery after all your screaming and shouting yielded nothing. You have a lot to learn about this place. Go in and refresh your iced tea and I will enlighten you about the workings of this place. And about the Tribes of the Island in those days."

The tall Scout leader did as he was told but stopped in the bathroom to pass on some of the iced tea he had already had. After he was comfortably seated the elderly black gentleman began to lay out the social structure of Gulfcoaston around the turn of the previous century. At the top of the heap were the robber barons of post civil war Texas, the Moodys, the Kempners, the Sealys, the Greshams, the Smiths and the Rosenbergs. They were the multinational conglomerates of the late 19 ^th century with one base in banking, another in shipping and railroads, a third in merchandizing and a fourth base in ranching. Six great mansions stood there along Broadway for the six great families. Their children were seen when young playing in the front yard after tutoring at home. But as they grew older they disappeared, sent off to boarding schools in Virginia in the case of the Protestants who had, afterall fled from the war-ravaged Old South or in the case of the Jews, to prep schools in the Northeast. Then the children reappeared as young adults to find mates and participate in the family wars or to disappear once again, this time for good in the growing metropolises that beckoned the young and rich. The upper crust attended and ran First Baptist, First Presbyterian, First Methodist and above all Trinity Episcopalian. And there were two synagogues, one Orthodox and one Reformed. The time of the year for the ruling class was 'The Holidays' which stretched from the beginning of December to a couple of weeks after New Years. The mansions on Broadway gleamed in the evenings and fireplaces glowed in the cool weather. But mostly what they did was feud. Some were minor fights like the Kempners with Henry Rosenberg. The granddaddy of them all was the battle between the Moodys and the Greshams over the Santa Fe railroad. But that is another tale.

One tier below these magnates lay the Irish Catholics who had also come to post war Texas seeking their fortunes in the 1870's. They by and large supplied the white collar staff to the Moodys and Greshams. And in many cases these Irish rose to executive positions accumulating not insignificant wealth and power of their own. Not enough to challenge the ruling class but enough to justify large comfortable houses of their own on Broadway. Not mansions mind you but large homes with wrought-iron fences in front, lace curtains hanging in massive double oak doors with leaded glass windows, and large garage apartments backing on the alley to accommodate the numerous servants those large Catholic families required. Between the robber barons and the lace curtain Irish, Broadway was solidly packed with substantial homes from the Gresham mansion at 14 ^th Street to the Moody mansion at 26 ^th Street. The Irish were solidly Catholic, of course and dominated the Catholic religious life of the Island. And since Gulfcoaston was the see for all of Texas east of San Antone, they ruled all of the non-Hispanic part of Catholic Texas. For the tribe of the Irish, THE month of the year was March with glorious St. Patty's day. Even though Ash Wednesday very often fell before March 17 ^th , the fact that Lent was on in no way inhibited the parties. And if a party grew too big to hold in your home, there was always the Knights of Columbus hall, downtown on Post Office Street with its fifty foot bar, large dance floor, and commodious kitchen. And you could be sure that the Irish controlled the officers of Council 707, the oldest and largest in Texas.

Not that all of the Irish were rich. Most of the Irish were just one step up from being 'Shanty' Irish and lived in cramped fashion in modest rental homes. These were not by and large concentrated in any one area but were scattered throughout the East End and the Silk Stocking neighborhoods. However, with the prosperity induced by supplying the needs of the war in Europe, these large Irish families began to move into more comfortable houses that they built in the fast developing West End, south of Broadway and west of 29 ^th Street. At this time the Irish considered every one of the Parishes their own, except of course, for the solidly German St. Joseph's and Holy Rosary, the mission of the Holy Spirit fathers to the negroes. Yes the Irish ruled the big parishes, Sacred Heart Cathedral Parish which was a minor basilica, St. Patrick's in the West End and most of all, St. Mary's in the East End. Now-a-days, the Irish claim only St. Patrick's and they are few and far between even there but back in the nineteen teens, St. Mary's was their pride and joy. St. Mary's with its college, high school and elementary school. Stucco St Mary's brand new baroque portico and dome gleaming white in the subtropical sunshine with palm trees planted all around. St. Mary's with its imposing rectory and large convent. Irish St. Mary's the proud. And that particular vicious Irish misogynist streak that forms the basis for this tale.

The Germans comprised a third Tribe of craftsmen and builders, the skilled blue collar workers who all had as their goal a shop of their own. By and large they worshipped with their own, celebrated with their own and married within their own. St. Joseph's Parish had the only wooden Catholic church on the Island and one Mass each Sunday still had the sermon "Ins Deutsch". And First Lutheran Church had the 8:00 AM service in German and the 10:00 AM service in English. The center of social life for them centered around a private, one block square park, The Garten Verein, which always had four types of "Bier" on tap. The Baptists and Methodists of Texas may have gotten the state legislature to pass an Ordinance of Prohibition for the Lone Star State but it seems as if that law ceased to be in effect when one crossed the causeway over Gulfcoaston Bay. And there was a live band playing polkas and waltzes every night. Except during Lent – which was observed ecumenically by both Lutherans and Catholics. But then there was October, glorious October. When finally the first 'Northern' blew through bringing welcome relief from The anti-German sentiment which rose steadily between 1914 and 1917 served only to cause the German community to bind itself together more tightly.

Then came the Italians, very recent tribe of immigrants many of whom lacked basic skills in English but who dominated the grocery and cartage businesses. There were more of them than anyone realized. All of a sudden very block in the East End had at least two or three families noisily squabbling in Italian. First one and then another Sunday Mass at St. Mary's was marred by large numbers of squat women wearing head scarves rather than fashionable hats. And mumbling into their beads rather than holding their heads up high. And if you wanted a keg of decent beer or a case of good Irish whiskey you had to see the young Maceo brothers. Somebody even went and got them into the K of C, several of them including the Maceo brothers. Well, I guess that is the price you have to pay to keep beer in the cooler and whiskey on the shelves behind the bar. You couldn't make any sense out of their holidays either. The feast of the Assumption you could understand but they did it so strangely. Carrying the state of the Virgin Mary through the streets, lashed to a chair carried on poles? Wasn't that bad taste? But what the hell is San Giovanni and San Guiseppi? And they were so noisy when they beat their wives and daughters. All that yelling and screaming and running around. The Irish did such things in a quiet and disciplined manner. No more than a little bit of whimpering. The Germans did it stolidly with solid thumps and the women took it like dumb beasts of burden.

Lastly there was that great dark invisible tribe. Always present, always working, always ignored. Negroes come down from the cotton fields of Northeast Texas looking for steadier work. Creoles from Southern Louisiana. Colored people from all over, who knows from where they came. Seeking a little more pay, certainly seeking escape from the Klan which was once more rising throughout the South. Mostly they lived north of Broadway and west of 30 ^th Street. Right up against and intermingled amongst the cotton compresses and break-bulk warehouses that lined the Strand along the piers and in between the sidings and switchyards of the five railroads that abutted the docks. Packed into ramshackle two story wooden tenements, often with less than three feet of space between houses. Wide-eyed kids peering out from windows, women working as cooks and domestics, "Yaz Mam, No Mam, Thankye Mam". Tired, broken men shuffling home from twelve hour days on the docks. There but not really there. Heard only for mumbled courtesies. What they did at night nobody knew because nobody who was anybody ever visited those parts of town after dark. No streetlights, no street signs, no curbs, no sidewalks, no one home. Oh yes there was an enormous amount of life, of love, of death. But it all occurred out of sight and out of mind of the four tribes. Except when the tribes went to the brothels at the west edge of the colored 'Controlled District' on 28 ^th and Post Office Street. There were places that the invisible tribe could call their own. There were the tiny, battered Baptist and AME churches in the middle of the blocks. There was a saloon on every corner. And there was light yellow brick Holy Rosary Parish run by the Holy Spirit fathers.

Now this is not to say that there were not people outside the tribal system, for there were. People whose lives did not center around the wharves and warehouses, cotton and grain, the great mercantile brokers and bankers on the Strand, the railroads and steamship lines. But most of these were associated with the Medical Branch of the State College and the great big hospital, the biggest in the state. They lived in a different world than the Moodys and Greshams and Sealys and Smiths and Rosenbergs and Kempners, than the Irish and Germans and Negroes and Italians, than us. But not all of the outsiders were doctors, nurses and professors. Gulfcoaston was becoming a known place, an exotic place, a cosmopolitan place, a place to go to. In the Summer it was cooler than the rest of Texas. In the Winter it was warmer than the rest of Texas. Recently, two other Bathing Palaces had opened up on the beach, in addition to Murdock's making the Island a favorite Summer location for all of Texas. You could get just about anything you wanted in Gulfcoaston, beer, fine wine, good liquor, fresh seafood, high culture at the Opera House and low culture in the "Controlled District" and things that you just couldn't get normally in the conservative, repressed South. And of course there was always the possibility of a friendly game of chance at one of the numerous social clubs that were popping up under the auspices of the Maceo brothers and their associates. This was beginning to attract people that were, well let us just say they were a bit different. People that might have been thought a bit odd in Brenhem Texas or Shreveport Louisiana. Or downright depraved in Tupulo Mississippi. Nobody asked too many questions in Gulfcoaston.

For instance, there was that Canjun lady, the famous writer, Ann Rhyse. She wrote all those creepy novels that the ladies all loved, and bought by the millions. She loved New Orleans (pronounced Nawlins) but left when her beloved husband died. Went and bought the oldest mansion on Broadway, the Ashton Villa when she moved into town. Right in the middle of Millionaires Row at 20 ^th Street. Bought it from the Masons who were beginning to let it go to seed. Fixed it up. Particular lady that Mrs. Rhyse, right particular lady. No butler or chauffer, drove her car, a 1917 Winton, herself. Had a couple of yard men, but they didn't live on site. Had a woman that lived with her and went everywhere with her. Another woman writer, Patrica Cornel, from Virginia, I think. Had three maids, three beautiful maids, all Nawlins Irish and a Creole Haitian cook, Tabita. All our mothers told us to keep well away from that bunch. Said that Tabita, that Haitian, smelled like a witch to them. But we three boys were always fascinated by that household. And boy those Nawlins Irish maids were very easy on the eye. Every once in a while on a Monday we would peak though the alley fence and watch them giggle and stretch as they hung the laundry out in the yard. To an eleven year old colored boy they were like angels, just like angels.

In those days, so far away, there was one time of year when all the tribes came together – Mardi Gras. That party that lasted two whole weeks. The high society, the six families, had grand balls in the glowing mansions along Broadway. Every hall in the city was rented for the dances and the parties for the Krews. The Krew of Momus, the Krew of Aquarius, the Krew of Gambrinus, the Krew of Hesperia, the Krew of Germania, the Krew of this and the Krew of that. No one rested for a week. But above all were the parades. The parades were free to all and no one was excluded. On little Mardi Gras weekend there was a parade on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. On big Mardi Gras weekend there was a parade on Friday night, two on Saturday afternoon, the big parade on Saturday night, and a parade on Sunday. Then on Tuesday night there was the biggest parade of all and everyone partied until dawn crept into the sky on Wednesday morning. And no one was excluded from the parades.

Doc looked over to his right and noticed that the sun was headed down to the horizon. He looked over to his left. Mr. Smith's chin had sunk onto his chest. The elderly black man started. Then he belched, took a sip of his iced tea and looked over at Doc blinking. "Well, I'm probably boring you but you needed to know a little of the background. You had to understand the Irish. They were the cause of it all. The proud, silently vicious Irish. Nasty. And at the center of it all was a proud prelate. Fr. Thomas Xavier Kelly, aiming to be the youngest Monsignor in Texas. He was the one that got all wrapped up with the women who called themselves the 'Belles of St. Mary's'. One of the diaries in the box was his. The photographs were of the 'Belles' and their daughters. And a couple of whips and some things made out of leather that they don't talk about much even in the brothels. It was quite a collection and it was quite a story those 'Belles of St. Mary's'."

Belles of Saint Mary's

Chapter 2. From the Papers of Rev. Msgr. Thomas Kelly,

Diary Entry, Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, 1917

So my time of exile up here in Houston is drawing to a close and at long last I have been ordered to return home to Gulfcoaston. The high and mighty Right Reverend Nicholas Gallagher is failing, he who has been so harsh on me and has permitted so much sin to spread. Ruler of the Catholic faithful for the best part of a quarter of the State of Texas whose reign is coming to an end. The word is out that Chris Byrne will get the cozier and miter. That was enough to nudge the Chancellery to call me back They know whose boy Fr. Kelly is. And they know that Bishop Gallagher's vendetta against me is over. So tomorrow I will fire up the Ford and do the three hour drive down to 20 ^th and Post Office and see what they can do for me at the Chancery. I want St. Mary's. And not St. Mary's in Texas City. I want St. Mary's at 14 ^th Street and Broadway. And with Chris coming into his own, I will come into my own. Concupiscence! The sin of rampant female sexuality will be beaten back. The bleeding wound of that circle of overweening women will be staunched.

The "Belles" of St. Mary's thought they were rid of me for good that day in 1899 when Bishop Gallagher sent me off the Island to St. Joseph's on the Brazos, a more godforsaken spot not to be had elsewhere in the diocese. But bishops are seldom appointed when young. They are appointed when old. And they get older. If one is patient the bishop changes his mind or the bishop loses his mind. And now my friend, my fellow seminarian, my boon drinking companion, is to be appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Gulfcoaston and I can come home.

Back to Gulfcoaston, back to The Island, back to where I started. Gulfcoaston was my first stop in America after I immigrated from Ireland and before I did my Theology in the Major Seminary in LaPorte. After I was ordained in 1897, my first assignment, Parochial Vicar, was to St. Mary's on Broadway. Not to Sacred Heart Cathedral downtown. I didn't have the political or social connections for that. But Sacred Heart on the East End of the Island was the second best vicarate that a graduate straight out of the seminary could hope for. An impressive establishment occupying two whole large square blocks on the northeast corner of 14 ^th and Broadway. A magnificent church, the construction of which was almost finished, designed by Nicholas Clayton, the foremost architect in Gulfcoaston, and Texas, and an Irishman to boot. A school, the oldest in Texas, founded in 1847. Twelve grades, one through eight of boys and girls and four years of finishing school for girls. A men's college, the oldest in Texas, fought over by six different religious orders since 1852. And a huge Convent for the many nuns and a small rectory for the three of us priests.

It's hard to imagine, even now-a-days in 1917 what it was like to be a Catholic priest in Gulfcoaston in 1897. Not today with the rise of secularism and the great storm of 1900 and the ascendancy of Houston. In 1897 Gulfcoaston was the bright center of life in Texas. Houston was a struggling swamp. Fort Worth was a cattle yard. Dallas was a prairie crossroads. San Antonio was a sleepy army post. Half of all college students in Texas were in Gulfcoaston which boasted two colleges – St Mary's College which was the oldest institution of higher learning West of the Mississippi and the Medical Department of the University of Texas. And the Dominican Sisters at St. Mary's were petitioning to establish a women's college. No other city had more than one college and most had none. We had more Catholic parishes than any other city in Texas, Sacred Heart Cathedral, St. Mary's, St. Joseph's for the Germans, St. Patrick's for the West End Irish, St. Peter's west of the city for the Mexicans, and Holy Rosary for the colored. Then there was the largest hospital in Texas, St. Mary's Hospital run by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and the biggest orphanage, way out on the West End run by the same Sisters. We had two high schools for girls (Ursuline and St. Mary's Dominican) and one for boys (the High School Division of St. Mary's College) and five elementary schools. We dominated the culture of this town to a degree that twenty years and several disasters later is hard to imagine. And this town ruled the state.

Guflcoaston! That's where I met the Belles of St. Mary's, for that's what they called themselves. They were the graduating class of 1898 of St. Mary's Academy.

Diary Entry, Monday, Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, 1917

The Chancellor has signed off on it and that doddering old fool, His Excellency Bishop Gallagher signed the writ. The change is official next week and I say my first Mass on Ash Wednesday. How wonderful – a call to repent, a call to penance, a call to mortify the flesh and restrain carnality. Vindication! I will start immediately on them as my first priority.

I remember them so well. Mary O'Brien, now married to John Kirwin. She was always the ringleader, tall with a head of flaming red hair, an ample bosom and a fiery temper. She was the first among the 'Belles of St. Mary's' and she must be the first that I must bring under control. For if I have her, then I have the other four. And once I have the five of them, all of the rest of the women of St. Mary's will fall in line. But if I cannot bring her under The Church's discipline, then all will fail. She is the key.

Then there were the other two Irish girls. One was Frances Connor who married into the O'Riley family. She was black Irish through and through. With thick black curly hair she was black Irish to the core. Of medium height she was just a bit shorter than Mary. Ah but she was large breasted, which elicited my lust for her tits. She was quiet but sullen. A totally nasty bitch. The third Irish girl was Kathleen Ryan who married into the O'Briens. She was totally unlike either Mary or Frances. Kathy was a blonde of short stature and quiet demeanor who was totally pleasant, unlike Mary and Frances her two bitchy colleagues who could drive you to bejesus. Ah, she may have been short but she was so pleasantly constructed, everything of a piece. Nothing too big, nothing too small and she moved with such grace.

Of the last of the five 'Belles', neither were Irish. The German girl, Elaine Gross had many of the same attributes as Kathy, blond and graceful but unlike Kathy she was cold. Elaine was a snow queen, of medium height but of a slight build and willowy, almost diffident. Her cold beauty attracted Kathy Ryan's brother Jack, I wonder what their marital relations are like for I fear that Elaine is as cold in bed as she is in person. The fifth 'Belle'. Lucia Maceo, was the complete opposite of Elaine. She was the first Italian girl to ever graduate from St. Mary's Dominican Academy. Although now I must admit that the high school is full of them. And in fact about the only non-Italian girls there are the daughters of the alumnae. Anyway, Lucy was short with thick black curly hair. I suspect that her nether regions must be a veritable forest. She had the most voluptuous body of the three, truly put here by Satan for the torment of men. The very embodiment of Concupiscence! And the loudest voice, beautiful in song and always laughing.

I it has been almost twenty years since they graduated from St. Mary's and almost 19 years since they almost destroyed me as a priest. I have not seen any of them in such a long time. I wonder how they have fared.

Today I began putting together my sermons for Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday in Lent. It will be a call to return to penance, to the mortification of the flesh, to a rejection of carnality. As the world is consumed in war, Satan rampages over the entire globe and Concupiscence reigns. We must face these times of peril, not in debauchery but in penance lest we too be torn apart as Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Russia are being. Unless we repent, all will come tumbling down around us.

Diary Entry, Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, 1917

They were there this morning at Mass. All five of them. With their daughters in tow. The O'Brien bitch, no I have to remember she is Mrs. Kirwin, even dragged her servants along to see the famous Msgr. Kelly. I wonder if they have been telling stories about me. It has been almost twenty years and yet the lust came welling up within me, just as strong. It was amazing, by and large, how little they have changed. Mrs. Mary Kirwin is obviously still the leader of them, she has aged a little but is still beautiful and imperious. Her haughty impertinence must be curbed. I asked her to stop by the Rectory tomorrow. The rest are all still beautiful. If anything Frances' breasts have grown even larger, I do not know how she manages to walk without falling forward. Kathy remains as vivacious as ever and certainly Elaine has not grown any warmer. None seem the worse for wear and childbirth except that Lucia has grown a bit fat which is certainly the curse of all Italian women. There seems to be something that happens when that blessed gold ring is placed on their left hand that just lays on the fat.

What was equally striking was the presence of their daughters sitting next to them. I could hardly count all the girls, did they bear nothing but daughters? Tomorrow I shall certainly have to talk to the Dominican Mother Superior and see how things are faring at the High School. But today was my first day as Pastor and there was so much to do. But I couldn't get the images of the 'Belles' and their daughters out of my mind. It was like a musical theme pounding away, giving me no rest and distracting my every thought. I must get these vixens under control or their Concupiscence will destroy my Parish. We must have discipline. All that I can see in my mind are bosoms and bottoms, bosoms and legs, thighs and bottoms. And Oh Sweet Jesus, the pussies, the twats, the cunts, the holes. Them and their daughters. I shall go insane if I cannot do something about it. I will break them and their carnality or they will break me.

Diary Entry, Thursday, First Week in Lent, 1917

Somehow, I managed to get through this day. The first thing this morning after Mass I visited with the Mother Superior of my Dominicans. I do not have a good feeling about this woman. She is way too full of her self importance and the importance of the Dominicans. They act as if they were the only order of nuns in this Diocese that counted. In reality they play third fiddle to the Ursulines who are the real power in educating the elite and the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word who run the hospital and the orphanage. The nerve of that woman! She smiled at me and I was gracious with her, but this matter bears consideration. And their discipline is absolutely awful! I asked how many girls were to be chastised this week and she looked me in the eye and said none so far. I asked her how many girls had been disciplined this month and she told me ten, eight had to stay after school and write out lines and two got five raps with the ruler over the knuckles. I asked how many had been spanked since the beginning of the semester and she looked shocked and said none. She said the girls were all generally well behaved and none ever needed spanking. Then we toured the eight high school classrooms, two rooms each for the freshman, sophomore, juniors and seniors. There was chaos and noise everywhere. Everything was a mess, everything was out of control. I must talk with Chris about this. And as soon as I am finished with this entry, I will write to the Irish Sisters in Limerick.

