New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-20
"REMINISCENCES OF HAZING.
HOW SOME soPHoMoREs WERE CONVINCED OF
ITS UNGENTLEMANLINEss.

HOW SOME soPHoMoREs WERE CONVINCED OF
ITS UNGENTLEMANIINEss.
at never read accounts in the newspapers OF the
pranks OF college boys In 'hazng' the freshmen sad
whte-haired rosy faced old NewYorker in the paror
Of big athletic club the other night, but my mind
reverts at once to q hazng scrape got myself into
In my salad days Like all sophomores was par
ticularly intolerant Of freshmen; much more so Of
course than the seniors. We had been strictly for
hidden by the faculty to do any hazing ct all, under
penalty OF expulsion and could not get together
more than half a dozen adventurous souls who were
willing to take the risk in order to punish the freshmen
properly for daring to live and presuming to to
the college at ALL We had to do the thing quietly, SC
after all the lamps were out we would steal from ou
rooms. meet in the corridor and then make descent
some lonely freshman and do him up without any
unnecessary fuss.
I'VE had operated successfully on two or three
men, only in a night. and enjoying the sport
thoroughly. The following night it became the turn
of long. rswboned, quiet bashful youth from Maine
who had little or nothing to say to any one. and
whose only care seemed to be to keep his
hands and feet out Of sight We antlci-
pated sport with him, and I remember
the naughty feeling with which strobe into his
dark d-chamber, at the head Of gang after we
we had pried his door open with good twist OF
real burglars Jimmy
The other men had generally covered under their
bed-c0thes or arisen trembling in their nlghshrts
and asked piteousy to be let alone This Maine man
jumped out Of bed. however, as IL glad to meet us
lie said not word, he made not a sound, he moved
about in the dark but oh, my how he did swat
as never before experienced such iendish strength
that fellow seemed to have We were not familiar
with his room, and 1t seemed TO be full of furniture
against which we stumbled, and and under which
he knocked In the darkness with the precision and
force Of trip hammer He seemed TO have cats
sight, and he knew tho room thoroughly, and the way
he damned unexpected that we got con-
fused and lost reckoning In trying 10 get out Of
that Internal room again.
d don't believe OF us hit him once. know
that after had caught terrific rlghthander on the
tip Of my nose, which sent me backward over An
awfuly angular coascuttc, kept on my hands and
knees and wabbled about In blind search for IN, door
with the blood pouring into my mouth and over nv
shirtfront. He hit with fists like hams. he threw
chairs at us, he kicked when we went down. with
his bare toes which seemed as hard as iron h.
on our stomachs with heels made tough BY running
he pulled hair out he scratched u.s. he loosened Our
teeth he broke our noses he togsed our most internal
organs he utterly dsmoralized u.s. this whir,wind from
Maine, and whom at last all got ont of his hsprjd
den, more alive than dead IA. mad had time 10 ooect
our shattered senses and make hasty estimate OF our
cuts and abrasions, said:
!" The MatAe fellow must have gone QUIT boys, and
But just then We heard that vicious freshman call
out with hooking laugh, Now 60 to bed little men
and come sgain some other night, when you're rested
This hazns heaps Of fun.'
!" But We bad decided that tho sport was unmanly
anyway ana not the proper sort of thing for young
gentlemen to engage n.'