Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1883-07-26
AN AMUSING COLLEGE STORY.
Hazing Freshman Solberg.
Youths Companion.

Hazing Freshman Solberg.
Youths Companion.
Solberg was etfeminate in appearance
and not more than five feet four in.height,
with slight form and pale face. Not
outstanding this, he acquired and re-
tanned, all through his Freshman year,
the reputation OF being the most expert
boxer, and withal the "heaviest" man
in melee that ever entered our college.
This disproportionate reputation was
gained by single act, or adventure,
but the facts in the cases were not known
until Solberg was in his senior year. He
then gave the true version of the story
at one of our class dinners. At Com
mencement, the class historian incorpor-
ated a humorous account of it in the
class annals, which was read, to the great
amusement of the audience.
Up to that time there had been good
deal of "hazing" at P. The first
week after our class entered, Solberg
was marked as ''victim" by the
Sophomore of the class above us. For
though so small and slight of build, he
had an independent bearing, and had
already committed the indiscretion OF
appearing on the campus with cane
in his hand. TWAS whispered, too, that
he had a "tall hat" in his room, which
he designed to wear on Sundays.
Canes and ''stove-pipe,hats' were then
the undisputed prerogatives of the
Sophomores. They allowed no Fresh
man to sport these supposed emolems
of manly dignity, and various were the
penalties which they inflicted on the
"Freshies" who ventured to make dis
play of them.
There was the "Thompsonian treat
ment' which consisted in introducing
the nozzle of hose, connected with the
pump, down the back of the Freshman
neck, or up leg of his pantaloons, and
then vigorously using the pump handle
for two Or three minutes.
There was the ''plain duck" which
was the simple inversion of water-buck-
et-two or three perhaps-from the
second or third story window upon the
head of the unsuspectiDg Freshman who
was walking below.
There was also the midnight vigil"
for the keeping of which the newly-ar-
rived undergraduate was first seized in
his bed, blindfolded. and then ''lost" by
devious windings through a neighbor-
ing grove, TO be subsequently bound to
a tree and left to confer with the owls
during the remainder of the night.
Somewhat similar to this last method
of ill-treatment was the '.gathered-to-
his-fathers" method, which consisted in
taking out the bewildered victim of
Sophomore displeasure, at dead of
night, to q remote old graveyard.
where he was first stretched on his back
upon one of the sarcophagus-shaped
tombs, and then bound fast to the
memorial slab which served as a lid to
the stone chest.
Here he was left to ''count the stars"
and commune with silent nature for the
rest of the night, or until his cries and
struggles brought relief from some
chance source.
Then, too, there was the "barber's
frolic," during which the devoted Fresh
mans head was either wholly or half
shaved. These are but a few of the
ways of ''hazing" then in vogue, but
they will serve TO convey some idea of
the dangers which beset a lower Glass
man who fell into disfavor with the
Sophmores, or who showed any symp-
toms whatever of quitting on style, !"
or asserting his personal independence.
By the second week of the term, Sol
berg had been twice ''ducked" while
going to or returning from recitations.
His room, too, had been forcibly entered,
and the reported tall hat roughly
searched for. Our wary classmate had,
however, taken the precaution to con-
ceal the hat in the room of a friend.
The following morning he found a
mysterious notice posted on his door,
limiting darby that if certain Fresh
man was again seen supporting his tot
tcring steps with cane, ''Cain" would
be raised in his behalf at n short notice.
Hot with inward rage, Solberg brood
ed over these insults, and vainly longed
for the strength of Achilles to set his
tormentors at defiance. He regarded
il as brutal tyranny, mean triumph OF
the strong over the weak; and out OF
the simmering of his wrath he conceived
"a method of retaliation that was al
once striking and effective.
There was then living in the outskirts
Oh bHt lOWu ~ uldu WIZ hau aehiO'Ou
wide notoriety. in a profession which
the good sense of the country has since
seen fit to restrict by stringent Legal
penalties.
"Old Beeze Forgerty," as he wa:
called. had been professional pugilisi
and prize-fghter. For some years he
had held the heavy weight champion
ship in certain great city, whose pugil
istic celebrities obtain far larger and
more frequent mention, in the public
press, than the nature of their craft, OF
the people at large, seem 10 require.
In his retirement, this former prize
fighter was tending saloon {
business often entered upon by decayet
gentry of his stamp,-and by way o
keeping up his .'manly practice" h
would occasionally punish some bully
ing customer-to the great admiration
of the crop of younger roughs wht
made his place their nightly resort.
But this was hot often, for thu
brawny, ponderous old bruiser was ;
rather good-naturcd animal at heart
and If he sometimes struck hard, 1t wa