I talked with Mrs. Mary Kirwin. That went better. Still the flirt after all these years. She gave no indication of that which caused me so much suffering almost two decades ago. That which sent me from this Island. Maybe she has forgotten what they did to me. Perhaps they remember and conceal it deep in their hearts. Those 'Belles'. I addressed her always as Mrs. Kirwin and told her of my plans. Or of that portion of my plans that she needs to know. I praised her and her husband and said that I considered them the first family of St. Mary's. I told her that nothing was going to be accomplished in this Parish without their leadership and that I hoped that she would be willing to lead the women of the Parish this Lent. I spoke of my vision of a great returning to God, lead by the vision of his Suffering, Humble Mother. I told of how I feared the coming of war and what destruction it could do to our society. Of the terrible convulsion starting in Russia. Only humility and penitence could save us and only she could lead the women of the Parish in seeking The Holy Mother's intercession. She nodded her head throughout this. I am sure she was planning what plots she would foist on the Parish. I asked her what women she would most prefer to assist her. Not surprisingly she named Kathy, Franny, Lana and Lucy. Obvious, given the way the five of them, the 'Belles', have been joined to each other for twenty-five years. Imagine, the five society matrons of the Parish leading the "Return to Mary Penitential Program". The biggest tramps and party creatures of the Parish. I told her that her choices were excellent and that I would discuss the matter with their husbands at the next K of C meeting. Meeting with her, smelling her body beneath the masking scent of the perfume aroused me and tortured me beyond relief. I don't know how much of this oozing carnality I can stand. But I will endure it in order to bring chastisement to these haughty women. But I must take my time and proceed slowly.

Diary Entry, First Sunday in Lent, 1917

They were there, they were all there. Occupying the first pews in front, both sides of the main aisle and the front pews on both sides of St. Mary's. With their husbands. But no sons were present. Apparently, the 'Belles' had convinced their husbands to keep their families small and all stopped having children early. Between the five of them there were only four sons and all were off, three at college and one at boarding school. Imagine, good Irish and Italian Catholic families with no more than three children, four at most. The pernicious influence of these women was manifested by their failure to produce enough boys to ensure the continuation of their lines. All these bitches spawn are daughters, the offspring of Concupiscence. And yet I know that they were all pregnant when they were married. I could see the curse of Margret Sanger finally reaching into the Catholic Church through these 'Belles'. The 'Belles' would destroy our society by spreading the plague of birth control. They all looked so smug and well fed. And wasting their uncontrolled sexuality in sterile fornication. For married men and women who have intercourse using birth control are committing the sin of fornication.

I delivered one of the finest sermons I have ever given. And I am considered one of the finest, if not the finest homilist in the Diocese. When I was Pastor at Annunciation I would drive out to LaPorte twice a year to give the lectures on Homiletics at the Seminary. This morning I had the good people of St. Mary's in my hand. I gave my First Sunday in Lent sermon – the Eternal Fires of Hell. No Jesuit could have done better. I first discussed fire and burns. How you felt when you got too close to the fire and got a little red burn. Then how you felt when you got scalded with hot water. The pain, the blistering, the slow, dolorous healing that took several weeks. Then burning with sulfur. The choking, gagging, retching smoke. The deaths of the Roman martyrs like St. Lawrence, slowly roasted on a griddle. Jesuits, burned at the stake by the Indians. Flesh blackening and peeling off. Fat rending out and catching fire. Then I ran with their imagination. The torment of fire that ends not with the mercy of death but in endless torment. Torment wherein a thousand years is but the first second of eternity. I could tell I was having the effect I wanted. There were many red or pale faces in the congregation. Two elderly ladies fainted and had to be carried from the church when I thundered forth "And Why? Because of Unrestrained Carnality! Unrepentant, Unrestrained Carnality!". Then I dwelled on God's mercy, mediated through His Suffering Mother. It was only by kneeling before her in penitence that salvation lay. It was having its effect! Then after Communion I made "The Announcement". Every Wednesday, starting this Wednesday, there would be a penitential service organized by the ladies of the Parish, at 7:00 PM, here in the church. You could feel the low buzz that went through the church and I could see the 'Belles' all sitting a little higher and straighter in their pews. I felt the first twinge of relief I had experienced since last Wednesday. I would lead these women to repentance and penitence. The 'Belles' would be chastised and reined in.

Diary Entry, Tuesday, Second Week in Lent, 1917

Attended the K of C meeting tonight at the Council 707 hall. Afterwards I met with the husbands of the five 'Belles' and together we drank the better part of two bottles of excellent Irish whiskey supplied gratis by Lucy's brother, Sam Maceo. After a certain amount of good natured camaraderie I got down to the substance of my message. The biggest threat facing the Church right now was the lack of feminine discipline. There was no discipline being applied at the Dominican Girl's School and I suspect none in the home. I asked them when the last time was that any of them strapped their wives. Three of them were forced to admit that it was more than a year since they had applied leather to the backside of their wife. Then I asked them whether they felt they wives were appropriately submissive to them as St. Paul instructs. That remark caused two of the husbands to snort good Irish whiskey out their noses as they choked and coughed. They all had to admit that by five years into their marriages their wives wishes were being pandered to and no consideration was being given to them. I had the men where I wanted them. I passed out a pamphlet that I have had privately printed up. I asked them if they thought their problem was unique. They had to admit to me that they thought that they were making their own individualistic adaptation to marriage and that they didn't realize that they all had the same problem. I explained the ways that Modernist influences where undermining the family. How, these ideas originated in Europe and were being spread here because of the war. I led them to understand that women's rights, birth control, prohibition and Protestantism were all tied in together. We needed to restore the old Catholic values and quick. And female discipline was the place to start and Lent was the time to get going on it. I told them that I would get back to them on Thursday. In the mean time, read my pamphlet.

I also got a chance, today, to sit down and talk with Chris Byrne about the situation with the Dominicans. I told him how discipline had gone all to hell at the Girl's High School. I also explained that they were getting up on a high horse about how important they were. Chris opined that if I thought they were bad I should try dealing with the Jesuits. But he had to admit that the Dominican nuns were getting awfully expensive to use as grade school and high school teachers of girls, just too damn expensive. He asked me if I realized that the other day their Mother Superior stormed into his office and told him that she needed TWENTY DOLLARS A MONTH FOR EACH AND EVERY NUN! The Chancellor, soon to be Bishop mused that the diocese could scarcely long afford such extravagance. I told him that I could replace the Dominicans with some Irish Sisters of the Suffering Mother for $10.00 a month. Their Motherhouse in Limerick was willing to send them out as missionaries which meant that we wouldn't have to pay their passage over. They weren't as finicky as the Dominican nuns were about what they ate, you could put two of them in a room that one Dominican would turn her nose up at, and they were famous for their discipline. They were as stiff as the Christian Brothers, maybe ever stricter. Chris told me to see if I could get a commitment for about eighteen to twenty of them and if I could obtain them, we might just move the Dominicans up to Houston.

All and All not a bad day.

Diary Entry, Wednsday, Second Week in Lent, 1917

Tonight I delivered another sermon with as much impact as Sunday's. But this one exclusively to a female audience. Adolescent girls and women. Wives, mothers and daughters. No men except for me. Not even any altar boys. And St. Mary's was pretty well packed. Of course, I was well known as a preacher and last Sunday had them pretty well primed. As I had hoped, the 'Belles' were in the front pews with their daughters. As I preached I focused my gaze on them, looking deeply into their eyes.

I started off with corruption. I described death and the process of how a body decays. Rot and worms. The smell of putrefaction. The process that awaits us all, that awaits only the stoppage of the beating of our hearts. Corruption of the flesh, like your entire body being subsumed into a gigantic menstrual flood. Just imagine your flesh dissolving into menstuum and soaking into your burial gown. As that imagery sunk in a third of the women turned green and four had to go to the restroom.

Then I got into my grand style. But there is a hope, the possibility of life eternal. Bought for us by Christ's Passion Death and Resurrection. And what a price He paid. I went into the first part of the Passion in exquisite detail focusing on The Scourging at the Pillar. What it is like to be scourged? I asked how many had ever been spanked. Of course all the ninnies raised their hands. I asked if it hurt and of course all of them nodded. I asked if any of them were ever spanked with a belt or hairbrush on the bare skin. This time about three quarters of them raised their hands and there was the occasional blush of the cheek of some of the more tender females in the audience. I asked if that hurt. The nods were even more vigorous this time. Did it hurt more than being spanked over clothed skin? Oh yes they all agreed. Then I asked if anyone had ever been made to get undressed and then had a switch applied to their backside. This response was more tentative. A few hands went up. Come, I said, let's be honest. We are here in church and we are talking about the Salvation of Our Souls. At last about thirty hands were raised, about a tenth of the females present. Their faces were almost all scarlet with shame at the image and the memories that the raising of their hand brought to mind. I stared at them carefully, noting who had raised their hands. You can be sure that none of the 'Belles' or their daughters had raised their hands. "Alright," I said, "you who have suffered that pain, stand up!" The silence was profound as they shuffled their feet and finally stood. "Was that pain almost more than you could bear?" there were nods of ascent. "Let me hear what you felt, was it more than you could bear?" A few yeses were heard. "Louder, I cannot hear you clearly". Now the yeses were heard throughout the church. I had them in my hands.

"And you were just getting the switch. Christ was stripped and He was whipped. He wasn't just hit with a switch, He was beaten with a Roman flagellum, the most terrible implement of torture in the world at that time. Four feet long with four to six strands. At every six inches along every strand, not a knot but a lead ball. The flagellum as not designed to hurt. It was designed to wound, to tear flesh. The flagellum was designed to kill. He was bent over the Pillar and tied down. And then two soldiers took their whips and they began to strip the flesh from His back and His buttocks and His sides and His legs. After a dozen strokes all of the skin was torn off and the blood really began to flow. Blood spattered all over the place soaking the sands. At one point the Apostle Paul was threatened with the flagellum. He managed to talk his way out pointing out that he was a Roman citizen and only non-citizens could be subjected to such terrible torture. There was no way he wanted to emulate Christ in this matter. Roman flagellation was terrible. At twenty lashes you lost control of you body. Your urine ran from you and your bowels turned to diarrhea. That's one of the reasons they stripped you, so that your clothes weren't soiled. That would lessen their value when they were sold. You wouldn't need your clothes when they were finished because people who suffered a Roman scourging died. Why do you think Christ lasted only three hours on the cross. Because he was half dead when they crucified him. So you, standing there, you think that you endured the worst punishment you ever had. IT WAS NOTHING! In comparison to what Jesus suffered your suffering hardly drew blood. You cried I'll bet. Some of you probably screamed. AND IT WAS NOTHING IN COMPARISON. That was probably the last time in your life that you really desperately were sorry for what you did wrong. Because when you got that hiding you had done something really bad. You were being punished for it. And you deserved it. AND IT WAS NOTHING COMARED TO CHRIST'S SCOURGING." At this point I dropped my voice to a whisper. "And he had done nothing wrong. He did it for you. To save you the sinner. And what have you done to make up for it." At this point I told those standing to sit. I asked them to examine their consciences in silence for five minutes. To contemplate what they had done wrong. To imagine what it would be like to be stripped. And then bent, naked, over a stone and tied hand and foot with all of the body exposed and vulnerable. And then to imagine, waiting for the scourge. Imagine the first blow, the shock, the jerking of the body. Imagine the worst chastisement they had ever suffered and now go way beyond that. And keep remembering your sin and that Christ was innocent. He had no need for chastisement unlike you the sinners. Now kneel and in silence imagine your penance." I left the pulpit and gave them five long minutes of quiet to contemplate their sins and punishment before I returned and finished the service with the litany.

Diary Entry, Thursday, Second Week in Lent, 1917

Well the artillery shells land today. Delivered to each of the homes of the 'Belles' was a package addressed to the master of the household. Inside each was a sturdy strap, made by Gulfcoaston's finest saddlerer. Each was tailored to the behind of the appropriate 'Belle'. Some were larger than others. Mary's and Lucy's were the largest to suit their ample buttocks. Almost two and a half feet long from base of handle to tip. Over two and a half inches wide and almost one quarter inch thick made from the finest well oiled industrial belting with a varnished wooden grip. With a special note inside from me from me to the husband. The strap destined for Elaine was the lightest and supplest harness leader, designed to curve around her slender thighs and slap the sides. Or curl around her buttocks to land in between her white, wide spread legs so that the tips could strike her in that most intimate of spots and thaw the ice. Elaine's is barely an inch wide and is almost an eighth of an inch thin but it is over thirty inches long. Kathy and Frances will be chastised with straps in between these two extremes, two feet of two inch wide strap. I hope that tomorrow these straps will find full employment.

Diary Entry, Second Sunday in Lent, 1917

Todays sermon was on the Temptations of Christ, hunger, pride and lust for power. A classic Lenten Gospel and a classic Lenten sermon. Turn the rocks into bread, throw Yourself from the top of the Temple and the angels will bear You up, worship me and all the world is Yours. As I developed the sermon I brought round in their lives to the sins of carnality. In particular, the way that the Modern World is tempting them to the sins of the body. Lascivious fashions and birth control. I actually sent a copy to Chris Byrne seeing as these are two of his favorite topics. He particularly gets off on the increasingly scanty bathing suits seen down of the beaches of our town. Glorification of the Flesh, he likes to fulminate. I finished up by returning to my theme – the corruption of the flesh can only be counteracted by the mortification of the flesh. Sin must be fought by discipline! And lent is the time to rein in carnality. The Time Grows Short.

As I spoke I looked out at the 'Belles' sitting with their families in the front pews. Did they look more uncomfortable than usual. Did they fidget on behinds that were still sore from Friday night. Had their husbands finally exerted their authority over the passions of their unbridled wives. Mary Kirwin definitely looked a little paler than usual and both she and her two daughters blushed a bit when I thundered on about mortification of the flesh and discipline and reining in carnality. Then I caught Mary's eye and she glared back at me with frank hatred clouding her face. I may be winning. Lucia Maceo Dorabella definitely looked uncomfortable as did Frances and Katherine. Franny in particular looked stormier than usual. I definitely think that there is something going on. But Elaine, her face is set like stone, a grim determination is seen. She looks directly ahead and not at me at all. Well, we will see.

Diary Entry, Tuesday, Third Week in Lent, 1917

Another Tuesday at the Council 707 hall. Tonight it is Officers and Committee Chair meeting. Afterwards I meet with the five husbands and we once again are indebted to Mr. Maceo's generosity with his bottled goods. John Kirwin is red-faced and jubilant. He can hardly conceal his triumph over his harridan wife. She didn't like the idea at all, he said. But the religious arguments had less to do with it all than the potential loss of social standings if she disobeyed. On Friday night things went exactly as I had instructed and for once it was clear who wore the pants in the Kirwin family. Yes his younger daughter had given a bit of a fight at first, but he put her down with a firm hand and his wife did her duty with the strap. It was the best time he had had at home in probably close to fifteen years. John was going to make sure there was another disciplinary session this coming Friday.

Ed O'Reilly and Paul O'Brien allowed that although they were initially skeptical, it had gone better than they had thought. Paul said that Kathy took her punishment docilely about as he expected she would. But he was surprised when after her spanking she showed some real fire when he performed his husbandly duties. Perhaps it was because Paul took care to "curl a few onto the sweet spot" which really lit Kathy up. He thought that it was her best performance in years. At this point John Kirwin piped up and added that Mary performed like a bitch in heat for once and then grew silent with embarrassment as he realized that I was there. I reassured him that it was nothing that I hadn't heard in the confessional and furthermore, hadn't I written in the pamphlet that one consequence of enforcing Marian Discipline was that properly chastised wives took their wifely duties much more seriously. At this point Ed added that he thought that Frances would be her usual moody self and resist him imposing discipline mightily. But I must have said something on Wednesday that really got to Frances. For once she was docile as a lamb. Michelle was the one who resisted being spanked, she claimed she had done nothing wrong. But the head-strong girl had come around after a sound slap to the face. Ed also remarked that Frances had also performed her wifely duties with enthusiasm. Which was particularly unusual because she was just coming off her 'monthlies' a time when Ed O'Reilly usually tip-toed around the house. I made a mental note that Frances was one of the four ladies that had made a bee-line for the Ladies Room on Wednesday when during my sermon I described their flesh decomposing into menstrual blood. Have to remember use that metaphor again.

At that point Nuncio Dorabella butted in excitedly jabbering with enthusiasm in that comical Italian accent of his. He recounted how Lucia had made a scene when he put 'da belt' to first the three girls and then her. There had been shouting and screaming until finally he had ripped the nightgown off of her, twisted up her arm behind her back, laid her prone over the end of the bed, and laid into her with 'da belt'. After about twenty blows she finally settled down into sobs. But when he started in with 'da banga banga' she started to squeal like 'da pig getten da nife'. Nuncio knew that the sounds would readily carry the short distance to the homes of his brother in laws on either side of him and he worried what the Maceo brothers would do. They were known to be men of violent tempers and if they thought he was abusing their sister Nuncio, might end up feeding 'Da Crabs". As it turned out, the next morning on his way to work, both of the Maceo's congratulated him on "Properly Porking Da Puta". They said that at times they were worried about his manliness but that last night showed he really did belong in the family.

Throughout all of this Patrick Ryan had sat quietly and a bit downcast. Finally, toward the end of the evening and after several glasses of Jameson's, he got it out. Elaine had rejected him and had locked herself and the twin girls in the bedroom. Pat was at his wits end. Everyone consoled him. I, however, showed the wrathful face. I told him that the situation was intolerable and that I expected to see Elaine and him in my office, Thursday morning right after Mass. I would put some sense into Elaine's head, or other parts, just you wait and see. His friends told him "buck it up" and we all left in a jovial mood.

Well that goes to prove that you can never predict about women and the ways in which they will react. I would have figured that Mary Kirwin would have been the hard case. But her love of social position overcame her willfulness. And John Kirwin is a powerful man, large in stature and the dominant Catholic businessman on this Island. On the other hand, Elaine Gross Ryan remains the ice queen, manipulating her husband. As I suspected, their conjugal life must be terrible. This will be a challenge that must be dealt with immediately before the resistance spread. I was excited by my success. The first phase of my campaign against the willfulness of the 'Belles of St. Mary's' was successfully under way. As I lay in bed that night all I could think of was their chastisement last Friday. Images of leather straps hitting white buttocks and turning them first red and then purple floated through my brain. I felt a thrill unlike anything I had known in the past several months. Stiff I was but I tossed all night without permitting myself release. I was working myself into a frenzy for the Wednesday night service.

Diary Entry, Wednesday, Third Week in Lent, 1917

This evening's Lenten Retreat For Women had gone better than I had any right to expect. I preached about Piercings and Submission. Christ, pierced by a Crown of Thorns; Mary, pierced through the heart with the Sword of Sorrow and how they endured their Piercings as Submission to the Will of God. They were Obedient even unto death. I focused first on the feelings of piercing. Looking out over the women assembled in the church I asked those who had ever been stuck by a rose thorn to raise their hands. Of course they all responded. Then I asked those who had ever been really stuck by Bougainvillea to stand. About one third of the audience stood, chuckling as they did. They had obviously encountered the hideous thorns of the colorful vine that was so common on the Island. I asked them whether the one to two inch thorns of the vine were that much worse than the thorns of the rose. Again they laughed. I noticed that Elaine Ryan was sitting in the front row with her two daughters. Well at least Patrick Ryan had succeeded as far as getting his wife to attend tonight. I looked directly at the blond woman and pointed my voice at her, a talent that any really good homilist has. Now imagine what it would feel like to have a crown made of Bougainvillea pressed into your flesh. Imagine those thorns slowly entering your skin, first the skin dimpling as it is poked and then finally the skin giving way and the thorns entering the flesh as the droplets of blood ooze out. Ah Hah! She looked into my eyes and I had her in my gaze. Then I told everyone to sit and contemplate the following image.

I began to discuss submission and obedience as the counter to the sin of willfulness. I said, "If you are poked with a Bougainvillea thorn, what do you do. You back way. You know that if the thorn is pressed into the flesh hard enough, it will pierce the flesh so you withdraw. But if I tell you to push the thorn into your flesh will you obey. Probably not. Why? God sat there stoically as the Crown of Thorns was pressed into His brow. He did not flinch or withdraw. He was Obedient to the Will of God. Could you do the same? Could you take that thorn and put it up against the skin of the most sensitive part of your body, say your nipple or your private parts, and press it into the skin until the thorn entered the skin and through the skin into the flesh. Could you press that thorn until you drew blood. Keep that image in your mind. We know that the Blessed Virgin pierced her breast with a sword that went through her heart. A sword of sorrow for the sins of the World. For your sins. They weren't her sins for she was without sins. She went and bared that breast that had suckled Jesus and held the tip of that metal to her skin and pushed. For your sins. She was submitting herself to the Will of God. And yet are you willing to submit. Sit there and for five minutes think about your sins and your willingness to submit to The Will of God and imagine thorns piercing your most tender flesh." I went over and knelt down at the prie dieu to give them time to mull over the images.

