Daily inter mountain., 1899-07-10
HAZING HOBSON'S BROTHER.

Boston Globe: HaZing at college is not
as common as it was some years ago, but
at West Point it still obtains. The
| 'plebs," as first year men are called in
patrician discrimination from those who
have served more than one year, are the
merry andrews who are expected to fur
nish amusement for their seniors.
!, In most colleges the hazing begins and
ends with being tossed in a blanket or
ducked in a pond, or some other equally
| agreeable pastime, but at West Point the
! poor ''pleb'' is in active service for his
whole first year. Much as the young En-
glish lad performs the menial duties Of
a fag while in the lowest classes, 50 the
! ''plcb' is purveyor of fun to his august
masters, the seniors.
| The last year has been one of great en-
/ jOyment to the naughty seniors, as there
I have been two famous subjects on which
! they could exercise their ingenuity. The
! first of these was the brother of r. p.
Hobson, and he has vicariously received
| the homage due to his brother. The man
! Her of rendering that homage may have
! been of questionable taste and quality
! but there has been no lack in the guam
! tty.
| 1t Will be remembered that last sum
| mer was a remarkably wet one. On the
! parade ground at West Point there were
several puddles, and at one of these
young Hobson made his debut as "dem-
| onstrator." One day he was ceremon-
; iously appropriated by crowd of his
seniors and given a puddle and piece
! of wood to represent the Merrimac, and
he was commanded to show to a large
/; and curious audience how "brothcl
! Richie" sank the Merrimac.
! His inquisitOrs were satisfied with nc
sketchy account of the exploit, but he
was compelled to go into the minutest de-
tails. The start the recall, the final start
! the sinking of the catamaran, "my con-
/! versa ton with Cervcra," all We're related
/ With a wealth of detail that would have
done credit to "our special correspond
ent,' While. with his hands in the puddle
he furnished the motive power for the
dummy Merrlmac.
He never was sure when he was going
to be called upon and he was subpoenaeG
al the most unexpected and inconvenien1
times to tell the old, old story to a crowG
of hilarious listeners, who interrupted the
account with numerous "Ahs!" ant
"Ohs!" of wonder, adn1ira ton and horror
Rarely did he rebel. but with a subor.
dinati to seniors which is one of the
traditions of West Point submitted to tht
| inevitable.
But soon an alloy became mixed Will
the golden pleasures of the listeners. 7,
be thoroughly enjoyable to the audience
the task must be an unpalatable one t.
the actor. and there began to be a sus
picion that Hobby" could have suns
with the hymnist, II love to tell tht
story
The impression got abroad that HI
thought that "Ritclie's" halo was a fam
lily one. and that it sat with equal decora
ton on any of the family's head
So one day when he started to tell th
story he was called upon to halt, and HI
was presented with clipping from
V~t1y ,srtx- lNrN
itemiZed account of the famous HObsol
kiss. This he was compelled to commi
to memory, and thereafter when callet
upon he was asked to relate, in the lates
realistic style. with Delsartean gesture
and with dramatic fervor. the wonderful
story of the lIobson kiss.
With the other subject the Dleasur
was unalloyed. General PHIL Sheridan
! son is q modest. unassuming chap, VIII,
is universally liked by his fellows, AM
when he was called upon to give the onl,
| true and authorized version of Sheridan
ride there was a look of disgust on hi
face that would cause Il shiver of deligh
to crawl up the spine of every senio
present.
i However, recognizing that West Poin
traditions are sacred he Shamefacedl,
, mounted broom. which was given hin
; for a horse. and with that between hi
legs, and with his sword in his hand, h
cantered across the parade ground shout
ing: Come on, boys: We're going back.
while the cheers of his audience were
reminder of that fateful day when hi
father was 20 miles away.
SO through the year these young mel
and others less we'll known have contrib
J. uted almost innumerabe times to tn
| gayety of West Point. No doubt they ar
heartily sick of it, but the probabilitie
: are that they will be in the front ran]
of the inquisitOrs the coming year. read
and anxious to do to the ''plebs' wha
was done to them. Certainly, We're haz
: ing always as harmless and merry as il
these eases there could be no fault foun,
/ with If