Postby webenda » Sun May 29, 2005 1:32 am
Welcome back Jon.
San Diegan asked, "What exactly does it mean to be 'run out of town on a rail'"?
An 1189 English statute required any thief amongst the Crusaders to have his head shaved, boiling pine tar poured on it and then feathers applied. In 1768 Salem, Massachusetts, this practice of ridicule had evolved into stripping the person naked, tarring and feathering and then placing them in a hogshead*. More evolution and we find hot pine tar applied from head to toe, goose feathers stuck into the tar, the person ignited and ridden out of town on a rail (tied to a wood pole), beaten with sticks and stoned all the while.
Good thinking. There is a better use for hogsheads than placing scoundrels in them.
*A hogshead is a unit of volume for alcoholic beverages in the imperial system. A hogshead of wine is 63 gallons. A hogshead of beer or ale is 54 gallons.
Anyone for a beer drawn from the hogshead?
----Wayne----
Back when I was growing up, if you didn't start someth'n, there wouldn't be noth'n.
--Merle Haggard