The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-02-21
STUDENT OUTRAGE
Cornell sophomores' Fun"
Causes the Death of
Two Persons.
THE FREsHMEN'S BANQUET
Chlorine Injected Into the Room
Through Holes in the
Ceiling.

ITHACA, Feb. q, 1894.-Last night the
Cornell Freshmen held their banquet, which
they had a perfect right to do, and the
sophomores had their fun" as they call it,
with the result that Mrs jackson (coIored)
now lies in Cummings Morgue and several
students are not expected to live. The par
ticulars of last nights ''mere boys" fun, as
it is called, as near as can be learned are as
follows:-
The banquet was spread in the large hall
formerly occupied by the Masonic fraterni-
ties. At nine o'clock the Freshmen were to
meet on the hill and march down to the ban
quet hall. Tioga street was well filed with
students long before nine o'clock, all waiting
for the coming Freshmen, ready to pounce
upon them and use every endeavor legiti-
mate or otherwise to spoil the Freshmen's
evening. The whole of the Ithaca police
force were stationed near by ready to quen
any serious trouble.
FREE FIGHT.
About ten O'Clock the Freshmen reached
Tioga street. Then ''rush' ensued, called
rush, probably, in order to give it a good
character, but in reality it was nothing more
or less than a free fight The Freshmen
surged toward the door leading up in to the
hall, and were attacked from all sides, faces
were punched, hats smashed, and a general
melee, in which the officers were tossed
about like chaff The 'rush" was only end
ed when the last Freshman was safely in the
hall. Then order was restored, except that
perhaps some luckless Freshman who was
late fell into the hands of the Sophs.
CoLoRED WOMAN DEAD.
Things went along quite smoothly until
about eleven O'Clock, when sensation was
sprung upon the people outside the hall.
First appeared a colored woman led by two
men. She was almost white SO bad was her
condition. She was taken over to DIR.
Lockerby's and means taken to resuscitate
her. But all means proved of no avail, and
few minutes after eleven o'clock she
died. Soon after she was led out of
the building a number of students
were carried out, some being taken to
Grants drug store and some to Casey's res
taurant. The efforts to revive them proved
more successful, and they recovered suffici-
emily to be taken to their respective board
ing places, and were put under care of ply
sicians The police officials were in the mean
time conducting vigorous investigation as
to the cause of the trouble. The victims were
unquestionably poisoned by some kind of
gas, and to find out how this was spread in
the kitchen and banquet hall did not take
very long
THE MYSTERY SOLVED.
The smell of some strong gas was very
strong all through the building. and room
after room was broken into to find the
cause Finally, in room directly under
the kitchen of the banquet hail. was the
| mystery solved. Some one had entered the
room and bored two holes in the ceiling
above. On table stood large jug, corked,
but in the cork were two rubber tubes which
ran nearly up to the ceiling, where they
were connected with two glass tubes which
ran through the holes in the floor, thus
spreading in the room above the gas gener-
ated from the jug, which was found to be
chlorine. a mixture of salt and sulphuric
acid. There was, however, no clue TO the
party who had been guilty of this dastardly
piece of business
LATER, 3 P. M.-Thomas Mcneil of Pitts
burgh, Pa, has just expired from thel effects
of the gas poisoning.