Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-08-18
HAVING FRESHMAN SOLBERG.

Solberg was effeminate in appearance
and not more than five feet four inches
in height, with slight form and a pale
face. Notwithstanding this, he acquired
and retained, all through his Freshman
year, the reputation of being the most
expert boxer, and withal the .sheaviest"
man in a melee, that ever entered our
college.
This disproportionate reputation was
gained by a single act. or adventure,
but the facts in the case 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 incor-
porated q 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 a "victim" by the Sopho-
mores of the class above us. For though
so small and so slight of build, he had
already committed the indiscretion of
appearing on the campus with a cane in
his hand. 1t was whispered, too, that
he had a s'tall hat in his room, which
he designed to wear on Sundays.
Canes and ''stove-pipe hats were
then the undisputed p%rerogatives of the
Sophomores. They allowed no fresh
man to sport these supposed emblems
of manly dignity, and various were the
penalties which they inflicted IN the
'''Freshies" who ventured to make a dis
play of them. There was the ''Thomp-
isonian treatment" which consisted in
introducing the nozzle Of a hose, con-
Injected with the pump, down the back of
the Freshman neck, or up a leg of his
'pantaloons, and then vigorously using
!the pump handle for two OF three
minutes.
There was the ''plain duck" which
was the simple inversion Of Il water
;bucket--two or three perhaps-from
the second or third-story window upon
the head Of the unsuspecting Freshman
who was walking below.
There was also the '.midnight vigil
for the keeping of which the newly
arrived undergraduate was first seized
in his bed, blindfolded, and then .lost''
Iby devious windings through 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
ISophomoric displeasure, at dead of
night, to aremote old graveyard, where
he was stretched on his back upon one
of the sarcophagus-shaped tombs, and
ifhar hnI1OH foct +0 f),o J,n,,,D,;o1 c1n1
which served as a lid to the stone chest.
He was left to ''count the stars'' and
commune with silent nature for the rest
of the night, OF until his cries or strug-
giles brought relief from some chance
source.
Then, too, there was the s'barber's
!frolic," during which the devoted
'Freshlnan's head was either wholly OF
half shaven.
These are but a few of the ways OF
''hazingg" then in vogue. but they will
serve to convey some idea of the dangers
which beset a lower classman who fell
into disfavor with the Sophomnres, OF
who showed any symptoms whatever OF
quitting on STYLE" or asserting his per-
sonal independence.
By the second week of the term, Sol
berg had been twice ssducked' while
going to or returning from r%ecitations.
His room, too, had been forcibly en-
tered, and the reported tall hat roughly
seached 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 the
mysterious notice posted on his door,
limiting darkly that if a certain Fresh
man was again seen supporting his tot
tering steps with a cane, CAIN would
be raised in his behalf on short notice.
Hot with inward rage, Solberg
brooded over these insults, and vainly
longed for the strength of Achilles to
set biz toruentor1 st defiance. Hs