The San Francisco call., 1896-09-08
They Furnished Watermelons
and Rubbed the Heads of
the Wounded.
TENTS FOR CLAssRooMs.
Canvas May Be Brought Into Use to
Meet the Demand for More
Room.

BERKELEY, CAL. Sept. 1.-THE fresh
men and sophomores at the State Uni
versity had another violent rush at mid
day to-day, which resulted, after an hour
and half of fighting, in signal victory for
the freshmen. The goods played lead
ing hand in the affair, having taken unto
themselves the duty of cutting their class
men loose with jackknIves, and of run
ming the hospital and ambulance corps.
Coed Florence Nightingales were on
hand by the score. A number of serious
accidents occurred during the course of
the fight. James Ely, the big sophomore
halfback, was kicked on the right temple
by freshman and had to be conveyed
from the campus in buggy, after having
been nursed by four co-e6s for half an
hour on bench under an evergreen tree.
Kuster 100 and Wolf 100" both got
laid out. Wolf received a severe injury of
the back, and Kuster was kicked in the
stomach.
Before the fight commenced some of the
co-eds who were In the gymnasium handed
out through the windows football suits,
shoes, stockings and other rushing gar
ments to the participants in the battle for
class honors. They stayed with the boys
all through the melee, and after it was
over two loyal so" girls bought dozen
watermelons and had them dumped near
the gym" for the sopnomores.
The rush began at about 1890 and con-
tinued until o'clock. When the last
sophomore mad been tied il was found
that thirty-six of them we're piled up near
the backstep. 1t took about fifty fresh
men, with the assistance of the juniors, to
do the work.
The midday "scrap" was precipitated
by the freshmen, who had painted huge
AA -aI y
paint. Hart, McCleave, Ruttles, Masters,
Woodsum, Hazeltine, Nyman, French,
Rainey and O'Toole did the work with the
paint brush and then dared the sopho-
mores to deface.the number.
The Sophs soon mustered their forces
upon the ten freshies. For time the '99
men had things their own way, but soon
the freshmen were re-enforced and the tide
was turned. More sophomores came, and
the forces were about evenly divided. The
freshmen were slow TO respond, but finally
they turned out in sufficient mum bers 10
entirely oveTwhelm the '99 men. BY the
time they had been at their mill" for half
an hour crowd of at least 800 other stu
dents had gathered on the scene. 1t being
broad daylight the rush was pursued with
more violence than ordinarily attends a
night rush, on account OF the increased
opportunity for one man to take advant-
age OF dHOLHeI.
The co-eds brought water in junior
plugs to the exhausted "rushers,' famed
and rubbed with camphor the foreheads of
the stunned and cut loose the baling-rope
that bound the helpless arms and legs of
their friends.
About ten minutes before the end of the
battle had been reached George Wilcox a
local photographer, appeared with his
camera to take few snapshots. He was
spied by some seniors and in less time
than it takes to tell the story his photo
graphic plates were smashed to atoms and
one leg of his tripod pulled completely
out of its socket and cracked into splinters.
Pieces of the camera were distributed
among the sophomores and seniors as
souvenirs.
When the affair was over and the vic
tory won more bedi aggled set of earth
secured college men never walked off the
Berkeley campus in daylight. To have
such monster rush on the campus IN the
| daytime is decidedly infrequent occur
renee. While the affair was in progress a
number of the faculty stood to one side
and gazed on the scene, but no one raised
hand against the progress of the time
honored college battle.