Then I launched into the core of my sermon. "How many of you are willing to submit to the Will of God, to emulate the Blessed Virgin Mary. How many of you, so full of sin are willing to be obedient just as She Full of Grace, was obedient. Stand those who are willing." Mary Kirwin and her daughters shot up. Frances and her daughter shot up. Kathy and her daughter stood up. Lucia and her three daughters shot up. Here and there throughout the church, women quickly stood up, often dragging up a daughter by the arm. The others looked around, a bit puzzled but as they saw who was standing up. They saw that the rising women were the ones who really ran the Parish. So they also began to stand. Elaine, her lips set grimly, looked around and eventually, reluctantly, she also stood. And as the twins saw their mom stand, they also stood. I continued, "Think about the Virgin Mary, She Without Sin. When the Archangel Gabriel came to her what was her reply to the Annunciation. Was it, well I'll think about it. Was it a quest for guarantees. Did she want to know what was in it for her? No! It was 'Be it done unto me according to Thy will!' That was her reply. Submission to the Will of God. Fifteen years old, a virgin, no thought of marriage even in her head. 'Be it done unto me according to Thy will.' And she was sinless. You, the sinners are called upon by God to Repent. You are called to penance for your sins. You are called upon to submit to chastisement for your guilt." I looked at Mary Kirwin and pointed at her. "What is your reply" I asked. She shouted out "Thy Will Be Done Oh Lord!". Somehow I have gotten through to that lady! I am winning. I addressed the congregation of wives, mothers, daughters with arms outstretched asking "What is the response of you the sinful." The response thundered "Thy Will Be Done Oh Lord!". I could see Elaine, head down mumbling. I raised my voice and pointed it at her, "What do you say!". They replied "Thy Will Oh Lord!". I glared at them and bellowed "No that is not your will. Look around you, which of you spurn your husband's commands. How many of you wallow in the sin of willfulness. You seek your own way, the way of pleasure and will submit to no one. You are your own god, you are making your will into the image of your god. Penance and obedience are not your way. Look around you, who will submit to penitence!" Elaine's head was deeply buried in her chin and her face was starting to blush while the women around her were getting more and more agitated. Now I pointed my voice at her and bellowed out "Look at me! I am calling you to contrition." Elaine looked up and I caught her in my gaze. I had her. "You have jabbed another thorn into the pierced brow of The Lord with your cold willfulness. You have thrust that sword a little deeper into the Breast of the Holy Mother with you disobedience. Tell me, will you not instead withdraw a single thorn the smallest fraction of an inch with your penance? Will you not instead remove that steel from the Virgin's Heart by being humble and submissive like she was!" I had them all in my hand and even Elaine seemed to melt a bit. I came to my conclusion, "Who of you are willing to obediently suffer pain and humble yourself before the Lord or will your willfulness condemn you and the one's you love to the fire that burns forever. Sit and think upon this as the final mediation." I let them go for about five minutes before we did the litany. Tomorrow, I would have Elaine in my office the first thing in the morning.

As the church let out a young woman in a black dress approached me, I recognized her as one of the Cajuns in the Parish. Mrs. Jefferson spoke with that particular cadence that makes their accent so pleasant. She admitted to me that she, widowed in her early 20's with no children, was full of sin but had no husband to submit to, to obey, to be humble before. What has she to do? While she was talking, another woman, obviously of Irish extraction also came up and said that her husband was away at sea for the past two months and would be for another six months. Similarly, what was she to do? I told them to come to the Rectory tomorrow at eleven in the morning and the three of us would talk about it together.

Diary Entry, Thursday, Third Week in Lent, 1917

I have to admit that because of my exhaustion I quickly fell asleep on Wednesday night despite my excitement and the turgidity of my loins. My private parts were still crying for release when I awoke this morning but fortunately my cassock obscures my problem from the gaze of others. The events of today have not lessened the problem and I do not know how much longer I can avoid manipulating myself to relieve the stress and strain.

Right after Mass I walked into my office and the Ryan's were sitting there already. I closed the heavy oak door and sat behind the large desk. They were each sitting in the low, heavy, leather covered armchairs that stood in front of my desk. Elaine was obviously reacting to the emotional turmoil of the past seven days. Her eyes were rimmed with red from crying and her face was flushed. However, I declined to be moved by her prostration and maintained only the sternest face. I began by questioning her about her commitment to the Catholic Faith. At the first question she broke down completely sobbing violently. I was bemused that someone who had maintained the iciest façade for so many years could be so emotional. I grasped her firmly under the chin and raised her head to look into her eyes. Why are you acting like this I asked. She said nothing but only cried all the louder. Finally, in exasperation I grabbed her by the blond hair done up on top of her head. Pulling hard I shook her head severely. She stopped crying and finally looked me in the eyes. "What is the matter with you", I began. "You are a married woman, almost forty years old, with two daughters and you are behaving like a small child. You refuse to obey and submit to your husband. You are endangering your own salvation. Your example is leading your daughters astray. I cannot tell how long it will be before you become a scandal to this community. What do we need to do? Should I send you off to St. Mary's Hospital so that your family can have so peace? What is the matter with you woman?" She sniveled and snorted and blew her nose in her handkerchief. "I am afraid and I don't want to be hurt." she sobbed. "You are a cold and willful woman who needs to be sternly chastised for her sins" I replied. "And your husband is just the man to do it if you are willing to be obedient to him. For all too long you have belittled and defied him and now the consequences are coming home to roost. I am all too certain that you need to be separated from your daughters for the sake of their immortal souls." Her sobs returned with a vengeance and she began to shake. "O please, God no, please, please" she pleaded. "Well then, do you know what you have to do?" I said. She shook her head. "Does that mean that you don't know what to do or does it mean that you are unwilling to do what needs to be done?" I said. She mumbled, "I don't, hic, know what, hic, to do, hic.", her speech interrupted by hiccups. I sternly said, "For your penance you shall be beaten by your husband." The cries redoubled and she cried "I don't want to be hurt." I replied, "All you life you have known the consequences of spoiled willful behavior. Suffer penance here on earth or burn in hell for all eternity." And looked up at the beautiful painting of the Sacred Heart on the wall. "Well, what will it be" I said.

I just sat there and said nothing for almost ten minutes and Patrick Ryan did the same. Finally Elaine, blew her nose again and mumbled "OK". I pulled open the center drawer of my desk and removed a strap that is called a Tawse by those sadistic Presbyterian heretics, the Scots. It was all of leather, without a real handle and over two feet long. The end was divided into two tails, each about eighteen inches long and each going off at a slightly separate angle. The tawse was, in my opinion, one of the handiest implements for female chastisement ever invented. I began by saying, "Woman, last Friday you refused the discipline of your husband and led your daughters to do the same. That must be remedied immediately. Tomorrow, you can receive any chastisement your husband sees fit to administer weekly in the home. But today, right now, you must suffer discipline for what you did last week." This speech only increased the sobbing and honking of the blonde lady. I commanded her, "Woman, stand up and remove your drawers." She just sat there and continued to cry. I got up and nodded to her husband. I went over and took her hands by the wrists and drew her up to a standing position. I looked at Patrick and told him to remove his wife's underpants. As he squatted down and began to reach up under her skirt and petticoat, she shook her wrists free of my hands and went "Harumpf". With that she reached up and lowered down her white cotton bloomers. She had to sit down in order to get the white ruffled elastic leg openings over her high button shoes. I told her to put the undergarments into her purse. She complied, having clearly crossed the line into acquiescence. I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, we are beginning to get through to this lady.

Having succeeded in getting Elaine to remove her drawers I instructed her to stand in back of the armchair, lift up her skirts and bend over. After some half-hearted efforts, I snapped at her, "Elaine, well above the waist, get on with it." She was wearing one of those combinations of shirtwaist blouse and long, high-waisted black hobble skirt that are so fashionable now-a-days and as we shortly saw, only the briefest of corsets. Therefore, the skirt and petticoat were capable of being hoisted for a considerable distance above her buttocks, revealing legs that although a bit slim for my taste, were none-the-less very beautiful. And the nicest blond muff was revealed between her legs for a brief time before she bent over the back of the chair. This presented her pretty behind to her husband, hoisted high above a pair of black stockings, gartered well above the knee. I handed Patrick the tawse and told him that two dozen, administered with Irish zeal would be appropriate.

Patrick did a good job. Years of frustration melted from his face as he pummeled the behind of the snow queen. I was actually amazed that once it came down to it, Elaine took it well. I suspect that her German father had frequently welted that behind when she was young. She only sobbed softly as the tawse whistled and cracked its way, starting in the center of her globes and working its way up and down leaving one inch wide red marks that quickly developed into welts. After six, I instructed him to stop and switch sides. He was going a bit too fast and needed to slow down a bit so that she could catch her breath. Patrick waited almost two minutes before the whistling and cracking started again. This time he was forced to stroke her ass backhanded. After another half dozen I pointed out to him that he needed to extend his strokes over, so that the tails of the tawse curled around and struck the flesh of the sides of her thighs that was still unmarked. I also advised him to extend his art work all the way up to Elaine's belt line and down to the tops of her stockings so that the benefits of his discipline covered as wide an area as possible. Believe it or not, Elaine became calmer as the beating continued. By the time Patrick got to two dozen she was hardly sobbing although virtually ever inch of exposed skin was reddened and the central portions of her behind was turning purple. I had her lay there, bent of the sofa for some time after Patrick stopped and watched her buttocks clench and unclench.

At this point I sent Patrick out of the office to bring in their sixteen year old twin girls, Elizabeth and Evangeline. They had been deposited on the wooden chairs outside my office about fifteen minutes before by one of the Dominican sisters who had brought them over from the high school. They had been listening to the noises coming out of my office, for although the rectory was solid brick and the oak door to my study was thick, their mother Elaine was at times making a considerable noise. And the sound of a woman being beaten is so distinctive that even the vaguest sound is unmistakable. The girls were shaking with fear when Patrick brought them in and a glance at their mother, kneeling in the corner with naked buttocks on the verge of bleeding, only served to increase their fear. I asked them if they had been instructed last Friday by their father to disrobe and receive punishment. They nodded their heads. I asked them if they had obeyed. They shook their heads no. I asked them why they had disobeyed their father. They replied, in voices so low that they could hardly be heard, that their mother had told them not to. I told them to look at their mother, over there in the corner, kneeling in contrition and asking God in a sobbing voice for forgiveness. With tears beginning to well in their eyes, they turned there heads and took a look at a sight that clearly moved them. Moved them not so much with pity for their suffering mother, as with dread at what was soon about to be their fate. A fate their mother could clearly not shield them from. I asked them if they knew what they should do and they nodded in the affirmative.

What happened next surprised me. Without further prompting, they began to undress. Both were wearing identical light pink pinafores with a pattern of little red roses and ruffled bibs, over white drawstring blouses. Almost simultaneously they unbuttoned the backs of their pinafores and drew them over their heads, folding them and placing them on the chairs. Similarly the blouses were untied and pulled over the heads, folded and placed on the chairs. They wore highly ruffled petticoats, over relatively long shifts with lace on the shoulder straps. Being still relatively young, they wore no corsets. As the petticoats were dropped and the shifts lifted off I was surprised how developed the girls were. The mother had always been rather skimpily endowed by nature. Even at sixteen, the girls breasts were considerably larger than their mother's. For a moment they stood there with there arms crossed over their chests covering their breasts as if imploring to be spared the indignity of having to strip off their drawers. But, I, heartless, said, "Get on with it". As they began to step out of their bloomers I added "you can leave your shoes and stockings on" for I had a hunch that they were so cowed that they would have removed even these unless otherwise instructed. Soon enough they were bent over, one each to a leather chair having only so briefly shown a flash of sparse yellow pubic hair. I guess that if there is anything in this life that I love, it is the sight of that flash of a young girls pubic hair and legs in white stockings as they fearfully prepare to receive their just chastisement. That and the sight of their labia peaking out between those slightly spread, trembling, pale white legs as they bend over, awaiting the first blow of strap or switch.

The girls being ready, I summoned their mother from her corner, telling her to let her skirts drop. I handed her the tawse. Elaine had stopped crying but her blue eyes, human once again, were still full of tears. "Do I have to do this," she asked. "Unless you want me to do it, and as you know, I will not be gentle. One dozen each." I replied. "And remember, for every stroke I judge to be pulled, they will receive two extras by your hand and you will receive half a dozen extras by my hand. And I will not be gentle." I added. The girls were now starting to quietly cry in anticipation of what they were about to receive. I have to admit that Elaine did a creditable job. She pulled not a single stroke, not wishing to subject her daughters to added punishment. And the girls held up as well as any slim, blonde sixteen year old does under such conditions. Elaine delivered her strokes evenly, spreading them out. Three to Beth then three to G'line, then three to Beth and three to G'line, switching sides as she went. The girls cried as their beating went on and toward the end twitched and flinched as their backsides grew redder. But it was not a severe beating as such things go.

When the punishment was over and the girls were allowed to stand up, they rubbed their reddened backsides vigorously. This thrust their loins forward provocatively. But they were unconscious of the display they were makin, as their primary interest was in quelling the burning on the posterior side of the body. With their hands tightly applied to their buttocks their breasts were also fetchingly revealed. Tomorrow evening they and their mother would face the routine weekly penitential discipline I had decreed that their father administer. But by tomorrow the twin's backsides would approach the evening's chastisements with little more than mild bruises. With any luck their buttocks would be no worse than slightly black and blue by Saturday morning. Their mother on the other hand would probably have severely bruised skin on Friday. A proper application of the strap on Friday night could leave her buttocks torn and bleeding. Well she deserved it. The girls were told to dress and return to their classes. But we were not finished with Elaine.

Once the girls were out the door I instructed Elaine to once again hoist her skirts and bend over one of the leather chairs. I slapped her badly bruised buttocks sharply with my hand and told her to spread her legs more widely. She clearly was puzzled and fearful, but was clueless as to what would happen next. She had already been beaten until her backside was on the brink of bleeding and her perineum was badly bruised and swollen. What else did we have in mind? I bent over and examined her perineum. I spread her labia with my fingers, pinching them wickedly as I did so. Elaine gave a yip and squirmed. I expounded "It looks as if she has been without proper conjugal joining for some time." Straightening up I looked at Patrick Ryan and said "Do you think you can do anything about this, while I go and get a cup of coffee." He nodded and was unbuttoning his pants as I left the room, closing the door behind me. I stood outside the door to my study for a moment, listening. Even through the thick wood I could hear her yelping. Having that swollen pussy ploughed must have been rather painful. Those yips and yelps sounded just like the noises of a bitch in heat being set upon by a pack of dogs. I could hear Patrick starting to grunt as I walked off to get my coffee. Yes there are parts of being a Pastor, of bringing and unhappy family back together, that are supremely satisfying. Even if they do nothing to relieve that damned tension in my loins. I must find relief.

After the Ryan family, the meeting, half an hour later with the two ladies from last night was anticlimactical. I asked if the ladies were frequent in their confessions and they were. Confessing to one of my assistants at least once a month and sometimes once a week, sort of prepared them for Communion they said, but not really. Neither had any children. Mrs. Jefferson was young and badly missed her husband who was killed while loading cotton onto a freighter in the harbor. Married at seventeen and widowed at twenty, she didn't know what she was going to do with her life. She was not yet ready to begin the search for a new husband and she still longed for her Joe. Every night Mrs. Jefferson's body burned with unrequited lust that she could not control. Mrs. O'Brien, another one of the multitude of the O'Briens, had not seen her husband in a couple of months and it would be many more months before he returned from sea. She also married at seventeen but in their ten years of married life they had never had any children. Mrs. O'Brien worried that her sins and her failure to do penance for them properly were causing her sterility. Both women were troubled, troubled by their thoughts, troubled by waking up in the night. They go to confession but three Our Fathers and three Hail Mary's and three Glory Be's just doesn't seem to bring relief.

I said that I was very new here as a Pastor and that I couldn't fix everything at once. However, I would be forming a new Sodality of Mary as soon as I could get some help, probably early this summer. The women of the Sodality would have me as a confessor. But since these two ladies needed immediate help I would see what I could do for them. I will arrange a special penitential service for them, Friday night at 8:00 PM. They were to be in the church. I will make sure that the door on the north side of the church was open. Yes the one toward the front. They should enter the church and go to the front pew, just to the right of the center aisle. Kneel there, say your prayers and wait for me. The penitential service would probably last several hours so they should not expect to be home early. I gave them each several of my pamphlets. They left satisfied. I would make sure that on Friday night they stripped, and were strapped, and were whipped until the blood flowed vigorously. Both of the women had large breasts and I suspect that those bosoms would need some attention. That will keep them quiet for at least a month. Now what can I do about relieving the torment of my own loins?

Nothing that happened the rest of the day could match my morning appointments. I must admit that this was just about the most fascinating day I have had since becoming Pastor here at St. Mary's.

Chapter 3

Pamphlet Found in the Smith Collection

MORTIFICATION OF THE FLESH

A MANUAL OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT:

I. THE MARIAN METHOD

OF DISCIPLINE IN THE CATHOLIC HOME

Derived from:

Private Writings of the Irish Sisters of the Suffering Mother

By Msgr. Thomas Kelley,

In The Diocese of Galveston

Privately Printed

In The Year Of Our Salvation 1917

Gulfcoaston, Texas

I. Forward

Dearest Sisters in Christ.

As Wives a great obligation is laid upon you to Strictly Observe the Precepts of Our Holy Mother the Church as represented by the Authority of your Husband and your Pastor. This booklet is a one guide to accomplishing that goal. As never before we, the Faithful, are assaulted by the temptations of Modernism which confronts us every day with temptations to Pridefullness, Willfullness and all manners of Impurity. We have only to look around us at the scandals wrought upon our Protestant brethren who have been riven into a hundred squabbling Sects to observe the consequences of Ill-Discipline and Liberalism. Failure to establish within the family the principles of Humility, Submission, Obedience and Discipline as exemplified by Our Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary puts in jeopardy your souls and ultimately the souls of your family. This is why these matters are of the highest importance.

As part of Modernism, there is a pernicious movement afoot to seduce us away from the long standing practice of the Mortification of the Flesh and its attendant need for Chastisement of the Female Body. This booklet is part of a movement to attack these dissipations and bring us all closer to Communion with The Body of Christ. Only by vigorously suppressing these tendencies toward sexual perversion can we begin to approach the Humility and Submissiveness of the Blessed Virgin. She was utterly Obedient unto the Spirit and there is no better example of Redemption than that of the Sorrowful Mother. Every voice of the Secular World ridicules Corporal Discipline as old fashioned, cruel and Un-American. We have only to witness the Corruption of the Ways of the World to appreciate the falsity of their doctrine. I realize that I am calling you to Pain and Humiliation. But compared to the Fires of Hell this is a small price to pay for Redemption in the Blood of the Lamb.

In Gulfcoaston, Texas

Lent, A.D. 1917

It should be noted that this manual encompasses disciplines practiced by the family in the home. Disciplines appropriate to the Catholic School and the Parish are found in the pamphlets specific to those disciplines.

II. Theological Background

The approach to Female Discipline of this Manual is based upon the following Theses.

1. A major consequence of Original Sin is Concupiscence.

2. Concupiscence is most formidably expressed in the Female and is maximal between menarche and menopause.

3. God has given us the tools to control Concupiscence in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance.

4. Females between menarche and menopause should Confess and go to Communion at least once a month, preferably on the Saturday and Sunday after their monthly menstruation.

5. Proper repentance by the female of her sins, particularly the sins caused by Concupiscence, should appropriately involve mortification of the flesh.

6. The best methods for mortification of the female flesh involve Corporal Punishment.

7. The male head of the household is responsible for the moral discipline of the females in the household. In the case of daughters this responsibility is passed down to the mother. In households were there is no male head of household the Pastor will appoint someone to oversee discipline.

8. The head of the household should review the conduct and deportment of the females in his care once a week. Ideally this should be on a Friday so that any serious sins can be confessed the next day and a state of Grace attained by Sunday.

9. Mild Corporal Punishment can be administered in the Home. Mild or Marian Corporal Punishment is defined as striking the buttocks with a broad piece of leather such as a belt, a strop or a paddle. Corporal Punishment that involves any significant chance of bodily injury (e.g. switch, cane, whip, etc) should only be done under the direct supervision of Holy Mother Church.

10. This Manual addresses Mild Corporal Punishment of the female (Marian Discipline). Other Manuals address more severe chastisements (Marthan Discipline, Magdalene Discipline).

III. The Philosophy of Female Chastisements.

Fewer things are understood so poorly by the Lay World than the role of Chastisement in the Christian Home. We seek to overcome the lack of Discipline inherent in the female mind by implanting the Fear of the Lord. This will lead women to be Obedient rather than running off in their usual devil may care fashion. When Discipline and Obedience are gained they result in Submission – that which St. Paul considers the ultimate virtue of the Christian woman. The final result of this is the absolute emulation of the Blessed Virgin Mary who without question Submitted in Humility to the Holy Spirit and bore Our Savior.

What the World sees as abuse of women and children is in fact actually milder punishment than was traditionally carried out half-a-century ago in Catholic Ireland. This is because the inflection of pain is actually the minor third part of the program. The central core of the method is an understanding of the female psyche and the way in which knowledge of that psyche is employed in establishing the Fear of the Lord in the female with minimal pain.

Chastisement is not simply inflicting pain. It involves establishing:

(i) In the mind that particular state of Humility in emulation of the Virgin Mary

(ii) In the body that trembling and shaking expectational state, and

(iii) In the emotions that dread and morbid anticipation.

