The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-03-23
"REMINISCENCES OF HAzlNc.
How Some Sophomores Were Convinced
of Its Bad Taste.

"I never read accounts in the news
papers of the pranks of college boys in
'hazing' the freshmen" said white
haired, rosy-faced old Newly orker in
the parlor of a big athletic club the
other night to a T1i6eIne reporter, "but
my mind reverts at once to hazing
scrape I got myself into in my salad
days. Like all sophomores, was par
ticularly intolerant to freshmen; much
more so of course than the seniors.
We had been strictly forbidden by the
faculty to do any hazing at all, under
penalty of expulsion, and so we could
not get together more than half a
willing to take the risk in order to
punish the freshmen properly for dar-
ing to live and presuming to come to
the college at all. We had to do the
thing quietly, so after all the lamps
were out we would steal from our
rooms, meet in the corridor, and then
man and do him up without any un-
necessary fuss.
"We had operated successfully on
two or three men, only one in a night,
and were enjoying the sport thorough
ly. The following night it became the
turn of long, raw-boned, quiet, bash
full 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
anticipated some rare sport with him,
and I remember the naughty feeling
with which l strode into his dark bed
chamber at the head of our gang after
I Cd h
good twist of a real burglars jimmy
"The other men had generally cow
cred under their bed-clothes or arisen
tremblingly in their night-shirts and
asked piteously to be let alone. This
Maine man jumped out of bed, how
ever, as if glad to meet US. He said
not word, he made not sound as he
moved about in the dark, but o, my!
how he did swat US! I never before
experienced such fiendish strength as
that fellow seemed to have. We were
not familiar with his room, and it
seemed to be full of furniture, against
which we stumbled, and over and un-
der which he knocked US in the dark
ness, with the precision and force of a
trip-hammer. He seemed to have a
cats sight, and he knew the room
thoroughly, and the way he damned
us was so unexpected that we got con-
fused and lost our reckoning in trying
to get out of that internal room again.
Il don't believe one of us hit him
once. know that after I had caught
a terrific Highlander on the tip of my
nose, which sent me backward over
an awfully angular coal-scuttle, kept
on my hands and knees and wabbled
| hn
with the blood pouring into my mouth
and over my shirt front. He hit us
with fists like hams, he threw chairs
at us, he kicked us when We went
down with his bare toes, which seemed
as hard as iron; he jumped on ou1
stomachs with heels made tough by
running barefoot on his native shingly
beaches, he mauled US, he pulled ou1
hair out, he scratched US, he loosened
our teeth, he broke our noses, he jog
gled our most internal organs, he ut.
terly demoralized US, this whirlwind
from Maine, and when at last we al
got out of his horrid den, more dead
than alive, and had had time to col
lect our shattered senses and make 8
hasty estimate of our cuts and abra
sions, l said:
""The Maine fellow must have gone
out. boys, and left gorilla in his bee
instead
"But just then we heard that vicious
freshman call out with a mocking
laugh, Now go to bed, little men, anC
come again some other night, wher
; you're rested. This hazin's heaps O
fun
"But we had decided that the spor
was unmanly, anyway, and not th'
proper sort of thing for young gentle
men to engage in"