Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-05-18
lombard PAWNEE BILL
Students of Princeton HarrasS
the Aggregation.
snOWMfN RESPOND WITH vIGOR.
Towns Dignity Offended by the Parade
Unwritten Law Exists for Half Gen.
fury Against Such Spectacle-Cowboys
Charge on Students and Spectators.

PRINCETON, May 16.-Princeton
students and Pawnee Bills Wild West
employees INDUCED in pitched battle
today and continuous and serious riot
ing was prevented only by the pres
ence of men with cool heads and the
action of President Patterson of
Princeton university later in the day
in calling a mass meeting of all the
students.
For fifty years it has been an unwrit-
ten law of Princeton that no circus
parade shall pass through the streets.
Every show proprietor in making his
dates has always left Princeton from
the list, for it has been a matter of
common knowledge that the students
would enforce the unwritten law. This
morning Pawnee Bills Wild West COM
bination violated traditions and parad-
ed. The result was the fiercest battle
Princeton has seen in many years.
When posters were hung up few
days ago announcing the advent of
Pawnee Bill, it was at first consider
ed a joke. Finally when 1t became
known that the management of the
show was really in earnest the town
authorities, fearing trouble, advised
| the circus not to attempt a parade.
| This advice was UNDECIDED AS a re
suit of tOday's fight one man is up
conscious and may die and a number
| of students and employees of the show
are nursing wounds received in the
| fray,
That the show would be upset at
night seemed a certainty until late this
afternoon when President Patton cal
led mass meeting of the undergrad
yates and the faculty and the result
of the meeting indicates that the show
will leave town unmolested, but it
will have lost money, for word has
been passed through the town that no
! one is to enter the tent and the towns
people, who are in sympathy with the
students, are a unit in refusing to at
tend.
Things were proceeding in the usual
course at the university when the pa
rade started. The procession reached
the college campus without trouble,
but passed down Nassau street at a
bad moment, for just as the band S
music was heard the students were n
the act of passing from the first morn
ing lectures to the second. The towns
people who were out in force and wait
ing for the parade, and the great ma
| jority Of them were massed near the
campus. Word passed all along the
line and within few minutes 600 Or
| 700 students had assembled on Nassau
street. Cannon crackers left over
from the previous celebrations, eggs
purchased at nearby stores and vege-
tables bought or confiscated from the
stores, were assembled quickly. Tic
men unable to obtain these missiles
armed themselves with clods of turf
torn from the lawns.
The trouble started with the bald
wagon. Cannon crackers were thrown
and these, exploding under the six
horses, made them frantic. The mu-
sicians were on top of the wagons. A
serious runaway might have resulted
had not one of the leaders stumbled and
fell, dragging down the other horses
with him. The students, meanwhile
kept up a merciless bombardment with
eggs and vegetables.
On the return the parade wheeled
into John lane and the students made
a grand rush to head off the process
sion. Again the employees of the CT:
Gus were rotten egged. The cowboys
and Indians finally charged the stu
dents and used their whips freely.
That was the turning point of the at
fair. Stung by the whips and bruised
by the riders running into them the
students became ugly and in a moment
the missiles that were annoying but not
dangerous were replaced by stones
and the fight became z7r1ous. Revolv-
ers were drawn, but fortunately the
| owners were wise enough to fire over
the heads of the enemy. Some of tie
Mexican or South American cowboys
unslunc their bolas and used these
/ with great effect. the leaden covered
ends being exceedingly effective.
The cowboys charged nc crowd sew
eral times and rode down those VINO
could not get out of the way. In this
manner Edward Dillon, a colored man,
was knocked down and kicked in the
head by pony and his skull fractured
A student was injured by pony
trampling on him. Another was
wounded by a bola and another was
struck by an Indian with one of the
snake whips. Many students we're less
severely hurt. The cowboys and In
dams were also badly bruised and hurt
!