Under these conditions, the actual infliction of pain serves only to bring the three states above to a climax of Repentance and Humility. At that climax the Fear of the Lord is established. If one is focused only on inflicting pain, it is quite possible that the Fear of the Lord is never achieved, all that ever happens is that damage is done to the body. The method of the Irish Sisters establishes the Fear of the Lord with a minimum of physical damage. The sooner in the female's life that our method is emplaced, the sooner the perfect state of Humility, Submission, Obedience and Discipline can be achieved and pain transcended.

The Role of Expectation and Exposure in Chastisement . Two factors establish the state of mind that allows the minimal use of pain in achieving Humility and Penitance. The first is the expectation of the impending Chastisement and the second is the exposure of the female body during the process of expectation and throughout the actual physical punishment. In general, there should be nothing more humiliating to the female than exposure of her body. When a female is exposed and awaiting chastisement, her entire body and mind can become focused on the approaching moment of punishment and the parts of the body that will feel pain. Therefore when the punishment is applied, the parts of the body are ready to reach a climax with minimal damage to the body. Although we aim to establish this system in the adult female, producing the perfect wife and mother, the sooner the process is started, the less wayward behavior occurs along the road from child to spouse.

IV. The Role of Modesty and Exposure in Female Chastisement

Garb for Routine Wear and Relationship to Punishment. The Lay World is becoming more and more obsessed with the female body, at all ages and stages. Newspapers, magazines and the cinema are filled with images of females with as little of their bodies covered as possible. In the Lay view, a truly liberated woman is one who bares her body without shame in the most public places. Adolescent girls are particularly taught to be shameless about their bodies. The ideal is the "Gibson Girl" clad in closely fitting clothes, with a tightly cinched waist and half naked bosom who continually taunts and torments the boys around her with her alluring but unobtainable body. At the same time promiscuity is being promoted, especially in the context of birth control. This is the exact opposite of what we wish to bring our Daughters up to be.

Modesty is the first principle we will inculcate. Our Daughters must be taught that exposing the body is humiliating and is part of a punishment. Therefore, starting at about age six, girls should avoid form-fitting clothing and short skirts. Modesty requires that outer clothing be traditional such as a skirt and blouse or a dress. They should be taught that "Worldly" women have trouble keeping their Husband happy or even finding a Husband. This is why the "World" is so full of bastards and broken homes. The anarchists who dominate the law and medical professions adore the "liberated woman" who seeks the franchise and promotes prohibition. They are trying to enforce this standard on society, particularly through their use of the public schools. They hope that someday all women will be "Worldly". This will fill their courts, prisons, hospitals and clinics and they will be fully employed and happy. They even dream of legalizing abortion. They will persecute us Catholics until their goal is achieved. We will stand up however and witness our beliefs, particularly by the way our females dress. The two pillars for educating our females are the Catholic School and the Catholic Home.

The Importance of Exposure Similarly, our women exhibit their Submission, Obedience and Discipline when they expose their bodies for Chastisement. They know that certain parts of the body are unclean and they humiliate themselves by exposing these. This humiliation increases the distress of Chastisement. Additionally, the application of implements of Chastisement to bare skin increases the sting of the implement. When a female must expose her body she is indicating her acceptance of the impending punishment. She also realizes that pain is impending and inevitable. Therefore, in order to optimize Chastisement, some time should pass between the exposure of the body and the application of the implement. Thus both Expectation and Exposure are achieved. This sequence of modesty, exposure, shame, anticipation and implement application is easily inculcated in six to eight year old girls. If they are always dressed modestly and privacy is observed even when bathing, then disrobing is quite distressing. The mere sequence of being forced to change into a short camisole that leaves her naked from the beltline down will commonly cause an eight to ten year old to burst out into tears. The Chastisement is made more intense if she must then kneel in the living room for an hour or so with her face to the wall knowing that she will receive the strap at 8:00 PM sharp. The fact that the strap will do no more than redden her buttocks without leaving a bruise is less important. I have seen seemingly enlightened Catholics bend a nine year old girl over their knee and whale away with a hair brush or a wooden paddle at the girl's buttocks which are clad in dress, petticoat and drawers. The parents inflict severe, deep-tissue bruises but leave no real impression on the sullen brat. Our Disciplinary Methods employing creative exposure are not only more humane but more effective.

V. The Practice of Marian Chastisement

The purpose of Marian Discipline is to establish in the home a spirit like that of the Holy Family in Nazareth where the Mother is Submissive to her Husband, Obedient to Him, and is Disciplined in all her thoughts and actions.

The D's of Discipline, Deportment, Disrobing and Diary Having discussed modest apparel at some length we will now discuss its removal. Establishing Submission Obedience and Discipline requires a weekly family accounting involving all females between the menarche and menopause. I believe that this is best done on Friday nights. Then if Confession is necessary, it and any associated penance can be accomplished the next day, Saturday, and Communion received in a State of Grace on Sunday. During the week a record should be kept of female Deportment. In many households, the record for each female subject to Discipline is kept on their personal small board in their bedroom. Next to this board is hung an implement of discipline to remind them of the consequences of wrongdoing. In some cases a bound paper diary is used instead of a board but I like the idea of a relatively "public" posting since this tends to reinforce "Expectation". It is highly useful to SOD that every wife keep her personal Disciplinary Diary. On early Friday evening, the Husband should review with the Mother the degree to which SOD has been observed during the week and what preparations need to be made for the weekly Marian Discipline. It is possible that some Daughters have had such excellent Deportment that no Chastisement is necessary. This is in fact the goal! Still, it is essential that they show up for the family Home Chastisement session prepared for the worst. However, the good Daughters are rewarded for their SOD behavior by being allowed to maintain a higher degree of modesty than those destined for chastisement. This means that, for example, they wear a regular nightgown rather than a disciplinary gown. Daughters who Deportment is deficient need to disrobe to the extent determined by the Husband. In the preparatory session the Husband indicates to the wife the time of disrobing, the degree of disrobing, the general type of implements for Chastisement, and the time of application of implements. The Mother is then required to carry out the detailed preparations with her Daughters.

Our recommendation is that, in the home, daughters be disciplined in a special gown that is set aside for this purpose only. Generally this can be fashioned from a relatively close fitting camisole with thin straps. The hem on the bottom should be adjusted so that the desired exposure of the buttocks is achieved. The gown can be decorated in what ever way pleases the mother. The mother should also be clad in a similar gown although she may, at the discretion of her husband, cover her disciplinary gown with a wrapper of similar material for modesty while she is disciplining her daughters.

A Mother's Obligation Before proceeding to the details of Chastisement we must state another major principle of the Christian Discipline. The failing in Deportment of a Daughter reflects the failing of Mothering on the part of the Wife. Therefore it is inappropriate to Chastise a Daughter and not Chastise a Mother. This does not mean that their Chastisements should be identical. In some cases the failure is more severe on the part of the Daughter especially in the matter of willfulness or stubbornness. Sometimes the failure is primarily a lack of instruction or example on the part of the Mother. And it should be understood that in the case of equivalent punishment the Mother should have a much greater capacity because of size, age, and experience. The details of Chastisement therefore reside with the Husband and the Pastor and in all cases the adult female must be prepared for equivalent or more severe Chastisement than the younger female is subjected to.

Preparations In general, Chastisements in the Home are ideally done either shortly after supper or just before bedtime. The ideal day for Chastisements is Friday. In the case of after supper Chastisements, disrobing usually is done directly from "street" clothes. In order for the Daughter facing Chastisement to have enough time to contemplate the error of her ways and the terror of her impending spanking, most Mothers have their Daughter undress before supper and spend "corner time", naked from the waist down, with their nose against the wall while supper is being prepared. After supper it is back to the corner for them to await the gathering of the family to watch their Chastisement. On the other hand, when punishment is just before bedtime, it is best to first bathe the Daughter and after her bath have her don her Chastisement gown. If any Daughters escape Chastisement, they should bathe last in order to allow the maximum "corner time" for those awaiting punishment.

As girls begin to approach menarche, which usually occurs at anywhere from 12 to 15 years of age, the stringency of their Discipline should gradually be increased from the over-the-knee hand spanking of the girl to the buttocks-bared, bent-over strapping of the adolescent female. During this transition time they may be spanked three weeks in the month and strapped only once every month or two. After a year the frequency of bare-butt strappings should increase and the number of over-the-knee spankings decrease. A good signal to switch over is breast bud formation which can often appear a year before menarche. The pubes should be watched closely and when the first wisp of pubic hair appears, all home discipline should be of the posterior-exposed strapping variety. It always amazes me the terror that is induced the first time a girl is forced to kneel naked in the house for an hour or so awaiting punishment. Severity can also be enhanced by the use of remarks calling attention to her exposed state. Being made to recite a penitentiary prayer is one excellent practice.

These same principles apply to the Mother. Forcing the Mother to strip in front of her Daughters should only be employed on rare occasions. The norm is usually for adult females to be disciplined out of sight of the adolescents. This does not necessarily mean out of sound. Exposure of a mature woman's buttocks can have a remarkable effect on the young, teaching them that no one is exempt from Chastisement. Similarly, the younger ones can be impressed by just how much punishment can be meted out and absorbed. I am a firm believer that every Mother should undergo a maximal Marian Chastisement (30 to 50 strokes with the heaviest strap) once a year in front of her Daughter(s).

Menstruation There is a tendency to avoid Chastising females when they are having their "monthlies". There is absolutely no reason for this attitude for there is no better time for Female Discipline than when she is having her period. First, female tend to be most shy about exposing their bodies during this time of month. This increases the efficacy of anticipation and exposure. Second, the cramping that accompanies menstruation increases the physical discomfort of the corporal punishment rendering the spanking more effective. Thirdly, when menstruating wives are Chastised, if the husband decides to exact his marital rights afterwards, the act is much more humiliating to the fastidious female than is the usual case.

As discussed above under preparations, bathing immediately before Chastisement is transformed from a option to a necessity when the female is menstruating. If the flow of menstrual blood is heavy, it may be desirable for the female to apply a fresh pad immediately after bathing, holding it in place with an elastic suspender such as those recently developed by the Kotex company. The pad and suspender can then be removed immediately before application of the implement.

Implements Nothing is more misunderstood than the role of implements in Chastisement. The cane is a difficult instrument to wield and all too frequently results more in deep bruising than pain. True rattan canes are difficult to obtain. Frequently all that is available are "bamboo" canes which shatter within the first half dozen blows. Canes are best left to Holy Mother Church to obtain and skillfully use. Here in America the wooden paddle has enjoyed enormous popularity, particularly in the public schools. Unfortunately, it has the same problem as the cane – too much physical damage to justify the psychological effect. The object is not to injure the subject being Chastised but to change their attitude. In general we recommend the use of the strap or belt for Marian Discipline. It is amazing the degree to which skin can be made to respond with the proper use of this implement. On the other hand, it is also amazing the way that the reddest and most heavily strap-welted bottom will be almost recovered and ready for Chastisement in a week. This is not the case with the paddle or cane. A bottom solidly beaten with a thick wooden paddle or subjected to a severe caning make take months before it has recovered to the point where another Chastisement can be contemplated. This is contrary to good Disciplinary practice where in many cases it is desirable to conduct Chastisement every week.

I do recommend the use of switches, canes and whips for the sterner chastisements. However such implements and Chastisements of such a degree are unsuitable for the Home and should be carried out only at Church sessions or in the School. Severe discipline is usually ordered by the Pastor or Principal. It is generally administered to the naked female and she is often restrained during that discipline. Such chastisement must be administered under the supervision of an experienced, trained Disciplinarian and is very seldom done more frequently than once a month. Needless to say, such Chastisements are not for pre-pubertal girls.

The Strap The standard disciplinary strap that we recommend for the home is a leather strap, two and a half inches wide and a about quarter inch thick, attached to a handle. The length of the strap can vary anywhere from twenty to over thirty inches. Many larger households and all Schools maintain a variety of straps to suit all occasions. The longer straps are designed to deliver a curling final snap-slap to the side of the hip or thigh. This is best accomplished by a strap wherein the end is split into two tails. Such a strap is also often narrower at the handle and broader at the other end. This type of strap is called a tawse. When properly applied, the end-curling-around-to-hit-the-flank slap is exceedingly painful. Straps of this sort are generally obtained from a saddlerer and harness maker. Check with your Pastor to see what your Parish or School may have available. Since they order disciplinary straps by the score they can usually deliver them at a much lower price. Razor strops may also serve as disciplinary implements. However they usually come with the end of the leather strop fasten by a riveted brass clasp to a cloth strop underneath. It is therefore necessary to take the clasp apart to liberate the leather strop. Once you have done this the strop is not as useful for honing your razor of course.

A dozen "hits" delivered with one of these straps or strops, from alternating sides, with full force yields an impressive result – a solidly red buttocks and thighs with very little untouched white skin. In the average case, a goodly amount of red will fade within 24 hours leaving only a few "yellow" spots after a few days. Two dozen blows, delivered to the average, mature woman's buttocks and upper thighs yields complete coverage with some areas of red-purple bruise. Thirty to fifty strokes will leave deep purple bruise that ripens to solid "black and blue" within an hour or so. The marks will persist for at least a week, sometimes developing yellow or even green borders. In addition to the immediate sharp pain of the beating, the area will be painful to touch for several days. It will be very painful for the female to sit and moderately painful for her to walk. The time to recover is amazingly variable after a severe strapping. Some women will be up and around the next morning whereas others will be hobbling about for a week and being careful about where they sit for two weeks. Needless to say, treatment of this severity is reserved for the thorough Home Chastisement of a woman and is often delivered in the context of Bondage. Prepubertal girls should never be Chastised to this degree and adolescent girls should receive Severe Chastisement usually not oftener than once a month.

I consider that belt leather makes a good implement for the Chastisement of younger adolescent females. These girls often have slender thighs and small buttocks. The heavy straps and strops are too thick to effectively curl around. The heavy leathers also tend to excessively bruise the tender flesh of the younger adolescent female who is unprotected by the thicker layer of subcutaneous fat found on her mother or older sister. Save the heavy strop for that special disciplinary session. A one inch wide belt is almost perfect for the 13 to 15 year old. In this case the length can be anywhere from 14 to 24 inches as longer lengths quickly become unmanageable. A handle length of about seven to eight inches provides a convenient grip. Therefore about 22 to 32 inches of belt will suffice. We strongly recommend making a set of three, one 16 inch, one 20 inch and one 24 inch. One should usually keep the age and size appropriate belt strap hanging in the Daughter's bedroom next to the blackboard on which her weekly record of deportment, studies and chores is maintained. The sight of a disciplinary implement hanging next to their record is a powerful inducement to rectitude.

These light straps are not only convenient for spanking the bottoms of Daughters but are also used in the Church in the more severe punishments of the more mature female. They can be applied to the breasts and perineal regions of older adolescents and adult females to redden and welt the skin. This may be done purely for domestic use or it may be employed prior to the application of the switch to these sensitive parts in the Marthan Disciplines. The female breasts, mons veneris, and vulva should not be beaten with a heavy strap as part of Marian Discipline in the home. It is permissible, however, to chastise with a light belt a wife in either the supine position with her legs either held over her head (the diaper position), or splayed out to either side, or to chastise her bent over an object with her legs widely spread. The belt or light strap is applied to the inner thighs and to the edges of the "cheeks" around the anus. It is permissible for the tip of the implement to strike the vulvar area. This sort of Marian Discipline is usually performed prior to marital relations in order to sensitize these areas and make for a more intense experience. An experienced woman may readily respond to a dozen strikes to the mons and vulva by heightened responsiveness during marital duties. Beating the female breast with the light strap is facilitated by having the woman kneel with her hands behind her neck and her fingers interlocked. The number of blows is usually heavily influenced by breast size but it should be expected that the average sized breasts of the mature woman can easily accommodate a dozen blows each.

Bladder Control. After the female has been Exposed for a sufficient period of time to impress upon her the gravity of her transgression, the Discipline can begin. The Family assembles in the room where the Chastisement will occur. After Exposure Time but before the beating immediately starts is a good time for each female to empty her bladder. It is a good idea to always have a chamber pot in the room where Discipline takes place. It is amazing how much urine can accumulate even in ten to fifteen minutes and we are continually bemused at how females lose their bladder control at the most inopportune minutes. Additionally, being forced to squat, spread legged and exposed over the chamber pot is intensely humiliating for many females. Now with the bladder empty and the implements in hand, the main part of the Chastisement can proceed.

Position Once the bladder is empty, the female assumes the position appropriate to her Chastisement. To begin with we must state that we do not consider Bondage appropriate for early adolescent girls. Bondage ultimately carries, and we might add, appropriately, sexual connotations. These are inappropriate for girls of tender age and will complicate their training and development. Second, for the same reason, we do not consider "spread legged" positions appropriate for early adolescent girls. Reserve these for late adolescent girls and mature women where it is desirable to have a "sexual" component to their Chastisement. For early adolescent girls the goal of Chastisement is Discipline. That is training and the formation of SOD.

The optimal position for Marian Discipline of the female is bent over at the waist, hands holding the ankles with the feet about twelve inches apart for balance. I have seen well disciplined women receive fifty hard strokes of the heavy strap in this position and never once release their grip on their ankles. On the other hand many females have difficulty maintaining this position but can get through a Chastisement without restraint if they are allowed to prop themselves upon something. Kneeling in a rear-facing position, on a substantial low backed chair with the shoulders resting on the back of the chair and the arms dangling down the back side of the chair is also satisfactory. Similarly, the female can stand in back of a light chair or high stool and bend over at the waist, grasping the front legs with her hands. Lastly the female can bend over a table of suitable height, grasping the far edge of the table with her fingers. This is particularly appropriate for females being introduced to a new disciplinary step. If the first several times a girl is beaten with a heavy strap, rather than a light belt, she is allowed to stretch out over a table, she may have an easier time maintaining her composure. After a month or so at this increased Chastisement level, she can then be advanced to the 'hand holding ankles' position.

The number of possible Disciplinary Positions is limited only by the imagination. Variations can safely be left to the inventive genius of the male head of the household. Contorted positions such as the 'diaper' and the 'legs splayed' are best and usually employed for the mature woman with ample breasts and a multiparous perineum. Here the goal is to increase humiliation by the prominent exposure of the most sensitive and private parts. Furthermore, the mature woman no longer has the flexibility of the adolescent female and being forced into a contorted position puts pain and strain on the joints and enhances the painfulness of the Chastisement without addition tissue damage. Frequently, these bizarre positions allow direct progression to marital relations after the strapping is done. As referred to in the section above on implements, these sort of Chastisements often use the light strap upon the inner aspects of the thighs and the perineum.

Position and Restraint There are times when the female is unable to receive her Blows of Chastisement and still maintain her position. This most frequently happens during the Chastisement of younger adolescents. This is usually easily solved by lap restraint. The girl is draped across the knees of a parent or older sister with one restraining arm holding the girl's hands high up on the back and the other arm restraining the knees. The humiliation of this restraint can be increased by making the girl take off her Disciplinary Gown as a punishment for having lost control and forcing her to receive her Chastisement naked. If restraint must be used on a girl this age every time, however, something is wrong. This indicates that there is a failure in Discipline somewhere and the Pastor or Disciplinarian should be consulted for guidance.

Failure to maintain position is less common in the usual course of Chastisement with older adolescent girls or mature females and usually occurs only during the severer Marian Disciplines when thirty to fifty stokes are administered. Females vary greatly in their tolerance of corporal punishment. Some females bruise severely at the slightest blow while others take the severest impact of the heavy cane or whip with nothing more that a red mark followed by the appearance of a wheal. Similarly, I have seen grown women break down and totally lose control after a dozen moderate strokes of the strap whereas immediately before a fifteen year old, slender girl has taken fifty hard blows. Females also vary significantly from day to day in their punishment threshold. Most significantly, they appear to be most sensitive just before their menses start. If they are stressed or unhappy their pain threshold is lowered and when their skin has not fully recovered from a previous Chastisement they are hypersensitive. Lastly, some females seem to be disproportionately affected by being made to watch the disciplining of other women before their own. The sounds of screaming and crying, the swinging of the strap and image of its contact on a tensed posterior, and the gradual color change of the buttocks seems to cause them to lose all their nerve. This sensitivity to other Chastisement appears to be the greatest in the young. These are all factors that can be manipulated by the knowledgeable, experienced Disciplinarian. If you know that you have a female whose fear factor can readily be increased, save her for the end, make her urinate in front of all the females who have already been Chastised, restrain her stoutly in a humiliating position, and a mere dozen moderate strokes will reduce her to a shivering, sobbing husk.

Generally bondage and restraint in the home is achieved in two ways. An amazing amount of control can be exerted by the simple expedient of binding the wrists together with drapery cord. This cotton rope is soft and minimally chafes the skin. There are a lot of females, that once their hands are tied in front of them, cease to struggle and placidly accept their punishment. Once bound, they can be draped over a chair or bent over a table and an enormous amount of Chastisement applied to their backsides. Ae must admit that we do not understand the psychology of this reaction but we have observed it on too many occasions to enumerate. Some females continue to struggle ever after binding their wrists. In these instances they must be led to a heavy object and tied down. Usually this means a very sturdy chair or table or a bed. Canopied beds are particularly useful in this regard as the penitent can either be bent over the foot of the bed and her hands secured to the head, or she can be restrained in the standing position with her hands bound to the top of the high bed post. When restraining the struggling female it is always wise to bind the feet as they are likely to kick out. Finally, this type of female must always have her bladder emptied prior to restraint as they are the ones who otherwise invariably urinate copiously.

