The St. Johns herald., 1892-04-07
COLLEGE WARFARE.
Harvard's "Bloody Monday" and
 It's Origin.
serimmages in Which DonnybrooIS Tactics PreVail-Tumultuous Sports Which Often Result in Serious
 Injury.

seniors siding with the sophomores and he juniors with the freshmen. Assem- bling after supper on the delta, the triangular lot of land on which Memo rial hall now stands, the two opposing sides used to ''line up" and prepare for mighty struggle. Taunts, jeers and yells of defiance filled the air. Some times, says a writer in the Boston Transcript, a doughty champion from either side would step forth, and then a truly Homeric contest would ensue be- tween the devoted pair, while the two hosts. like the Grecian and Trojan camps, stood looking on and franticallT cheering. Finally enthusiasm boiled over and a general scrimmage fol- lowed in which the tactics of Donny- brook fair chiefly prevailed, the burn ing desire of each combatant being to down some other combatant, no matter who. In the course of years these annual scrimmages degenerated into brutal fights in which eyes were blackened, joints dislocated and bones not infrequently broken. After att tempting in vain to moderate them, the faculty at last, in 1860, peremptorily forbade these encounters. An account of the obsequies of the sport is to be found in Mir. Sibley's journal
 Diverted from this channel, the spirit .of class rivalry quickly broke out in the iorm of hazing. For a dozen years the un was carried to excess. Men were ragged from their beds and held under he pump, doors were broken down, furniture smashed and freshman rugs md mattresses carried into the quad angle and kindled into merry bon tres.
 It was during this period that the lame ''Bloody Monday" was given to he first Monday of the college year. Iazing continued, by fits and starts, :ntil 1873, when some fragrant outrages brought down once more the wrath of he faculty. Drastic remedies were ap- died in the way of discipline. For the ,ast fifteen years or more hazing has )een practically unknown at Harvard, md to-day there is nothing here re- embling it or evincing the spirit from which hazing springs. It is doubtful whether as much can be said with re- :ard to any other American college.
 What is ''Bloody Monday" at pres mt? The visitor to the college campus In a recent evening would have found full answer to the question. About tight o'clock members of the freshmen md sophomore classes begin to as emble in the corner between Mat hews' and Gray's. There are perhaps hundred and fifty or two hundred students on each side. They have on ,ough clothes and are mostly bare headed. Tells, groans, taunts are free y interchanged. In the confusion and darkness it is hard to distinguish friend from foe. There are full as many spectators as combatants. The Cam bridge "mucler" pervades the entire gloom, lends his voice to the yelling, md loudly and impartially adjures both sides to show more sand!' Half lozen policemen are on hand to pre- 7ent serious disturbance. From time O time the opposing sides form in solid column and rush madly together. Clothes, eyes and noses sometimes suffer. It is said that one man last year had his collarbone broken. But, generally speaking, it is a mild enough collision. There are no fisticuffs, no ill humor, no brutality. In fact, it must on the whole be called tame, mean ingless affair. The students themselves have an air of rather wondering what they are there for, anyway. By ten o'clock all prctcnsc of enthusiasm is past. The sophomorcs amuse them selves by chafiinT one of the policemen, snatching his hat off, and rushing" him. This sport soon pals, the stu dents stroll away. and before midnight the yard is as quiet as ever.
 There is a growing custom among freshmen of giving punches" to the sophomores on Bloody Monday" night in the bibulous md not the pugnacious sense. Especially, it is said, are the punches given by wealthy and roister- ing newcomers who aspire to join the choice band of spirits composing the "Diekey." Some of these depraved lit tie noodles, with unlimited pocket mon- ey and burning am bition to be thought fast" have begun the custom of dis tributing free liquor. How far the GUS tom is growing it would be hard to say.
 am told that there is a movement among colleges to welcome freshmen in fashion quite unlike the traditional one and that iu one or two places ban 1uets have been given them by the sophomores. Here is a change indeed. How far this movement will go is also loubtful.i At all events there is no per secution of the freshmen at Harvard, nor the slightest tendency in that direc- ton. His cap is safe upon his curly head; his toes are untrod; his cane is unmolested; no shudders shake his bed by night. He swells around the yard and dormitories to his hearts content, with none to make afraid. Hazing is so wholly and completely thing of the past at Harvard that no thought is giyGn to the subject.
 Football has resumed its place among college sports; the prophecy of its ao- mirers has been fulfilled. But all con-
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