The Topeka state journal., 1898-02-16
GIRLS LEVY WAR.
Inaugurate a Crusade Against
Tobacco Habit
Among Their Brother Students
at Ann ArbOr.
MEN SAY IT'S SPITE
Because Out of Town Girls Are
Taken to Parties.
EN- SAY IT'S SPITE
Anti-SalOOn League Starts an
Aggressive Fight, Too.

that are now under way carry, every maj
student at the University of Michigan viii
become a little Tommy Reed who never
uses tobacco because it is such filthy
weed.
More than that, the students are to be-
come temperance men because they can't
get anything to drink unless they buy il
at a bling pig or some other illegal dis
| pensary of intoxicants.
A wave of reform has struck the uni
versity city. The anti-tobacconists are
the ''co-eds' and the anti-liquor drinking
element is the local and state anti-saloon
league. The former are the sworn and
bitter enemies of the cigarette smokers
! and the latter is determined that the state
| law against selling liquors to students
| be enforced.
| One outcome of the reform agitation is
| that the west is likely to pattern after
the east, and Michigan may follow
Browns example in forbidding her stu
! dents to use tobacco. Such will be the
! state OF affairs in Ann Arbor if the petit
| ton which will in all probability be pre-
| sented to the board of regents at their
regular meeting Thursday is acted upon
| favOrably by the controllers of the uni
| versity.
making this radical move, but the young
women of the university are the prime
movers. RumOrs spread over the cam
pus concerning such a petition and the
news came as surprise to the men stu
dents. To the ''co-eds'' the idea was not
new, but one that had been discussed for
some time. The petition was at first sup
posed to be backed by only one of the
numerous societies of the university,
h11t w
were the entire nine ''co-ed" societies be-
hind the movement, but that the entire
coed portion of the student body ia
vors the petition.
After the first excitement of the news
had worn off, the subject was discussed
pro and con in all the fraternity houses
about the campus. The majority of the
students seemed to think the regents
would act in no haste in dealing with such
a radical measure. and many expressed
the opinion that the petition would be
passed over without notice.
Acting President Hutchins professed en-
tire ignorance of the matter. ''I have
not heard a word about such a petition
he said. ''I am of the opinion that it is
only a repetition. of the many wild ru-
mors that go out from here concerning
our university. AS for expressing
opinion on the matter, I prefer to wait
until I learn the facts in the case. If
there is such a petition in existence it
will probably come up before the regents
next Thursday
The ''co-eds'' made the claim that rule
forbidding the use of tobacco by the stu
dents would be of great benefit to the
university in more ways than one, be-
sides having very beneficial results on the
students themselves. Many of the girls
base their objections to the students using
cigarettes on the ground that when sew
eraI hundred students, whose clothes are
saturated with cigarette fumes, crowd in
to a class room, the place soon becomes
unbearahIe, and the atmosphere is men
ace to the health of others in the room.
Among the students of the opposite sex
the feeling exists that the fair sisters are
presenting their petition more as matter
of spite work than anything else. The
students of the college as a whole have
little love for the ''co-eds' and the best
of feeling does not exist between the two
classes. The recent trouble between the
young women and the University of
Michigan Daily is thought by some to
have Influenced the girls in their actions
But the most startling assertion made
by the men is to the effect that the girls
are taking this action in order to get back
at the students for not inviting them to
the junior hop, the swell social event of
the college year, which takes place next
Friday night. The students are in the
habit of taking girls from out of the city,
and but few of the ''co-eds' grace the
dance with their presence. In conse-
quence the men state that the young wo-
men are piqued, and take this means of
revenge on their unlind brother stu
dents.
Yesterday was anti-saIoon day in Ann
Arbor, and the fight against saloons sell
ing Hquor to students OF the university
has begun in earnest. A number of rail-
lies for the students were held through
out the day, and speakers Of the State
Anti-Saloon league addressed the differ
ent meetings. Among them were Rev.
J. F. Brapt of Saginaw, Prof o. A
Wright of Detroit and President A. C.
Slocum of Kalamazoo college.
The local branch of the anti-saloon
league has begun a determined battle
against the saloons of the city. All day
long boys have been going through the
city distributing copies of a new publca-
ton printed in a local office and dubbed
in big black type Frozen Truth" This
little twelve-page journal is likely to cause
a number of very estimable citizens to
move uneasily in their dreams at night.
The publishers say that they intend to
issue the journal only occasionally, and
to confine its contents to the dissemina-
ton of facts, hard facts, cold facts,
facts that nobody can gainsay.' The gen
eral state law with regard to the sale Of
liquors, especially to students. is printed
conspicuously, and the determination is
expressed to drive out, sooner or later, all
the saloons of the university city.
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