Application of the Implement Usually the Disciplinarian stands to female's side. Strokes of the strap should be laid on from the side, alternating sides after about three strokes so that all parts of the buttocks are equally hit. This eliminates the tendency for the right buttock to bear the brunt of the attack when the Disciplinarian is right handed. Similarly, the concentration of blows on the center of the buttock that occurs in uncontrolled spanking or paddling, should be avoided. We do not wish to have a three inch, round, severe bruise in the center of each butt cheek with all the rest of the posterior white. Remember, we seek to produce painful skin rather than to injure. Plenty of time should be taken. This allows accurate aiming of strokes and maximizes the amount of anticipatory agony on the part of the female. Fifteen to thirty seconds between strokes is good, one minute is perfect. If enough time is taken the terror of anticipation become great enough so that each stroke has almost a double effect. A half dozen will reduce many a girl in early adolescence to sobbing tears and it may be necessary to give no more than a dozen swats to a mature woman to break her down. But the important thing is to spread the blows as widely and evenly as you can.

We always try, before a session with a female that we know, to decide exactly the degree of Chastisement we want to deliver. This is not a set number of blows but rather an end condition. Will they be red-faced and tearful? Will they be sobbing and gasping? Will they be screaming and struggling against their bonds? The answer could be a half dozen in all three cases above, or it could be fifty. One can never predict with absolute certainty what a female will take but we try to start off with an estimate. An experienced Disciplinarian never decrees a fixed number of strokes, you only tell them it will be mild, moderate or severe. This allows yourself wiggle room and increases their uncertainty ("How many will I receive?") which females hate. As the Chastisement proceeds we watch how the female responds. We like to usually take them just to the edge of the effect we desire. When the female is restrained we sometimes decide to meter the Chastisement by physical effect. We will beat her until her skin is a uniform red from the top of her hose to the waist of her Disciplinary Gown. Or we will beat only her buttocks but they will be stroked until they are one solid purple welt with the skin just on the verge of blistering. But what ever you do, you the Disciplinarian must be in charge. Do not be affected by screaming or struggling or thrashing about. If it is necessary to restrain the female halfway through, do so. If it is necessary to put a soft leather gag between her teeth, do so. But do it definitely.

If greater severity is desired one can always use a longer or wider strap. A wider strap allows the overlapping of strikes which increases the degree of welting. With straps, wheals form best at the edges of the leather and arise most quickly and readily when already reddened skin is struck again. A skilled Disciplinarian with a wide strap can produce the most remarkable stripped pattern. A longer strap promotes curling of the end of the strap onto the side of the thighs and buttocks. The slap of the end of the strap is the most painful part of the blow and should be employed skillfully. Although most Disciplinarians strike from the side, with a properly submissive female it is possible to stand in front of them and strike from the cephalad direction downward. This lands the curl-slap of a long strap right at the junction between buttock and thigh. On more severe Chastisements you may want to start off with a short heavy strap and work the buttocks and thighs from the sides. Then you can give the female a period of time to recover (perhaps five to fifteen minutes, often while you Chastise another female). Then you come back with the long strap and overlay your blows from above onto skin that has had a chance to swell and become sublimely sensitive.

First Chastisements The first significant Chastisement of a young adolescent female should be approached as carefully as her First Communion. We are not talking about the first time she is placed over the knee and receives a hand strapping. We are not necessarily even talking about the first time she feels the strap. We are talking about the first time she does something really wrong and she is made to disrobe and don the Disciplinary Gown and kneel in the corner, piss in the pot in front of everyone and then have her hide tanned, generally while being held down in somebody's lap. In general, a daughter's first Chastisement should be carefully controlled with someone with significant experience and skill in charge. It is my opinion that the blows of the first real Chastisement of a young Daughter are best delivered by a woman. For example, really strict nun who comes over for Friday night dinner and then does the honors later that evening. Or it can be her mother if her mother is a strict and experienced Disciplinarian. On the other hand, if her mother is complicit in the transgression, either directly by bad example or indirectly through lack of direction or discipline, then mother and daughter should be punished together by the father. This is an occasion where the mother wears nothing but her Disciplinary Gown in front of her daughters. As she holds her sobbing daughter across her lap with her daughter's naked stomach squirming all over the mother's naked thighs, all present see the flesh to flesh contact and picture that similar blows of the strap will soon be striking the mother's bare skin. Then the daughters are sent from the room but the door is left open so that the girls can readily hear the slap of leather on maternal skin and their mother's vocalizations during punishment. They may later ever hear the yips and yelps and groans of marital relations coming through the open door.

Similar is the first Chastisement of a wife by her new husband. Ideally, the groom-to-be should be presented with a strap by his prospective father in law. This may even be accompanied by a Chastisement of the bride-to-be by the two men. There is no way to better welcome a promising young man into your family than by a Friday night Disciplinary session with the whole family. Every Pre-Cana conference that we give includes a significant section on female discipline. Before a couple is married, the female must know what is expected of her. We like to usually conduct a disciplinary session in the office where first the Pastor and then the prospective husband test the willingness of the girl to be a submissive wife. We would sooner have one of our fine young men enter a mixed marriage with a female gorilla than have him marry an unsubmissive wife. Lastly, w like to visit with the new couple in their home on a Friday night a week or two after their wedding to see how the newly weds are faring in their disciplinary life. Nothing warms our heart more than the sight of a couple, newly returned from their honeymoon, with the wifely buttocks thoroughly bruised black and blue.

Vocalizations . Crying is an accepted part of female Chastisement and should not be overly discouraged. However, losing control and failure to maintain position should be penalized. We do not tolerate screaming during Marian Chastisements. The long term objective of SOD is to teach control. The pace of Chastisement and severity of strokes should be adjusted during Chastisement to assist in maintaining control. Praise and congratulations should be given for good control. Stern warnings of worse to come and a slowing of the pace should accompany outbursts. If necessary, a soft piece of leather should be supplied to be clenched between the teeth to prevent screaming. Remember, Chastisement is less about damaging the body than it is a process for developing the soul. The body can be quickly injured but training the soul takes time. If a female is unable to refrain from screaming in the home the advice of the Pastor should be sought.

This is not to say that all vocalizations are bad. Sobbing indicates contrition and Marian Discipline offers an excellent opportunity for the female to cry and "get it off her chest". A good cry is very therapeutic. Vocalizations play a very important role in marital relations, reflecting the animal nature of Concupiscence. And there is a place for screaming. During the Severe Chastisements meted out in the Marthan and Magdalene Disciplines, the female is expect to scream herself hoarse and struggle to a maximum as her body is racked with unbearable pain. But these Chastisements are carried out on Church property, away from prying eyes and where all sounds are insulated from the ears of the World. .

Afterwards This cannot be repeated too frequently, the body can be quickly injured but training the soul takes time.

In keeping with this, after application of the implement to the posterior of the adolescent, there should be a significant opportunity for "corner time" with hands either behind the head or folded in prayer. This can happen while facing the wall while Chastisements are meted out to older sisters or the adult females. There is nothing that better develops the Fear of the Lord than kneeling there with a burning butt while listening to the swish and smack of an implement and the vocalizations of someone bigger and stronger than you under Chastisement. Thus will girls grow into humble women, SOD women just like their Virgin Mother in Nazareth.

Similarly, after administration of Marian Discipline to a wife in the home, the female needs marital relations. This stresses that Marian Discipline is for the purpose of producing a submissive wife that will serve her husband's needs. First she bares her buttocks to him to accept his Chastisement and then she opens her legs to him in acceptance of the seed that will hopefully yield a fruitful harvest of children. For this is the purpose that God put male and female here on earth.

Chapter 4. In The Beginning

Gulfcoaston, TX, Just Before The Millennium

Follow-Up Visit

Doc stood on Mr. Smith's front porch. It was about a week since his first visit assessing Risk Management of the rumor that he had gotten from Fr. LeBeaux. Doc now thought of this matter as the case of "The Belles of St. Mary's". Yes it appeared that Scouting was involved in whatever had happened there back in 1918 but several factors mitigated against there being any significant risk that the good name of Scouting should be impugned. So right now Doc's job would be to gather further information. Beside this was beginning to become interesting.

First, it involved Mr. Smith who was the oldest living Scouter in Southeast Texas. Hell, as far as he knew in all of Texas for that matter. He was a link to the founding of Scouting in this part of the country. Mr. Smith was one of the first Boy Scouts in Texas, he was as old as this Council and had continued to serve Scouting after turning eighteen. Doc had earned about as much recognition as any volunteer who ever served youth and yet he realized that Mr. Smith's contributions dwarfed his own. Mr. Smith was a living legend and any chance to pick his brain was fun. This short, balding man has been through the Klan wars of the twenties, the turmoil of the depression and the second World War and was the behind the scenes leader who prevent violence during the Civil Rights tumult of the late fifties and early sixties. But all the public really knew about him was that he was the first Black teacher at Sealy High School and that everyone who worked with him seemed to love him. And he had an incredible story to tell.

So once again Doc stood on the front porch and waited for Mr. Smith to unlatch the screen door. The weather was still comfortable but with mid May approaching they wouldn't have too many more days to sit on the back porch and chat in comfort. Soon enough it would be time to hermetically seal up in dark air-conditioned interiors not to emerge until October. Damn, more iced tea. Doc lusted after an ice-cold beer. But since this was still technically BSA business and they were both very senior BSA volunteers, they were meeting in uniform. So ANAB (absolutely no alcoholic beverages). Silly, but that was the way they both were. But Doc's compensation was the rolling tones and impeccable grammar heard only among the properly educated of the old Gulf Coast educated elite. To a transplanted Yankee, it was music to his ears.

Invisible Voices

"Damn and hell's afire. Mrs Mary is goin' to get her ass whupped" exclaimed Mabel Smith to her sister Bessie, "goin' to get her neked ass whupped but good!" Startled, her sister responded "Saywha? Saywha? Girl, sha yu mow. Yu knowed not wha yu yapping abou! She hi klas woman, she no get whupped like sum nigger girl." In the next room eleven year old John surreptitiously listened to the exchange between his mother and his aunt. Burying his head into the math homework he so loved, he let on not in the least that he was eavesdropping in on a conversation he had no business listening in on. His mother worked as 'the cook' for one of the five most prominent Catholic families on the Island and his aunt worked as a maid for one of the two most prominent Jewish families. So this would be dirt of the highest quality. The only better gossip would be overhearing a conversation between the chauffer for the Moody's and the gardener for the Greshams. "I tell yu, I wuz standin out da parlour door wid da liz fur da Saddy pardy en I heared dem 'disscuzzen' in dat way ah derz. Misses saz in dat way so hi of herz,'Me, beaten by you, naked. This is going just too far. This priest, this Fr. Kelly has gone too far. I am going to the Bishop.' Den sez he 'I wouldn't try that if I was you. His Excellency is completely in his dotage. Christopher Byrne has just been named by the Apostolic Nuncio as his successor and Chris and Tom are thicker than thieves. If you want to maintain your position at the top of the heap in this town, it behooves you to comply.' Das wa dey sez, das wha dey saz, I most peed me in my drawers. She waz whit lik a sheet and he was red lik a apple. But she sez 'Allright, have it your way'. So she gonna get her ass whupped, cum dis Friday. Her nekked ass whupped. Everybuddy in de hous knowed it now."

John despised the 'Coonass' argot of the huge Creole family he was part of and he made it a point to only use the accents that the Holy Spirit fathers taught him. But he loved his relatives and they were immensely proud of his impeccable 'masser speech'. Unlike so many of the 'cotton niggers' that the Creoles despised, the Holy Rosary parishioners were insanely jealous of the progress of their children. And nobody drew more adoration than that inseparable trio of eleven-year-olds, John Smith, Jean Lebeaux and Corey Williams. But no matter how much John was loved, snooping in on mammy's private conversation with her sister would have earned him a 'hiding' sure as the sun would rise in the morning. Packed in cheek by jowl in wretched conditions, the immigrants from Southern Louisiana maintained invisible barriers of privacy that children crossed only at their peril. It was only these invisible barriers that maintained civility in a society rife with brutality and antagonisms. The Creoles were invisible in the society of Gulfcoaston, it was as if they were stones or trees. They just didn't count, they might as well have not been there. But among the Irish they were prized as servants, particularly as cooks because their Cajun cuisine was everything that the wretched Irish cooking was not. And the Creoles were Catholic and they were discrete.

So something exciting was going to be happening! John was a happy boy, life was good. He and his buddies did well in school. He excelled at mathematics – not arithmetic but mathematics as the fathers would say. And Jean was fantastic at Latin, nobody could conjugate verbs and decline nouns like Jean. And Corey, he was great at grammar and writing. And all three of them were athletic, could run like the wind, jump across the street and climb trees, well like monkeys. And most of all they really had not yet come to appreciate and understand the ethnic conflicts that swirled around them - the Anglo aristocracy that had fled the South versus the third generation Irish versus the stolid Germans versus newly immigrant Italians. Least of all did they understand the impoverished crackers, few on the Island but dominant up there on the mainland. And beneath them all, beneath contempt were the various communities of negroes. At this age and at this time the boys were truly invisible.

And primed for adventure as only boys at that turning of life are. Mr. Rosenberg had just given money to the Holy Spirit Fathers to start up a Boy Scout Troop. This was the opening of a whole world of adventure. Everybody, every church was starting up a Boy Scout Troop. The why of a Jew starting up a Troop of Black Catholic Boy Scouts never even occurred to them. But it was typical of this strange melting pot of a town. They were going to have adventures like everybody else. But different, and better and invisible. To the barely awaking sexuality of a eleven year old boy, the possibility of spying on naked women held a forbidden richness beyond imagining. And naked white women, wait until he told Cory and Jean. Better yet, he had best check things out further before he said anything to his cronies, lest things fall though and he be made a fool in front of them.

Invisible Eyes

John Smith began. "So that Friday, just before dusk, I put on my uniform, that really hideous color, not quite khaki brown and not really olive green mixed together, and off I went. The previous night I told my mom that I would be going to my Boy Scout Meeting at the church and would be getting home late. I knew she would be working late, cooking feverishly because of the big party on Saturday, and when she got home she would immediately collapse into bed and instantly fall asleep. So I just kind of hung out and made my way over to the alley between Sealy and Broadway and down to the back of the house where my mother worked. I knew the layout of the large lot in only the way that the son of the Creole cook knows the bosses' yard which is to say better than his own children did. I knew the trees that grew in the back yard, particularly the huge, dark magnolias with their glossy large leaves, having climbed them since about age six. I think that I was regarded by the family as a sort of semi-feral pet monkey. I ditched my staff and my rope in the alley and slipped in the back gate without the hinge even creaking. I silently made my way across the back yard, not really sneaking, just quietly walking. If I would have been spied making my way along, no one would have even thought about it. Just 'the boy'. It was fully dark as I sprung up the tree without a single leaf rustling. I knew the tree better than I knew my own narrow bed. When I was high up it, I could look down into both the upstairs sitting room in the middle of the house, the master bedroom on the corner, and through a small window into a bathroom the likes of which I never knew existed. That tree had always been part of my life but I never thought about it in the context of spying, until now. I guess that I should have felt guilt at the time. But sometimes at that age the sense of adventure is so overwhelming that any question of impropriety never arises. I waited there, for the longest time, although it was probably no more than an hour, my heart racing with excitement as I fantasized about what might be about to occur in the currently dark rooms on the second floor."

Doc looked at him, Mr. Smith, now old and wizened and imagined the excited slender eleven year old boy. "Mr. Smith, I guess that you never thought about the danger you were in, given the attitudes of the times." Mr. Smith chuckled, "Son, later when I was a few years older and I read in the Garbage Daily News about the lynchings in the South, I realized that if I had slipped and fallen from the tree that night I would have been dead. I wouldn't have been lynched, they just would have probably beaten me to death there on the spot. My body would have been tossed in the Bay and I would just have been one more dead nigger boy. But one never thinks of such things at that age."

Prelude to Punishment

Mr. Smith continued. "Finally, a light came on in the upstairs sitting room. I was amazed the view that my perch gave me of the illuminated room. In walked Mrs. Kirwin, her lady's maid and her two daughters. With the windows closed I really couldn't hear what Mrs. Kirwin was saying but things soon became obvious. She had Sarah and Jane turn around and the girls undid the cuffs of their dresses and took their belts off. Mrs. Murphy started undoing the buttons on the back of Sarah's dress and then Jane's dress. My heart leaped up into my throat and started pounding. Boy I could get into trouble for this. But nothing had ever excited me so much in my life. The girls hoisted up their long skirts and untied the tapes of their fairly full petticoats and dropped their petticoats. Then they slipped their dresses off their shoulders, pulled them down and stepped out of them. They handed both their petticoats and the dresses to the lady's maid, Mrs. Murphy who took the clothes off out of sight. I have to admit that although I had imagined white girls undressing, I never thought I would live to see the day when my eyes actually witnessed it. There they were - standing in their white cotton bloomers, camisoles, stockings and pink slippers – quite a sight to behold. Then to my further excitement their mother gestured to the girls to remove their camisoles. Holy shit! I saw naked white girl titty! And although Jane's boobs were on the smallish side, Sarah's were nothing to sneeze at. Unfortunately, my view was soon spoiled when their mother handed them the shortest, tightest, nightgowns I had ever seen. When Sarah and Jane pulled their nightgowns on, the hems just barely covered the cheeks of their asses and the bodices molded to their breasts like a second skin. They didn't have the old fashioned kind of long, loose bloomers with a split crotch that tied in the back. They had the new-fangled, fancy, light weight kind of drawers that clung to the skin of their buttocks, were loose around the thighs and were held up by elastic. That was the first time I had ever seen "panties" and I was fascinated. My excitement increased when the girls removed their drawers and place them on top of their camisoles. Although they immediately pulled the hems of their gowns down, I had caught a brief glimpse of their pubic hair.

As a last bit of preparation, the girls took down their hair. Jane had fairly short blond hair. When undone her hair barely reached to her shoulders. Sarah on the other hand, had a magnificent head of curly flaming red hair that when unpinned reached all the way to the small of her back. The girls took a few minutes to brush their hair out, Sarah slowly and lovingly, Jane brusquely. Then, their mother made them kneel in front of a table to pray. They fidgeted and twisted uncomfortably. This allowed me to catch repeated flashes of red and blonde crotch hair alternating with peeks of bare buttocks bottoms of sneaking out from under the hem of their nightgowns. WOW!

If I thought the show of my lifetime was over, I was wrong. Mrs. Murphy reentered the sitting room and she and Mrs. Kirwin went into the master bedroom, just to my right. As the light came on, the next act started. Mrs. Murphy undid Mrs. Kirwin's dress and helped her out of it. The tall, red-headed matron was not wearing a petticoat. Rather she had on a very long shift that went from the straps that suspended it from her shoulders down to half way along her calves. I had never seen a silk "slip" before and I was fascinated. I was even more surprised when that slip got raised. The next thing that I saw was a set of magnificent breasts! They were big white breasts speckled with freckles. There were areolae that must have been two inches wide. There were nipples that must have been an inch and a half long. I gulped and swallowed hard. All of this was propped up by the most unusual corset I had ever seen flapping from a clothes line or heard of in my friends fevered stories. The corset was worn next to the skin rather than over a camisole or slip. As a regular corset did, this one narrowed the waist and propped up the boobs. But this corset exposed the nipples because there was no undergarment on underneath it. And it had suspenders attached that held up the stocking instead of the hose being fastened around her thighs with garters. I had just seen my first modern corset. In any case, Mrs. Kirwin first unfastened the stocking suspenders and then began undoing the hooks down the front of the corset. This released those fabulous breasts. Much to my amazement her bosom did not sag as much as I expected. I guess there had been no suckling of the girls when they were babies. With the corset off, next removed were the silk drawers, the most beautiful undergarment I had ever seen. I know that I never seen underwear like that hanging from a clothesline in our neighborhood. I bet tgat someone would have stolen it.

After Mrs. Kirwin removed her panties she stroked her pubic area right in front of Mrs. Murphy and scratched her pubic hair. Then Mrs. Kirwin sat down in front of her dressing table and Mrs. Murphy undid Mrs. Kirwin's hair and started brushing it out. I had heard from Jean and Cory, my buddies, that there was nothing sexier than brushing a woman's hair. Considering that they were almost twelve and I was just eleven, I assumed that they knew such things. But I have to admit that I found Mrs. Murphy brushing Mrs. Kirwin's hair to very sexy, Mrs. Kirwin being naked and all. She was sitting in front of her dressing table wearing nothing but her shoes and stockings. And the mirror reflected back her to me her front with the sexiest breasts I had ever seen. I thought I was going nuts! But little did I know that my education was just beginning.

