Daily Kennebec journal., 1901-01-19
WATERVILLE.
HAZlNG At COLBY.
A Britf Glance at What is Really Done by the
Students.

| The Phillips affair has brought an
unwelcome notOriety to Colby and put
her hazing into undue prominence.
This is probably but little understood
even by the older citizens of the city
| who have learned to sleep through the
| college, class and society yels undis-
| turbed and who would declare a riot.
if one should break out only some of
the college boys on a rampage and
after some sleepy grumbling be off to
the land of happy dreams again. The
| truth is there has been very little haz-
| ing of a serious character at Colby Cor
many years.
! In the first place haZing is con-
fined almost wholly to the sophomore
class. fact that does not seem to be
generally understood. The freshmen
are the victims but not by any means
all of them. Hazing is usually caused
| by two things, a violation of some col
lege custom or some peculiar charac-
teristic in the student, the former be-
| ing the most common. There is a long
| list of things which a freshman is for
hidden to do by the time honored Gus
| toms of the college and if he defeS
| these he is sure to suffer. Only few
of the many need be quoted. One of
| these is the wearing of a cane which is
a crime for freshman. 1t may sound
| foolish to those who have never been
| to college but it is supported by long
years and has become a fixture. The
| freshman knows this before he has
| been Il year in the fitting school where
some of the college customs are
initiated. Therefore when he gets to
| college and persists in carrying a cane
he does it with his eyes wide open to
| the consequences and in a spirit of
| bravado.
Another thing strictly forbidden is
| the singing of Phi Chi an old Bow
doin sophomore song which has been
| borrowed at Colby and which is con-
! sidered the special pronerty of the
! sophomores and the upper classmen.
When freshman lifts his voice on the
| midnight air to this tune he is booked
| for some fun later on.
| The freshmen have as their special
guardians the junior class and at Col
by. Sam, who teach them all the col
le2e customs and how they are to be
observed. The Junior class is usually
present at all of the scraps" be-
tween the sophomores and the fresh
men to see fair play and prevent any
one being injured. When these upper
classmen are present things are rarely
carried too far. The seniors are sup
posed to be too dignified to take any
part in the pranks of the under class
men and very rarely indeed take any
part in any of the haZing.
The freshman class is always sized
Of ~.
Colby the first clash between the
classes has always occurred after the
first service. AS the freshmen class
files out lasti finds the sophomores lined
up outside ready to make every fresh
man doff his hat to his superiors as q
token of due respect and reverence for
those VINO have the superior experience
of one year in college. Freshmen who
are wise do not wear their best hat to
first chapel but as the usual college
head gear is a cap or soft hat no very
great damage is done. The two classes
measure strength then and there, as
there is always some freshman who re-
fuses to submit to what he considers
a great indignity
The next act if the sophomores are
particularly aggressive. is to steal any
freshman hat that has been unlucky
enough to be left on the hook outside
the class room while its owner is at
tending his first college recitation
sam usually gets in his good work
mere, however, by being on hand to
advise every freshman to take his head
covering in with him. Usually the
man VINO loses his hat in this way has
only himself to blame. Even if he
does lose it he can usually get it back
by going about it in the right spirit
Meanwhile the water throwing act
has commenced. This is the most
common and entirely innocent method
of hazing. 1t is very popular as n
member of the sophomore class rarely
escapes a ducking himself while a