‘Novel Cure for Bad Temper’

In January 1902, a Washington County judge ordered a unique punishment for a man convicted of carrying concealed weapons.

The man, George W. Oroby, was described by The News as “an aged resident of Williamsport.” Judge Stake presided over the sentencing of Oroby. Stake said that he’d known Oroby all his life, “…that he was a good soldier, and, generally speaking, a good citizen, but that he had a bad temper and allowed it to control him.”

Then it came time for the sentencing. “Oroby was put on the ticket-of-leave list for two years and advised that the next time he got into a violent temper he should sit down and sing a couple of good old Methodist hymns the court used to hear him sing,” reported The News, “and by the time he had finished, Judge Stake said, he thought the temper would be abated.”

Hymn singing to control anger was a strange solution even by 1902 standards as evidenced by The News headline: ‘Novel Cure for Bad Temper.’

Source: The News, January 2, 1902