Once again I almost fell out of my perch in the Magnolia tree. Mrs. Kirwin stood up and embraced Mrs. Murphy who started kissing Mrs. Kirwin and rubbing her breasts. I could have died. Then Mrs. Murphy knelt down in front of Mrs. Kirwin and put her head into Mrs. Kirwin's crotch and started doing something I didn't understand until much later in my education. They went about this for about five minutes, although it seemed like an eternity to me. And Mrs. Kirwin was rubbing the back of Mrs. Murphy's head and staring straight ahead out the window right. Right at where I was perched in the tree. The only way she could have missed me would have been if her eyes weren't seeing. Or maybe they were not connected to her brain because of what was going on down in her pussy. She was really wrapping her thighs onto Mrs. Murphy's ears. Then Mrs. Kirwin started to shake and stood up straight. Mrs. Murphy wiped Mrs. Kirwin's pussy with a handkerchief and helped her into a black shiny nightgown that was just as short as the white ones Sarah and Jane wore. Mrs. Murphy wrapped up Mrs. Kirwin's hair and pinned it up on top of her heard. Mrs. Kirwin was quite a sight! She stood there, hair done up, rubbing her breasts, clad in a black gown that barely covered her ass and exposed the bottom of her red pubic thatch, with black silk stockings and black high button shoes. After gartering her stockings, Mrs. Murphy helped her on with a long black Oriental silk robe. End of act two. With the donning of the rob, I switched my glance back to the sitting room. The girls were still there, fidgeting and squirming.

The Girls Get Their Bottoms Tanned

Mrs. Kirwin and Mrs. Murphy next went into the sitting room and it looked like Mrs. Kirwin sent Mrs. Murphy downstairs. Probably to get Mr. Kirwin. She went over to the side of the table opposite to where the girls were kneeling, opened a drawer and pulled out the wickedest strap I had ever seen in my life. She stood there slapping the oiled leather business end in her hand while looking at the girls. Sarah and Jane's attention was instantly riveted on the implement and I know what was going through their minds. Oh Shit, you're not going to use that on me are you? They were no longer fidgeting, they were frozen, shock still with terror. I know I sure as hell would have been.

Just then Mr. Kirwin entered the sitting room, drink in hand. He appeared to call the girls to their feet. He had each go to one corner of the ornate table. Knowing what I now know, I suspect it was an antique Louis XIVth piece. He had them bend over the table, legs spread about two feet, and extend their arms, grasping the opposite side of the table with their hands. This had the effect of raising the hem of their nightgowns so that their buttocks were completely exposed and their pussies were pressed into the carved corner of the table. They were completely bare from the tops of their gartered white hose, an inch or two above the knees, to the hem of their nightgowns, currently riding up toward their waists. What A Sight! I couldn't see up their backsides as they were partially turned away from me, but I would bet that that Mr. Kirwin was probably getting a good view of their pussies peaking out from the back of their crotches. I swear I could see a bulge forming inside the front of his pants. At this point he appeared to call Mrs. Kirwin over to the girls side of the table.

Mr. Kirwin said something and the thrashing began. Mrs. Kirwin took a swing and hit Sarah squarely across the buttocks. It was a pretty good 'lick' because I could see that the force of the blow caused the flesh to ripple out through her buttocks and into her hips. Sarah gave a start, lifting her bosom up off the table and whipping her head back. But the red-headed girl's self control was sufficient that her hands did not let go of the far side of the table. I saw her knuckles whiten as she strengthened her grip, awaiting the next blow. She put her forehead down on the polished surface of the table. The second strike, aimed just below the first, appeared to be as stern as the first, but it elicited less of a reaction from Sarah. She only pressed her forehead harder onto the table. I could see the muscles in her forearms tense and her buttocks clench. The third blow landed just above the first and caused much the same restrained reaction as the second. Three swats from that great big strap pretty well colored up the globes of Sarah's butt with a pink color that was rapidly turning red.

I had to admit that those white folks knew how to tan an ass. I had had my share of "whuppins" from my mom. Not that I was a bad boy, but just on principle. In a Negro household of that era, when ever the mom got mad at anything she was primed to deliver a "whuppin". And if mom was primed, just about anything you did would set her off. And when the "boy" set her off, what ever was handy, a wooden spoon, a belt laying around, a broomstick, anything would suffice when momma was mad. Grab him by the arm or the shirt or the belt and Whack, Whack, Whack, Whack! Usually about four to eight, anywhere they landed was OK. The "Boy" screamed and ran around. Mom felt better. Not very organized. Nobody much the worse for wear. And the bruises didn't show much on the dark skin. If the bruises hurt, that was OK. These folks were different. They did it cold. Made the girls undress and assume an embarrassing position. There was no anger in that hitting. And there was no dodging or defending. Sarah bent over there and took it. And stayed bent over while the red marks developed and ripened. Wow!

After three swats to Sarah's behind, Mrs. Kirwin moved over to the right and stood to Jane's immediate left. She wound up and delivered her first smack right onto the middle of the blond girl's naked buttocks. Jane's reaction was totally unlike Sarah's. I could hear her scream right through the closed window. She stood shock upright and grabbed the globes of her ass. She turned around, glaring at her mother and shouted. Again I could hear her through the glass, "No, you can't do that to me. I haven't done anything to deserve this. You can't do that to me. You can't spank me like this." Her mother obviously told her to turn around and again assume her position bent over the table, arms outstretched. Sullenly, the girl obeyed. She displayed no better self control at the second blow. After Mrs. Kirwin smacked her ass Jane bolted up screaming and began to dance! As they say down in 'The District', "she took her lickin' like a dancin nigger". I could see her father, Mr. Kirwin, starting to get red in the face. Finally, her mother talked her back into position. I could see Sarah, face turned to her right, taking the whole scene in. Finally, after what seemed five minutes, Jane got herself back into position and Mrs. Kirwin delivered her third blow, this time low onto the globe of her daughter's buttocks, just above where the thighs join the butt. Same result as after the second smack, Jane went into her dance and I could hear her caterwauling as clearly as if I was there in the room with them. I'll bet everybody in the neighborhood could hear it too.

At this point Mr. Kirwin lost his patience. He came over, grabbed her by the wrist and soundly slapped her face, jerking her blond head around. He grasped her nightgown by the hem and pulled it up over her head dragging it off her arms. The girl was now naked but for her white stockings and slippers. Mrs. Kirwin held Jane's hands behind her back by the wrists while Mr. Kirwin stuffed part of Jane's nightgown into her mouth, gagging the girl. Then he went over to the other side of the table and Mrs. Kirwin passed him Jane's forearms. In the blinking of an eye Jane was restrained across the table with her father holding her wrists. At this point Mrs. Kirwin went back to work on Jane's behind which was already red from the first three blows. As she administered another three blows Jane kicked wildly. At that point, undoubted under instructions from her parents, Sara got up, came over, knelt down behind Jane, and pinioned Jane's legs about the knees. With a now minimally moving target, Mrs. Kirwin finally delivered three measured, carefully delivered blows to Jane's behind from the girl's left side. Mr. Kirwin finally seemed satisfied that things were being done properly. He let go, walked back to the chair he had been sitting in previously, picked up his drink and took a very healthy swallow.

I took a deep breath. It was the first deep breath I had taken in what seemed like an eternity. I let it out slowly and carefully because I was afraid they would hear me. Not that they would, separated as we were by thick glass and they being preoccupied by what they were doing. But I felt as if I was naked as a blue jaybird up that tree. And I was having the first erection of my young life, which made me feel even more naked. But I was nowhere as naked as those two girls bent over the table. And their ordeal was just beginning. Having finally taken nine smacks to initiate Jane's punishment, Mrs. Kirwin returned to Sarah who had resumed her position at the left corner of the table. This time Mrs. Kirwin stood to the girl's right. She had to use a backhand stroke to deliver the blow. I had heard that she was a pretty good tennis player. And you have to remember that I ultimately became a fairly decent tennis player myself, Why I used to spot Coach Steig thirty years and still beat him regularly, so I know of what I speak. But at that time I didn't know jack about tennis but I was still impressed by the way that Mrs. Kirwin could whup those girl's naked asses backhanded. As expected, Sarah took her three with equanimity, hardly a jump or a start. Just kept trying to push her forehead through the table each time as her body stiffened from the blow. That girl could take her punishment. For reasons that escaped me then, but now I understand, Mrs. Kirwin did not seem to have learned her lesson with Jane. She just went over to the blonde girl, lying there unrestrained, and tried to spank her without any assistance. Well, when the stroke hit, Jane just pulled the cloth from her mouth, stood up, grabbed her ass and once again started into her dance. Over came father, stuffed her mouth, grabbed her wrists and bent her over the table. Another blow. And the legs started kicking again. Over comes Jane, grabs her around the knees, and then finally mom can administer the three swats from Jane's right side. I must have been some dumb darky at the time because it never occurred to me what Mrs. Kirwin was doing. Jane's out of control behavior was costing the girl heavily. By this time Jane had taken eleven swats to Sarah's six. And the struggles had resulted in harder blows and the squirming had spread the blows over a wider area. Jane's brat behavior was resulting in a far nastier beating than her father had ordered.

And so it continued for the remainder of the twelve specified strokes. Back to the left side for another three for Sarah who took them well. After nine swats, Sarah's backside was uniformly red and welts were forming where the strokes of the strap overlapped. But the seventeen year old girl had a reasonable large bottom and took her chastisement well. In Jane's case, on the other hand, the third series of blow saw her unrestrained for the first smack, then a song and dance, then restrained by her father for the second which was received with kicking and squirming and then finally three, gagged and held down by her father and sister. A total of sixteen to Sarah's nine. And Jane's thirteen-year-old, slender buttocks and thighs were much the worse for her beating. She had purple bruises developing in the areas where the tip of the strap would come curling around. The wheals where the strokes overlapped were beginning to also show nasty bruising. The blond girl would sit painfully for at least a week and would have marks that probably persisted for the better part of the month.

The fourth and last part of the girls' beating was the most painful. Their backsides were already tenderized by the earlier blows and the slow, alternating pace of the spanking had allowed time for effects of the blows to develop. That was pretty sore skin that was being hit by their mother's expert backhand. Even Sarah was having trouble handling it. When after the third series had been dealt to her sister and Sarah went back to her place and assumed her position, I could see that her face was flushed and tears were welling up in her eyes. Unlike the previous times, Sarah made no effort to smooth her slightly disheveled hair or to pull down her brief nightgown which had ridden up around her waist and was baring her most private parts. My eyes were riveted to catch any glimpse of that delta covered with thick orange-red hair. I could almost hear her sigh as she braced for the last three blows. At each one she started but always she kept her hands gripping the far edge of the table and her feet squarely on the floor. After the twelfth and final blow she released her grip on the table, lowered her head into her hands and cried quietly.

As expected, the fourth part of Jane's beating was rough. As Mrs. Kirwin moved over to the right side of the table, Jane stood up and ran for the door that led into the center hall of the upstairs. However, her dad was too quick for her. Mr. Kirwin grabbed the girl from behind by her blond hair, almost jerking her off her feet. As she swung around he grabbed Jane by her right hand and twisted her arm up behind her back. Thus pinioned, he walked Jane over to the corner of the table and forced her face down onto the center of the table. During this fracas, I was highly entertained by the sight of Jane's small breasts swinging back and force as she was corralled by her father. Equally stimulating were the sparkle of the golden hair on her public triangle and the flashing glimpses of her slit when her arm was twisted up behind her in a hammer lock which caused her to thrust her pelvis forward. I was getting far more of a show than I ever dreamed of in my pre-adolescent fantasies. Once again her mouth was stuffed with nightgown and she was forcibly stretched out over the table. Sarah came over to hold Jane's kicking legs. Mrs. Kirwin was merciless with her blows. First there were the last three swats of her regular punishment. Then I counted six more which I guess were extra punishment meted out for running and struggling. All in all, Jane must have taken twenty-five swats that night. It was the worst beating I had ever seen anyone take. After it was over Jane just laid there across the table and sobbed for at least five minutes as her buttocks and thighs turned a deep red-purple all over. About the only part of her that was moving, aside from the heaving of her flanks from her breathing, was a slight kicking of her white-stocking-clad feet. Eventually, Sarah took her naked, sobbing sister by the shoulders and the two of them headed off to their rooms on the other side of the hall. I was pretty sure that that night they slept on their bellies with only the lightest of covers over their behinds. At this point Mrs. Kirwin went into the master bedroom to the right. As Mr. Kirwin took his drink and went downstairs, Mrs. Murphy went through the sitting room and into the master bedroom turning off the sitting room light as she went. I breathed freely for the first time in what seemed like several hours.

Mommy's Turn

When Mrs. Kirwin entered the bedroom she went up to the bed and grabbed one of the massive posts at the foot of the four poster canopy bed and embraced it. Her body was shaking and I couldn't blame her. She had just administered what I thought was an incredibly vicious beating to her daughters and it looked likely that she was in for much of the same. Mrs. Murphy entered the room, went up behind her and clasped the matron tightly. This was more than a consoling hug, there was real passion to it and I could see Mrs. Murphy grinding her pelvis into Mrs. Kirwin's hip. Mrs. Kirwin gave Mrs. Murphy a brief but passionate kiss, stroked her hair and then whispered something into her ear. Mrs. Murphy removed Mrs. Kirwin's black oriental robe and hung it in the closet. Mrs. Kirwin sat before her dressing table in her incredibly short nightgown and unpinned her hair. Mrs. Murphy began to comb her lady's long curly red hair. After a few minutes, Mr. Kirwin entered, a gold colored drink in one hand and the strap in the other. Mrs. Murphy glared at him but when he nodded his head she hurried from the room. Then Mrs. Kirwin stood up and walked into the center of the room. She turned her back to me, bent over and grasped her ankles. This caused her black, all-too-brief nightdress to ride up. Her gown actually slid down a bit, being only arrested in its fall by the swell of her breasts. This presented the most spectacular target, a large set of bulging buttocks with heavy thighs swelling above black stockings. Since her feet were together, I could just see the faintest wisps of red hair poking out of the crux below the crack of her ass and above the junction of her thighs. An immense target for her husband. He set his drink down on her dressing table. And following the chastisement of the Kirwin daughters, all three of us, Mr. Kirwin, Mrs. Kirwin and I the invisible spy, knew what was coming next.

Groups of three blows. That seemed to be the pattern they followed. Standing to her left, three blows he gave her, high, middle, low. And each sent ripples through the ample flesh of her ass. And with each she rocked forward a bit before recovering her balance and rocking back. And just as her backward swing was at its maximum the strap would make contact with the flesh. Smack! The blows were so heavy that I could hear the sound of leather striking flesh through the closed window. But no sound did she make. After three from the left he went over to her mahogany, mirrored dressing table and took another sip of his drink. Then he went over and stood by her right side to practice his back handed stroke. His backhand was not as smooth as hers but his powerful frame coupled with the large strap, none-the-less delivered a terrible blow. The beating was very slow and very remorseless. But although she flinched with every swat, throughout the twelve blows, she never released her grip on her ankles. Four groups of three first reddened her buttocks and upper thighs, then the red became darker and welts appeared. After the first dozen or so Mrs. Kirwin's legs began to shake a little. This she counteracted by tightly clutching her knees together. During the last three the clenching of her buttocks was obvious and her flesh ceased to ripple as much with every stroke. The pain appeared to be getting to her. Finally it stopped.

After twelve swats Mrs. Kirwin stood up and turned around to face him. Breathing hard, her large breasts bounced up and down beneath the thin silk. Her obviously pained behind caused her to thrust her pelvis forwards and backwards. Mr. Kirwin put the strap down and kissed her passionately. I wonder if he realized that Mrs. Kirwin's lips had just been sucked by her female lover? Mr. Kirwin started kneading her massive breasts through the thin black silken fabric of her nightgown. Then he grasped the hem of her gown and drew it up over her breasts and shoulders and stripped it off her arms. She now stood there naked, all her charms revealed as well as her backside with its ripening bruises.

After a couple of minutes of caressing and fondling her, he once again ordered her into a humiliating position. This time he took the low backed chair of her dressing table and positioned it in the center of the bedroom. She stood in front of it and straddled it, spreading her knees widely to accommodate the seat with her legs. Then she bent over the back grasping the back legs of the chair with her hands. Thus splayed out, I could glimpse her hairy pussy from the rear beneath her flaming red ass cheeks. Wow! I had never heard of anything like this before. Mr. Kirwin took another sip from his drink and then set it down. He unbuckled his belt and removed it from its loops. It was the belt of a businessman rather than a worker, a mere inch thick and perhaps forty-five inches long as befit his girth. Rather than looping it as one usually did when administering a 'beltin', he coiled the buckle end around his right hand leaving about three feet of the tongue end free. Then he started in on her. He aimed each blow for the center of a butt cheek so that the free end of the belt curled into her crack. He was aiming to have part of each blow strike her pussy. First her worked her from the left, then walked around and worked her from the right. Many of the blows were obviously landing where he intended, for when one did, she would let out a yelp and almost levitate off the chair, clasping her legs together. He would growl "Spread um bitch" and she would reposition her knees astraddle the seat of the chair. Their vocalizations were loud enough so that I could, straining, hear them through the closed window, although I doubt that the neighbors could hear something. I have no doubt that the girls in their bedrooms and probably Mrs. Murphy, could also detect that there had been a change in Mrs. Kirwin's chastisement. He alternated sides for about a dozen strikes with his belt when he went around to her head. He stood in front of her where she was bent over the chair. He swung his belt down from right above aiming between her legs. Mr. Kirwin was no longer maintaining the pretense that he was administering an ass-whipping and that part of the blow was just happening to land on her most tender part. Mr. Kirwin was administering a pussy whipping. After half a dozen of these, Mrs. Kirwin started to shake uncontrollably. At this point, Mr. Kirwin walked over and helped himself to another sip of his drink, finishing it off. When he returned, her shaking had slowed down a little. As Mr. Kirwin put his hand between her legs from the rear and started rubbing her, her shaking started up again with a vengeance. Then I guess he pinched Mrs. Kirwin, because she just rose vertically off the chair again. Then he gave her inflamed buttocks a couple of slaps and dropped his pants.

Holy Fucking Hell

Up until this point in my life, I had, believe it or not, never seen the naked erect sexual member of a white man. I had heard rumors that white men had small cocks, however, together with warnings that whites were very sensitive about their small penises. I had been told that if I ever saw a white man's tally-wacker to avert my eyes. Black boys had been killed for lesser sins than staring at white cocks, this much I knew. Well, there was a white cock before me, not fifteen feet away in a brightly lit bedroom. And I stared. Honestly, I didn't know jack about cocks then and this was the biggest cod I had ever seen. I gulped and stared again. And then Mr. Kirwin took his cock and stuck it into her pussy from behind. So this is what they called doggy style. I had seen dogs go at it in the street but I was always puzzled at what they meant by doggy style. Now I attained enlightenment. If you want, the wisdom that is obtained only by eleven year old boys. And Mrs. Kirwin made noises that I previously only associated with mating dogs. That and moans that I could hear through the closed window. This was the first time I had ever seen people making love in the bright lights where you could see everything going on. My education in the ways of the world was taking a big step forward that night and my knowledge of the tree of good and evil was never the same. As the years and decades went by I came to understand more and more of the nuances of what they were doing but I never had the quantum jump in carnal knowledge that I got that night. That was really what was meant by fucking. Holy Hell.

I sat in that Magnolia tree watching them go at it. As I sat up there, growing colder and stiffer and suffering from my first erection, unrequited I might add, I learned about the birds and the bees. And doggy style, and sodomy and fellatio, and finally about the missionary position. And the things that white women scream and moan while doing the dirty deed. And finally things quieted down. Mr. Kirwin lay there in bed on his back, unmoving. And soon the window began to shake with his snoring. Mrs. Kirwin lay on her back naked, her legs spread and rubbed her pussy until her body shook. Then turned out the lights. That part of my education was over. A part that the Holy Spirit Fathers never talked about. But I would be able to hold my head high among my peers and knowledgably discuss that which I had no direct experience of, as though I had done it myself. Which, if you are short and slight of build, is a great thing in your middle school years.

Home

How I made it down that tree I will never know. I was chilled to the bone from the March cold and cramped from sitting so still in that tree. It must have been well after midnight before I made it to the ground. As silent as a ferret, I made it out the back and retrieved my Scout staff and my twenty feet of quarter inch rope from where I had cached them in the alley.

It was almost three quarters of a mile from the back of the Kirwin house on Broadway to my mom's house in "The District". My mom was in bed but still awake as any Negro mother would be with an eleven year old son out roaming the streets, Boy Scouts or no Boy Scouts. If the colored had telephones in those days I am sure the jig would have been up for me for momma would have called Jean's mother and Cory's mother. But fortunately we were too poor and nobody went around selling telephone service to blacks. So when I came tip-toeing in and she said, "Child, where HAVE you been", I was able to convincingly reply, "After the regular part of the Scout meeting, Jean and Cory and I practiced 'Infiltrating'. We pretended that we were Baden-Powell's scouts sneaking through the Boer lines during the 'Siege of Maefing' and we succeeded and the Boers didn't catch us, because if they would have caught us they would have skinned us alive, and we ran all the way to the relieve column and told Lord Kitchner about the situation inside the siege lines, and he gave us all a medal for being so brave and so skillful." My mother sighed, a deep sigh. She was too tired to get up and give me the whuppin' I so richly deserved and she had to get up early to cook for the Kirwins' Saturday party the next day. Or actually later that day, for it was now already Saturday. So she breathed a good sigh, her son, her only child was safe. "Child, if you don't get right to bed I AM GOING to skin you alive, Boy Scouts or no Boy Scouts. I will have to talk to Father about you." Her voice, the voice of a relieved mother tailed off as I snuck into my bed. Home, safe, warm.

