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Outside Mr Snyder's study an apprehensive crowd of boys lined up

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The schoolboys in this 1930 'Champion Annual' illustration are the unwilling subjects of a 'mass whacking', when their entire form is caned. Here are some excerpts from the original story:

Mr Snyder, the Master of the fourth form at Lanchester College, was a man capable of that essential flick of the wrist which goes so far to bring success to the downward sweep of the cane. Sixes were nothing to Mr Snyder when he stood, cane in hand, urging a trembling youth to touch his toes. Now the misbehaviour of his form had led to the whole lot of them being lined up outside his study door for a painful appointment with the cane.

The fourth form were in a doleful mood and faces lengthened considerably as boys were ushered in one by one. Occasionally there was a faint yelping from the study and more than one fellow walked with a pronounced stagger when he emerged. To record in detail what happened would be too painful; sufficient to say that afterwards there were deep and agonising groans to be heard in the fourth form corridor.

All the unfortunate fourth-formers agreed that Mr Snyder had succeeded in making caning a science. In fact one boy claimed the form master was writing a handbook on the subject: 'Essential Rules for Whackers.'