New-York tribune., 1881-03-30
nFcFYER1YE F4CULTY.

A. tIinos 90 by cOntraTies IN this perVelse
Ill II ia IN he presumed that the students
of Syracuse University have speelal aptituue
far the study and theory of moral philosophy
Certain students of that insttutlOn-ahu III
deed the mass of them-haye just oiS-
nloved a remarkable inability to Apply
tbe principles of moral science to their o'nV
lives. which can OILY be accounted Tor upon
the s1lpposition that the details OF bock-'9re
upon the subject are as familiar to them Us
the rule of three used TO be. -Four students
of the University the other evening inter-
cepteJ one of their felow-students at some
noint apparently outside of the college grounds.
They had provided a carriage for the purposes
of the meeting, and we're masked. They
seized the Young man, blindfolded and gagged
him. put him into the carriage with some
roughness. it is said. and drove out to
noint in some woods four miles from the city.
There the student was tied to tree, while
his resistance, he declares, was met with
threats against his life. His head was shaved,
and he received other rough treatment. after
which he was left to free himself as best he
cOuld.
In all this t ere is, perhaps, nothing much
unlike the average college hazing, an expert
ence which, it is well known, is always well
coined with positive pleasure by the recipient
and TO those who furnish it, being usually
persons of the most exquisite refinement, Is
capable of affording deep delight. Nor was
there in it anything which the college student
of the period finds inconsistent with the abb
strast principles of moral law. But here
the likeness to the common hazing episode
ceased. The Dean of the Faculty
Professor French, introduced Il brutal inno-
vaiioR at this point, one utterly subverSive of
the rights of students, and violation OF all
the time-hOnored prccedents of hazing. He
invoked the intervention of the law. He went
before justice, charged fOlr students OF the
University by name with assault and battery,
and secured their arrest They pleaded not
guilty.
1t is announced that there is great indigna-
ton among the students because of the action
of the Dean in going outside of the college to
seek redr6 "a for an offence which was
committed only four miles outside of it, 1t
can be seen at q glance how just and proper
this resentment is. The college authorities
should not have allowed the fact that the
offence was Que against the common law, and
gross one, and was committed far beyond
the college jurisdiction, to influence them.
They should have dealt with the matter
themselves, just as they wOuld have dealt
with it if one of the students had murdered
another, for example, whereupon they would,
of course. have tried the case in full board OF
the Facul Y, and would probably have sus-
pended the murderer for at least year. The
matter should have been adjusted after the
customary manner in difficulties between
the professors and the students. In
the first place, the students should all
have taken the part Of the four accused
men, and absented themselves from all recita-
tions until, in che second place. the Faculty
apologized in body for having mentioned
the subject at all. Then, in the third place,
the students should have refused to return to
Sccitations until all suggestion of fault-iiDding
with the four accused men had been with
| drawn. Then harmony would reign supreme.
Meanwhile the victim would be doing his best
to grow new head Of hair and heal his
bruises, and the students could resume their
! investigations OF the natural rights and duties
! of man.