Memento

The chin of the old, black Scout leader had once again sunk onto his chest as the sun was sinking into the West. He started up, smacked his lips and burped. Doc gazed at him intently. Mr. Smith said, "I'll bet you think that I am making this all up, aren't you." Doc looked at him puzzled, "Mr. Smith, I have heard too many stories about this Island that were not readily believable and that later turned out to be true, and more than true. And someday I will find out the truth about the 'Battle of Broadway'. But I know too much to not believe you, no matter how outrageous it seems." The elderly man nodded and said, "Sit down, you can pee in a minute." A few minutes later he returned with a box, a box blackened with age. He said to Doc "Perhaps, I wasn't clear enough. I probably should have said I sold most of the contents of the box to the Rev. Norcod. I still have the box." Opening the lid carefully he extracted a leaf, a brown magnolia leaf. Grasping it by the twig end he twirled the leaf between his thumb and forefinger. "When I got home that night I found that in climbing that tree, a leaf had gotten lodged in my shirt pocket. I kept it. That leaf was the first thing that went into the box. The box that contained the memorabilia of the 'Belles of St. Mary's'."

Chapter 5. Marthan Discipline Part 1

Pamphlet in the Smith Collection

MORTIFICATION OF THE FLESH

A MANUAL OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT:

II. THE MARTHAN METHOD

Derived from:

Private Writings of the Irish Sisters of the Suffering Mother

By Msgr. Thomas Kelley,

In The Diocese of Gulfcoaston

Privately Printed

In The Year Of Our Salvation 1917

Gulfcoaston, Texas

Forward

Dearest Sisters in Christ.

As Catholic Women a great obligation is laid upon you to Strictly Observe the Precepts of Our Holy Mother the Church as represented by your Pastor. This booklet is one guide to accomplishing that goal. The earlier volume in this series : The Marian Discipline focused on the Disciplinary Life of Catholics in the home with a focus on wives, mothers and daughters. In particular it focused on the female Chastisements carried out in the home. This volume is focused on those with needs for female Chastisements more severe and advanced than are carried out in the home. These are called the Marthan Disciplines because, as in the Gospels, the lot of Martha is a harder one than that for Mary.

As part of Modernism, there is a pernicious movement afoot to seduce us away from the long standing practice of the Mortification of the Flesh and its attendant need for Chastisement of the Female Body. This booklet is part of a movement to attack these dissipations and bring us all closer to Communion with The Body of Christ. Only by vigorously suppressing these tendencies toward sexual perversion can we begin to approach the Humility and Submissiveness of the Blessed Virgin. She was utterly Obedient unto the Spirit and there is no better example of Redemption than that of the Sorrowful Mother. Every voice of the Secular World ridicules Corporal Discipline as old fashioned, cruel and Un-American. We have only to witness the Corruption of the Ways of the World to appreciate the falsity of their doctrine. I realize that I am calling you to Pain and Humiliation. But compared to the Fires of Hell this is a small price to pay for Redemption in the Blood of the Lamb.

This volume contains a guide to Chastisements suitable for use on females in the Convent, School or Advanced Church Penitential Services. These Chastisements are intended to be ordered by the Mother Superior, the Principal or the Confessor rather than by a Teacher or Father or Husband. These Marthan Chastisements are designed to be supervised by a Trained and Experienced Disciplinarian. In this way they are unlike the Chastisement of Volume I which are ordered and carried out by the Father or Husband. I strongly suggest that you read and thoroughly study this volume prior to the time when you are scheduled to appear for your Chastisement. A thorough knowledge of what penance you may be given will help you to prepare for your reconciliation.

Lastly, this booklet is a complete rewriting of my earlier work on the same subject. Since that pamphlet of over five years ago hundreds of penitent females have passed under my care here in Texas. On sabbatical I have had the opportunity to survey the status of Submission, Obedience and Discipline among Catholic females in Europe, both of the laity and the religious. In particular I have had the delight of spending two months as Confessor General to the Irish Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother engaged in detailed studies of female discipline in Ireland, that true font of strict Catholicism. Therein formed the principles of S.O.D. in my mind. I wish to thank the many Pastors, Mother Superiors, Principals and Headmistresses and especially the Irish Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother who have assisted me in helping so many females advance down the road to their Eternal Salvation.

In Gulfcoaston,

Lent, A.D. 1917

I. Theological Background

The approach to Female Discipline of this Manual is based upon the following Theses.

1. A major consequence of Original Sin is Concupiscence.

2. Concupiscence is most formidably expressed in the Female and is maximal between menarche and menopause.

3. God has given us the tools to control Concupiscence in the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance.

4. Females between menarche and menopause should Confess and go to Communion at least once a month, preferably on the Saturday and Sunday after their monthly menstruation.

5. Proper repentance by the female of her sins, particularly the sins caused by Concupiscence, should appropriately involve mortification of the flesh.

6. The best methods for Mortification of the female Flesh involve Corporal Punishment.

7. The Pastor of the Parish is the ultimate authority in the extent to which Chastisement is warranted as penance for the forgiveness of sins. Serious Chastisement may only be ordered by the Pastor or his designate (The Mother Superior or The Principal).

8. Although no Pastor ever wishes to see severe pain inflicted on one of his Parishioners, he realizes that Scripture and The Teaching Authority of the Church stand clear that sinfulness, particular in matters of pride, willfulness and disobedience can only be Reconciled through Mortification of the Flesh that can only be described as Strict or Severe.

9. Strict or Severe (Marthan) Corporal Punishment should not be administered in the Home. Marthan Corporal Punishment is defined as striking the buttocks, thighs, breasts or female genitals with thin, round, elongated pieces of leather or wood (e.g. switch, cane, whip, etc.). Marthan Discipline involves a significant chance of bodily injury and should only be done under the direct supervision of Holy Mother Church. Injuries that may result from Marthan Discipline include cuts and lacerations of the skin and scarring may ensue.

10. This Manual addresses Strict and Severe Corporal Punishment of the female (Marthan Discipline) with an emphasis on the Chastisement of Older Schoolgirls, Nuns, and Wives. Other Manuals address Chastisements more appropriate to the Home and Family Environment (Marian Discipline).

II. The Philosophy of Severe Female Chastisements.

There are times in the life of every Catholic female when Chastisements are necessary that are more severe than those normally meted out in the home. These may be due to the misbehavior or misapplication of a girl in school, the failure of a mother to properly instruct and supervise her daughter, or the failure of a woman in her wifely duties. Also, certainly, it behooves all females in Religious Orders to periodically mortify their flesh in order to purge it of sin. Under these circumstances it is unfair to place all of the burden of Judgment and Chastisement upon the male head of the household or upon the individual nun. Holy Mother Church in Her Wisdom has given us Pastors, Mother Superiors and their Assistants to aid females along their path to Salvation. Upon the shoulders of Pastors and Confessors rests the burden of assisting responsible Husbands and Fathers in dealing with Concupiscence. Women in Religious Orders have special needs for Chastisement that must be accomplished on a regular basis. Safe within the confines of our Religious Institutions many different kinds of female needs for Rigorous Discipline can be brought for the Greater Glory of God.

In all cases the principles of Submission, Obedience and Discipline must be remembered.

Chastisement is not simply inflicting pain. It involves establishing:

(i) In the mind that particular state of Humility in emulation of the Virgin Mary

(ii) In the body that trembling and shaking Expectational state, and

(iii) In the emotions that dread and morbid Anticipation.

Under these conditions, the actual infliction of pain serves only to bring the three states above to a climax of Repentance and Humility. In Marthan Discipline the Chastisements administered are Strict and Severe wherefore the resultant Humiliation, Expectation and Anticipation are the much greater. Moreover, the climactic Fear of the Lord that is established is also the greater. The methods of the Irish Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother are of the greatest utility in establishing a mighty Fear of the Lord with acceptable physical damage.

III. Expectation, Exposure and Restraint in Strict and Severe Chastisements

Three factors establish the state of mind that allows the minimal use of pain in achieving Humility and Penitence. The first is the expectation of the impending Chastisement, the second is the exposure of the female body during the process of expectation and throughout the actual physical punishment and the third is the physical restraint of the female which promotes the feelings of powerlessness, terror and helplessness. Expectation plays a powerful role in Marthan Discipline.

The female should be notified of impending Chastisement at least two days in advance of the session. Typically, if Chastisement is performed on Saturday, the female due for Chastisement is notified on Thursday. This allow plenty of time for the female to anticipate her punishment and mull over in her head the possible things that may be done to her body. Students should be sent to the Principals office and there be informed of their upcoming date with the School Disciplinarian. The girls then take a letter home to their mothers informing them of the details of the upcoming punishment. Wives should be given a letter or card from their Pastor informing them of where and when they are to report. Ideally, they should then present the letter to their husband (who is usually notified separately as well) in a ritual indicating their Submission to God, Pastor and Husband and Obedience even unto severe pain. Female Religious should receive their Marthan Discipline on a fixed, regular schedule depending on where they are in their Spiritual Exercises. All females must realize that once a Marthan Discipline is scheduled, nothing short of severe illness will stand in the way of their appointed Chastisement.

In general, there should be nothing more humiliating to the female Catholic than exposure of her body. When a female is bound, naked and forced to await Chastisement severe enough to in some cases tear her skin, her entire body and mind become focused on the approaching moment of punishment and the parts of the body that will feel pain. Therefore when the punishment is applied, the parts of the body are ready to reach a climax with minimal damage to the body.

Our females exhibit their Submission, Obedience and Discipline when they expose their bodies for Chastisement. They know that certain parts of the body are unclean and they humiliate themselves by exposing these. This humiliation increases the distress of Chastisement. When a female must expose her body she is indicating her acceptance of the impending punishment. She also realizes that pain is impending and inevitable. Therefore, in order to optimize Chastisement, some time should pass between the exposure of the body and the application of the implement. Thus both Expectation and Exposure are achieved.

In the various Marthan Disciplines the females are required to fully undress and expose the most private parts of their bodies to the gaze of outsiders. This is one the most humiliating experiences a pious Catholic female can face. Since Marthan Disciplines are performed outside the comfortable confines of the home, the female is frequently required to disrobe in front of people who, while not necessarily strangers, are outside of the family unit. Furthermore, since no Disciplinary Gown is used, the breasts and pudenda are always exposed. All the females involved in the Discipline are required to undress as a group so that frequently mothers are required to disrobe in front of their daughters, or social acquaintances must disrobe in front of each other. This semi-public undressing increases the sense of humiliation beyond that of simple nakedness.

Lastly, Submission, Obedience and Discipline are driven home by the restraints employed in the Marthan Disciplines. When a female knows that she is about to be rendered helpless and unable to escape her Chastisement, the Fear of the Lord is increased. It is bad enough to be naked but to be naked and bent over a Disciplinary Horse and bound is worse. The knowledge that her cries will be ignored and all her struggles futile, increases the humiliation of her Chastisement. She is being forced to endure this physical pain and nothing can save her.

These three factors taken together amplify the effect of the corporal punishment several fold. The Marthan Disciplines are much more painful than the Marian Disciplines, being essentially whippings rather than spankings. But they add on dread of approaching punishment coupled with being forced into nakedness in front of outsiders and the helpless terror of the futility of struggle implicit in bondage. These three additional factors produce an effect that is capable of reducing the haughtiest matron to abject blubbering tears of terror.

IV. Bondage in Strict and Severe Chastisements

As discussed above, in addition to the immediate practical advantages of chastising a restrained subject, there are even more profound psychological benefits to the use of Bondage in the Marthan Disciplines. The following section will review the various forms of Female Bondage in common use with comments upon their advantages and shortcomings.

The Disciplinary Horse This furnishing is probably the simplest and most widely employed piece of furniture dedicated to female Chastisement. Other names for this Bondage furniture are the 'Whipping Horse', 'Caning Horse' or 'Punishment Trestle'. It consists of a horizontal bar supported by two V shaped trestle supports. In its simplest form it can be no more than a 'Carpenter's Horse' made from 2 x 4 lumber and costing no more than a dollar or two. The legs should either be boxed in at the base, typically with 1 x 3's for stability, or else the legs should be secured to a base. Typically, the top of the horizontal bar is anywhere from thirty inches (schools) to thirty-six inches (parishes) above the ground. The height must be sufficient so that when the female is bent at the waist over the bar, her feet are clear of the ground. If her feet are in contact with the ground and the female begins to 'buck', she will actually be able to 'buck' a 'Disciplinary Horse', even one of moderately stout construction, about the chamber. This will greatly embarrass the Disciplinarian who will be compelled to pursue the female about the chamber while administering Chastisement. The length of the bar can be anywhere from two to four feet. Two foot wide 'Disciplinary Horses' are economical of space and do not suffer from the clumsiness of having a foot of 'horse' sticking out to the right and left of the hips of the restrained female. On the other hand, a four foot 'horse' offers the option of binding the female along the length of the 'horse' with her hands secured near the 'head' of the 'horse' and the 'horse's rump' stuck into her crotch. For this particular application, the ends of the cross member horizontal bar are often finished to a triangular point which will neatly fit the pubic triangle of the female.

By and large, however, most 'Disciplinary Horses' that we have utilized are constructed a bit more sturdily than the average 'Carpenter's Horse'. This is because, although the vast majority of females placidly accept their Bondage when bent over the bar, there is always that one in ten female who will buck in frenzied fashion at the application of the first blow. Given that lumber is cheap, we recommend that the horizontal bar be fabricated from several 2 x 4's or a 4 x 6 and that the legs be made from 2 x 6's or 4 x 4's. The skirting at the bottom of the legs should be at least 2 x 4's and preferably 2 x 6's. It is desirable that the bottom of the horizontal skirting timber be at least nine inches above the ground. This allows enough clearance so that the lower limbs of the female to be secured to the skirting by lines about the ankles and still keep the feet off the floor. Heavier timber with stout skirting about the bottom ensures that a thrashing female will remain securely restrained. Furthermore, the heavier members allow the drilling of holes for the passage of lines without significantly weakening the structure. We have always preferred lines passed though holes for securing female limbs or even restraining about the waist or chest. Fixed ligatures never seem to be in exactly the place you need them for the particular female you are putting in bondage whereas with a hole positioned every inch or two, you can always thread that rope so that it is exactly where you need it. Similarly, we have found the use of metal cleats to be equally cumbersome. They are never exactly where you need them and they are always getting in your way. The above comments on carpentry are not to be taken in a dogmatic fashion. In our travels we have satisfactorily employed Bondage Furniture made to a wide variety of specifications. And it should be remembered that furnishings to be used in female Chastisement is not designed for the comfort of the female, but rather her discomfort.

Rarely is a girl' high school or parish so small that only a single 'Disciplinary Horse' adequate. There is nothing more salubrious to maintaining good Marthan Discipline than to strictly punish females in pairs. If a pair of disciplinees, perhaps schoolgirl friends or familially related females, are bound side by side on a pair of 'horses', the Disciplinarian can administer three strokes or so of the implement to one, and then three strokes to the other. Then the Disciplinarian can switch sides and repeat the alternation. This prolongs the punishment period, allowing fuller 'ripening' of the wheals and bruises, increasing the terror of expectation and allowing the full effect of vocalizations by the one to impact on the other. Our advice to a girl's high school or Parish seeking to acquire Bondage Furniture is to visit a Catholic institution where female Chastisement is properly carried out. A bit of practice using their equipment will probably indicate exactly what sort of a 'Disciplinary Horses' suits your requirements best. Then you can use that furniture to have exact duplicates made. Estimate how many 'Disciplinary Horses' you need and then order one more additional piece.

The Pillory An alternative to the 'horse' is a single support that fixes the head and hands of the female at a level of three to four feet above the ground. Often incorrectly termed "Stocks" these furnishings once graced the village squares of most parts of the civilized world before in the days before Liberal Protestantism undermined public morality. The pillory has a significant number of proponents who believe that no other method of Bondage is more suitable for female Chastisement. However, we note that the many difficulties with the pillory make it unsuitable for use as the primary furnishing for female restraint in Marthan Disciplines.

One difficulty with the pillory is that although one size of head hole accommodates almost all females regardless of age or mass, the hand holes seem to always be either too small, cutting off circulation to fat hands if properly fastened, or too big, allowing slender hands to be extracted after a small struggle. Despite the availability of 'hand inserts' or multiple alternate top bars, we have never been impressed with the security with which a female is restrained in the pillory.

A second problem with the pillory is that because females come in a wide variety of heights. What is an optimal position for a woman of average height is so tall of a girl of short stature that she must be stood on a soap box in order to get her head through the center hole. Similarly, a very tall, heavy set matron must bend into some pillories with extreme difficulty and has a hard time keeping her legs under her when beaten with the rod. Theoretically, it should be possible to construct a pillory whose height is adjustable. However, with hinges and hasps and holes to be cut, and adaptors for various wrist sizes to fabricate and fit, the average pillory requires such carpentry as to place it at a disadvantage vis a vis the simple, sturdy 'horse'.

A third major disadvantage to the pillory is the manner in which it is classically secured to the ground. When the pillory was used in The Old Country it was usually planted into the ground on one central or two side posts. The Marthan Disciplines are carried out in private, secure from prying eyes. Chastisements are usually performed in a dedicated room in the basement of the Convent, Rectory, Church or Girl's High School. It is generally highly inconvenient to plant a post or two into the floor in these facilities. If the pillory is to be freestanding and movable, it must still be sturdy enough so that an agitated robust female does not displace it. Despite many examples viewed, we have not to date seen a pillory that we are truly satisfied with.

Why then, is the pillory even discussed at all? Because, for certain Disciplines it offers great advantage. For example, it is difficult to gain access to the breasts of a female when she is draped over the horse. On the other hand, when a mature female is bent over at a right angle to the pillory, her breasts hang down like the udders of a cow. This allows the employment of a number of interesting Chastisements. Similarly, marital relations are singularly appropriate post Chastisement. A wife, restrained in the stocks with a spectacularly marked posterior offers a singularly inviting target for the rear approach by her husband. Thus, for the Catholic institution where space is no object and expense immaterial, a pillory may make a highly interesting addition to the armamentarium of Disciplinary Furniture.

The Whipping Post The majority of Marthan Disciplines begin and end with the female being bent over, restrained, and having an implement – switch, cane, birch or whip – applied to her posterior. However, there are Disciplines that call for more extensive Chastisements. For these occasions there is nothing better than the old fashioned Whipping Post! An alternative to the post, particularly where space is limited, is bondage of the wrist with line attached to a trapeze or mounting points fixed overhead. Few pieces of disciplinary furniture are simpler in construction and more complicated in use. The complications arise because most Chastisements administered to erect females involve one form or other of suspension with the wrists overhead. With a few exceptions, the ligatures used in suspension involve the wrists and suspension by the wrists can cut off blood flow to the hands and pinch two of the major nerves (the ulnar and median) that run through the wrist. Furthermore, because the Chastisements that are conducted upon the upright female are usually quite severe, loss of consciousness is common. When the female faints, her entire weight can be placed upon the wrists with resultant blood flow to the hands and nerve damage. Loss of consciousness is promoted by the upright position and pooling of blood in the lower body versus the more equal distribution of blood in the bent over prone position or supine position.

Damage to the wrists can be minimized by the use of cuffs padded with cloth, soft leather or sheep skin with the woolly side mounted toward the skin. When the whipping post is employed, the female should be bound at multiple points (e.g. wrists overhead near the top of the post, a strap above the bosom but below the shoulders, a strap just below the bosom, a strap at the belt line, and a strap just above or below the knees. This allows access to the breasts and loins but prevents all of the female weight being placed on a single suspension point when she faints. Obviously, these strategies have limited utility when the female is restrained by her wrists from an overhead point. Therefore, it is desirable to have a facile method for taking down the dead weight of an unconscious female before damage to her hands occurs. Our experience is that a line of reasonable length should be attached to the wrist cuff of the female and then led though a block or pulley mounted overhead to a belaying point, preferably on an adjacent wall. This belaying point can be either a cleat or a ratcheted winch. The major advantage of the winch is that it is capable of fine degrees of adjustment which afford precise suspension of the female while allowing quick release when unconsciousness occurs.

The whipping post occupies a critical position in a room, usually being placed directly in the center. And generally, a whipping post requires a significant amount of room about it for the whip to be wielded. Ideally, the minimum chamber size for a whipping room is twelve by twelve feet. And if a whip is to be freely employed, the chamber should be devoid of other furniture other than perhaps a stool or small chair. Thus, it is likely that only facilities with plenty of space will enjoy the luxury of a whipping room. On the other hand, once a whipping post is provided, more than one female can be accommodated. It is not necessary for every female to have her own whipping post. Rather by provision of multiple attachment point around the top of the post, as many as three to four women can be simultaneously bound with resultant efficiency. We have had, on one occasion, the pleasure of placing a mother and three of her daughters, all married women, faces toward the post, in charming familial bondage. The scourge was thoroughly applied in round robin fashion to their backs, buttocks and thighs until all were bloodied and two were unconscious. After the females were revived, they were repositioned, backs bound to the post. With their hands bound over their heads their breasts were uplifted and beautifully positioned for receiving the switch. After their bosoms were heavily welted and bleeding and their nipples lacerated, their loins were subjected to the scourge with laudable results. Similar severe chastisements have been carried out with great efficiency on a group of a dozen nuns and a score of older school girls at a academy of the Irish Sister of the Suffering Mother. In the case of the nuns, after their scourging, the switch was used to extreme good effect upon their breasts. The nipples of the girls were spared for fear of disrupting their eventual natural functioning. In both cases the disciplinees were stripped in a central location and made to kneel, facing the wall, awaiting their chastisement. Groups of four were then led off to the whipping chamber for Marthan Discipline. Lastly, on one Lenten occasion, we witnessed the severe Chastisement of two dozen females, scourged into unconsciousness, in a single morning between Mass and an excellent luncheon.

Chastisement Tables When it is desirable to subject the most private parts of the female to the mortification of the flesh, there is no better furniture for disciplinary bondage than a table custom built to the purpose. Experience has taught that there are two basic forms for such furnishings, which we will call the "Diapering Bed" and the "Splitting Tee". Both tables are eminently suitable bondage for use when applying the whip or switch to the mons, labia and perianal areas.

The "Diapering Bed" evolved from the expedient of having the female to be disciplined lie on her back in a simple iron bed with a barred headboard. Her hands are secured to the headboard of the bed on either side. Then the female has her legs raised and her ankles secured to the top of the headboard of the bed. Thus the female is bound into a position approximating that of a baby being "diapered". In modern practice this has been greatly simplified. The "mattress" has been reduced to a four foot long and two foot wide wooden platform, approximately thirty inches above the floor. The "headboard" should be a minimum of three feet wide and should extend about eighteen to twenty-four inches above the surface of the bed. It is useful to have holes or slots in the wooden "mattress" near its "foot" whereby lines or straps can be passed to secure the female at approximately her belt line. The "headboard" can have many designs for attachment of bondage restraints. We prefer a simple headboard of wooden slats and a horizontal crosspiece. The female in need of discipline is seated on a stool placed at the "foot" of the "bed". She is then instructed to lie back and she is bound at her waist and her wrists are secured over her head. When heavyset females are being subjected to Marthan Discipline, this is an opportune time to apply the switch or scourge to their large breasts. Normally, the optimal position for Chastising the breast is upright with hands secured over the female's head. Unfortunately, large pendulous breasts hang down in such a way that only the superior surface is accessible to the implement of discipline. When the female is supine, large breasts spread out over the chest like thick pancake batter. Thus positioned, all portions of the bosom can be subjected to the whip or switch with the implement coming from a variety of different directions. After the breasts have been subjected to the mortification of the flesh, the legs of the female are elevated to over her head, splayed out to the desired degree, secured by the ankles to the "headboard", and the stool at the "foot" removed. The final advantage of the "Diapering Bed" is that it is relatively compact. In a reasonably sized Disciplinary Chamber (perhaps twelve by twelve feet), it is possible to position four "Diapering Beds" and still have sufficient room to swing a small cat o' nine tails.

The "Splitting Tee" is the table to employ when absolute exposure and maximal bondage is required. This furnishing, as expected from its name, is a tee shaped table approximately four feet long and six feet across the arms of the tee. The female is seated on a stool at the top of the tee and made to lie back along the upright arm of the tee such that her head comes to rest at the base of the tee. She is then bound, wrists just in back of and to the sides of her head, and about the waist, at the belt line, which should be at the top of the tee. At this point, the buttocks of the female should still be on the stool (which is at the top of the tee). If more control is desired, straps should be used to secure the female to the upright of the tee, just above and below the breasts. Then lines are secured to the female's ankles and the legs of the female are raised into the full vertical position. At this point the female's legs are opened into the fully spread "tee" position. When dealing with compliant females of an age young enough to have highly flexible hip joints, this can be easily accomplished and once the legs are completely spread, the ankle lines can be secured to the ends of the cross arms of the "tee". Unfortunately, given the state of terror of most females facing Chastisement on the "Splitting Tee", few women willingly spread their legs. Furthermore, as females mature their hips become less limber. Thus, the mere assuming of this splayed position frequently imposes a torment all of its own, even before the application of any implement. Some authorities suggest the use of winches positioned underneath the ends of the cross arms of the "tee" to force the legs of the female open. We do not encourage this practice as it has been reported that in Ireland and Spain, the hips of females have been broken on the "Splitting Tee". This is Mortification of the Flesh to a degree that we cannot countenance. Rather, we find that once the female is securely bound to the upright of the "tee" with her legs held by two sturdy assistance, the patient Disciplinarian with sufficient application of a whip or crop to various parts of the body, can eventually persuade even the most recalcitrant female to fully spread her legs. Once the legs of the female are spread and secured, the positioning stool can be removed. As alluded to above, this position is generally regarded as the most painful and humiliating of all standard position of bondage. Women who have undergone frequent and severe Mortifications of the Flesh report that they would willing lie supine with their legs splayed out and their arms encircling their knees and calves, keeping their legs spread while their tender parts are scourged rather than suffer the torment of bondage on the "Splitting Tee".

V. Implements for Strict and Severe Chastisements

The purpose of Marthan Discipline is to establish in the female the Fear of The Lord to a degree that approaches terror. The implements employed are those which have the potential to cut and abrade the skin. Therefore, they must be used with the utmost respect.

Nothing is more misunderstood than the role of implements in Chastisement. Marthan Discipline uses the more severe implements of discipline which generally consist of the cane, the switch, the crop and various types of whips. All of these are dangerous and should be used only by or under the close supervision of, a qualified disciplinarian. The implements should be carefully obtained and lovingly maintained. A defective implement may not only perform inadequately but may cause more injury to the female penitent than is desired.

Unsuitable Implements Here in America the wooden paddle has enjoyed enormous popularity, particularly in the public schools. Unfortunately when applied with sufficient force to cause appropriate psychological effect, the paddle generally causes too much physical damage to justify its use. This is particularly true with the school girl wherein the buttocks and thighs do not yet have the cushioning fat of the more mature female. A stout paddling of the average school girl causes deep bruises that involve bleeding into the gluteus muscles which takes weeks to resolve. This makes walking and bending difficult and interferes with the girl's ability to do her chores. The object of Chastisement is not to injure the subject being Chastised but to change their willful female attitude and to cause true repentance for the sins of concupiscence. It is amazing the degree to which skin can be made to painfully respond with the proper use of implements other than the paddle. Furthermore, it is also amazing how a heavily welted bottom with numerous small cuts will be almost completely recovered in a fortnight whereas a thoroughly paddled bottom will have to wait a month or so for further Chastisement.

Similarly, many types of whips, particularly those of the single tailed variety, have a tendency to shred the skin too easily. This is because their impact is too strong for the surface area they impact. Therefore they make a quick and clean cut which can be relatively painless. This is particularly true with "bullwhips", "dressage" whips and many types of "quirts" which are designed for the much thicker bovine and equine skins with their mats of dense hair. If these whips are employed with a force adjusted so as not to cut the skin, little more than a red mark results and the actual pain is less than that of a skillfully applied strop. Again we stress that our goal is to inflict pain rather than produce injury. The "bullwhip", "dressage" whip" or quirt just do not perform the function we desire.

The Cane The cane is a difficult instrument to wield and all too frequently results in more deep bruising than pain. True rattan canes are difficult to purchase. Frequently all that is available are "bamboo" canes which shatter within the first half dozen blows. Canes are best left to Holy Mother Church to obtain and skillfully use. The severity of punishment with the cane is ideally determined, not by the force with which the implement is wielded, which should be uniform, but by its thickness and length and by the number of strokes administered. Ideally, every stroke of the cane should induce the formation of wheal with surrounding flare but not cause bruising of the muscle underneath nor should the skin be cut or torn. Because of the severity of impact of the cane, when properly employed, it should not be necessary or even desirable, to prepare the skin by a previous spanking.

Even when employed by an expert, the tip of the cane exerts considerably more punishment than the other parts. Furthermore, the cane does not deliver a proper blow when wielded with a backhand stroke. Therefore, the cane is ideally wielded in an alternating ambidextrous manner or else two Disciplinarians should be utilized, one right handed and the other left handed. In this way both sides of the buttocks and thighs are equally chastised. Strokes should always be laid on directly across the backside resulting in side to side marks. It is not desirable to cross the strokes. The cane should never be employed striking downwards from the head of the subject in a caudal direction. Similarly, the area of the iliac crests and spine should be avoided. Breaching these precepts tends to result in severe lacerations of the skin. Similarly, the lower part of the backs of the thighs should be avoided because of the potential for damage to the hamstring tendons.

It is suggested that the proper training a Disciplinarian should involve supervised instruction by an expert in the art. At least three dozen canings should be done under direct supervision to include equal numbers of older school girls and wives. Discipline should be administered to females of all somatotypes including mesomorphs, ectomorphs and endomorphs. Chastisements should include a varied mix of moderate canings (half to a dozen strokes with a light cane) to severe punishments (two and a half to three dozen strokes with a heavy cane). After a suitable training period the Disciplinarian's expertise should be documented with a letter from the mentor stating the level of skill attained.

The effect of a caning is highly variable. A light caning leaves the female none the worse for wear excepting the half dozen or so wheals on the backside and a strong desire not to sit for a day or so. A severe caning of two to three dozen strokes will send the female to bed for two to three days. Their posterior will be exquisitely tender for a week and walking will be painful for several days. This caning can cause about a half a dozen lacerations which will take two weeks or longer to completely heal and she may bear a scar or two for several years after the Chastisement.

The most severe caning we have ever witnessed was of an adulterous wife in Ireland. This strapping woman, bound over a Disciplinary Horse, received four dozen strokes of the greatest severity with a cane over three feet in length. She lost consciousness three times during the caning resulting in a Chastisement session that lasted almost three hours. Her backside was stripped of skin from her beltline to midway down her thighs and she bled for almost a dozen hours afterwards. Her urine was red, her breathing labored and she ran a high fever with delirium for three days. She was confined to bed for almost a month afterwards and it was three months before the skin of her buttocks was free of granulation tissue. Inspection of her backside on a subsequent trip five years later revealed extensive scaring similar to that following a scalding injury. Obviously, a caning more severe than this could result in death.

The breasts and pudendum of the female can also be subjected to canings. However, all of the caveats given above apply even more stringently than when the buttocks is the target. Only the lightest (Junior) cane should be employed and that with a stroke much lighter than is used on the backside. If the breast is struck too sharply, the underlying fat is severely injured with resulting internal bleeding. On the other hand, a sharp blow of the cane can cause the fat in the breast to die, a condition called fat necrosis that rudely disfigures the breast and may cause breast cancer. On some occasions, even a single, too harsh cane stroke will cause the entire breast to swell and become black and blue. Scars from canings can subsequently form with dimpling of the breast and permanent disfigurement. Obviously, only a skilled expert should ever attempt a breast caning and we recommend that only the breasts of nuns be caned. When disfigurement results, the sister can then offer up the sacrifice of this pleasing feature to God in reparation for sin and given the concealing feature of their habits, none will be aware of their sacrifice.

Problems can also occur when the perineum is caned. Sharply striking the mons or vulvar areas not infrequently results in unconsciousness. We are aware of reports of death resulting from the stoppage of the heart during canings of the pudenda. Alternatively, very mild application of the lightest cane to the labia has been observed to cause engorgement of the female genitalia in a surprising number of mature women and we have observed shuddering, moaning and secretion of fluids similar to those observed during the climax of marital intercourse in some women. We have reason to believe that these women are actually experiencing pleasure from their chastisement just as some wanton women enjoy sexual congress. In all cases such pleasure should be followed by pain so that concupiscence will be counteracted. Therefore it is obvious that the management of these sorts of punishments are best attempted only by the experienced expert.

The Strap Although the use of the strap as the only implement of Chastisement is not recommended for Marthan Discipline, this implement can play a very useful role as part of the disciplinary armamentarium. Every facility administering Marthan Disciplines should have a wide variety of straps on hand. The main use of the strap is in the first stage in the Chastisement, preparing the skin for the application of the definitive implement. This can either be done in the home (as part of the routine weekly Marian Discipline) or it can be done in the facility dispensing Marian Discipline as a preliminary to the main Chastisement.

The mainline implement is the standard disciplinary strap, two and a half inches wide and a about quarter inch thick, attached to a handle. We recommend having three or four ranging in length from twenty to over thirty inches to suit all occasions. The specifications and use of this implement are thoroughly explicated in the Manual of Marian Discipline. A dozen "hits" delivered with one of these straps from alternating sides, with full force yields, an impressive result – a solidly red buttocks and thighs with very little untouched white skin. Two dozen blows, delivered to the average, mature woman's buttocks and upper thighs yields complete coverage with some areas of red purple bruise. Thirty to forty strokes will leave deep purple bruise that ripens to solid "black and blue" within an hour or so. As reviewed in length in the Manual of Marian Discipline, the endpoint of this preliminary preparatory beating is not simply the application of a given number of strokes but the achievement of a given degree of inflammation of the backside. One might think in terms of red, red-purple or black and blue. If the switch or the birch or the scourge is then applied to such prepared skin, the pain elicited is then greatly amplified. Applying the switch to black and blue skin is obviously much more extreme than applying the switch to merely red skin. And the interval in between the preliminary strapping and the definitive whipping allows the female to contemplate her sins and shortcomings in a truly penitent fashion.

The light strap of belt leather makes a good implement for the preliminary Chastisement of the more tender parts of the female. A one inch wide belt is almost perfect. In this case the length can be anywhere from 14 to 24 inches as longer lengths quickly become unmanageable. A handle length of about seven to eight inches provides a convenient grip. We strongly recommend making a set of three, one 16 inch, one 20 inch and one 24 inch. These can be applied to the breasts and perineal regions of adult females to redden and welt the skin prior to the application of the switch to these sensitive parts. We do not believe in the application of the switch to the nipples of high school girls because of the danger of cutting the nipples such that lactation is later interfered with. However, the breasts of older adolescent females can be very thoroughly beaten with the light strap without resultant deformity of the breast due to fat necrosis or scarring of the nipple due to severe laceration.

The Switch Perhaps the implement most widely used in America for Marthan Chastisements is the switch. Cut from shoots of hardwood trees and shrubs, stripped of its bark and pickled in vinegar brine to maintain its flexibility, the switch is cheap, easy to obtain and incapable per se of inflicting excessive tissue injury. Yet its impact is not to be underestimated. If a female is given a proper preparative spanking and is securely bound to a Disciplinary Horse, then a slow and thorough Chastisement with a switch can be one of the most excruciating experiences she will ever undergo. With a fraction of the tissue damage that the cane can cause, the switch can deliver a treatment that is every bit as painful in the end. And the female Chastised with the switch will heal faster and be ready for another Marthan Chastisement in as short a time as a month!

A wide variety of trees and bushes can supply the raw materials for switches. We have generally employed wands from the crepe myrtle bush, thin branches from the hickory tree and "water shoots" from the live oak. The main requirements are that the switch be relatively straight (crooked switches are hard to handle) and that it be resilient. Nothing is more upsetting than to just be entering the critical phase of a Chastisement and to have one's switch break, thus upsetting the rhythm of the strokes. In the room where the Chastisement is administered, we always have a minimum of half a dozen switches readily at hand. Switches should be harvest a dozen or more at a time. We usually prefer to have one of the prospective penitents harvest and prepare the switches that will later be used on her. This functions to increase her expectation of punishment. A pair of pruning shears is ideal for cutting the wands. The bark is then removed from the final two feet of the switch with a pen or paring knife. It is usually desirable to remove the knobs from the switch that are found at the attachment point of the twigs as these protuberances can cause undesired laceration of the skin. However, one or two switches can be reserved with bark intact for the more severe cases. These are often bundled together, three to six at a time to form a "birch".

We are frequently asked which wood is best for switches and are there any types of wood that are absolutely useless as switches. There is such a diversity of woods in North America and so many sub species and the common names for trees and bushes change so frequently from place to place, that one cannot be too dogmatic in ones pronouncements. For example, our British friends tell us that willow osiers are excellent whereas we know that the Southern Willow makes execrable switches. The best advice we can give is to widely sample those woods which are readily available locally and test them for suitability upon female posteriors in need of discipline. By trial and error you will quickly find some that are useful. Then lay in a goodly supply. Properly pickled switches can be stored for many months and a good switch if not abused, is capable of raising hundreds of welts before it finally breaks.

Regardless of the source of the switches, they should be 'pickled' prior to use. This is accomplished by storing them for a minimum of a day in vinegar brine. This brine is made by taking several gallons of cheap vinegar and adding three or four pounds of rock salt per gallon of vinegar until no more salt enters into the solution. The wands are best stored in a vertical position. A crock for storing switches can be made by taking a four foot long section of vitreous glazed drain pipe and sealing the slip joint end with Portland cement. Since the switches will be stored tip down, they must be suspended or else the tips will be bent. This can be done by bundling them together a half dozen or so at a time and then suspending them from the binding string. Individual switches can be likewise suspended using binder twine. Just prior to use, the switches are removed from the brine. It is not necessary to wipe the brine off prior to use since the application of the switch to the posterior of the female will soon remove any adherent brine. Should the switch become soiled with blood, as sometimes happens, one need only to dip the switch into the brine jar once or twice to rinse the blood off. Furthermore, a bit of the brine, taken up on a napkin or handkerchief, is useful for stopping bleeding from small lacerations or cuts.

Switches should be cut to a very wide range of lengths and thicknesses. For Chastising the female backside we usually employ switches of thirty to forty inches. Switches have a way of trimming themselves to the proper length as the ends break off in use at weak points that are often inconspicuous to the naked eye. One should not be alarmed when the tip of a new switch breaks on its first use. Merely take a pen knife, kept handy in a pocket expressly for this purpose, and cut off the broken tip. Sometimes, a switch will require two or three trimmings in the first half dozen strokes. Just be patient and remember that unlike the cane, the switch must absolutely be employed such that the tip squarely hits the flesh. Hitting a rounded mass of flesh with the middle of the switch is a sure way to break the wand every time. Once the natural excess of tip has been trimmed from the switch, the implement should be good for at least two dozen strokes if properly employed. Well pickled switches prepared from the most desirable woods are good for several hundred strokes. Some switches manage to retain their slender tips better than others. These switches, upon discovery, should immediately be retained for use on the breasts and pudenda and not wasted on the buttocks and thighs. The coarser switches, likewise, should be used upon the backside and not the more delicate female parts. In these matters, personal experience is the best advisor.

Fortunately, training a Disciplinarian to properly make and use the switch is much easier than cane training. Acquiring facility with the cane may require the Disciplinarian to cane fifty or more females. Expertise in shaping a switch and properly utilizing it may be acquired after Chastising no more than a dozen females. I have found that Disciplinarians trained in Ireland in the use of the cane, catch the knack of trimming and wielding the switch almost immediately upon immigrating to America. It is only the most clumsy and inept individual who cannot quickly master the use of this implement.

The only potential drawback to the switch, and it cannot really be considered a drawback, is the tendency of this implement to cut the skin when applied forcefully. This is particularly true when the switch is applied to skin that is welted from a previous strike of the switch or slap of the strap. As previously stated we do not consider the goal of chastisement the simple infliction of a fixed number of blows but rather the attainment of a given degree of punishment. Thus, the simplest degree of chastisement with the switch is the raising of welts all over the surface to be disciplined (e.g. the buttocks) without any significant tearing of the skin. The next degree of punishment with the switch might be to completely cover the buttocks with wheals and superficially abrade the buttocks so that the outermost layer of skin is torn but there are no deep cuts in the skin and there is only the most minor degree of bleeding induced. Severe punishment with the switch may result in half a dozen or more cuts with blood oozing forth or even overt bleeding.

The Birch In Britain, one of the favored implements of Chastisement is the bundle of twigs called a 'birch' after the tree whose twigs are employed in fabricating the implement. We have never been enamored of the birch as classically illustrated, perhaps because we have never been able to obtain the proper twigs. However, we have had excellent results by bundling together three to four stripped switches of a thickness just sub-optimal for employment as individual switches. Particularly when employed upon a posterior already sensitized by a thorough strapping, this bundle of switches inflicts severe pain with minimal bruising. The only caveat to be observed for the switch bundle is the same as for the switch. Over vigorous use can result in extensive laceration of the skin as alluded to immediately above.

The Whip The ultimate implement for female chastisement is the whip. No other implement can produce pain of such extreme intensity or in careless or untrained hands so easily turn skin into a raw and bleeding mess. Therefore, the whip should only be rarely used, only certain types are suitable for Marthan Discipline and on those occasions when it is used, it's employment should be by a trained and experienced expert. We strongly discourage the use of the single-tailed whip for the reasons discussed in the first part of this section ( Unsuitable Implements ). On the other hand we are strong proponents of the monastic scourge. This implement, used from the very beginning of Christianity in the Eastern Church has been used in the Roman Church since the time of St. Benedict. It usually consists of four to six leather thongs studded with overhand knots every three to six inches. The knotted thongs, approximately twenty four to thirty inches are attached to a wooden handle six to ten inches long. In the older monastic tradition the whip or scourge was used for auto-flagellation of the back, particularly by hermits. However the backs of nuns are not as heavily muscled as those of monks. Therefore, scourging of the backs of nuns is usually kept to a minimum. In more modern nunneries this implement is used extensively on the well padded buttocks and thighs. The strictest religious orders subject novices and postulants to monthly moderate scourgings, usually just after the menses. In the routine usage, this whipping is carried out until the skin is just on the verge of bleeding. In the more severe disciplinary scourgings, the whipping is carried out until blood is running down the legs of the mendicant. Many strict orders mandate a severe scourging for every sister at least once during Lent and on the anniversary of the sister's final vows. Obviously, the degree of severity of discipline of female religious should be the joint decision of the Mother Superior and the Confessor.