The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-11-15
CUT TO PIECES.
Will This GruesOme Tragedy
Stop Crazy College Hazing.
REACHED THE LIMIT

Where a Special Train Cut
Him iuto Mince Meat.
IT swear by all my hopes on earth
to keep this pledge with the brethren
of our order. May my life be accur-
sec; my death be loathsome; my heart
be cut cut and cast into the dust;
my flesh rot from my bones; my bones
crumble away-if I ever reveal any
of the secrets Of our beloved order or
betray my brethren"
This ia the grim VOW under the aw'
full If fiuerces of which the young uni
versity student, fresh from the gen
tie influence of bis home, with bis
YOUTH l ideals of honor aud loyalty
as yet unsullied by contact with the
world has braved the terrors OF hsz
ing, and faced death a hundred times.
1t was the VOW that led S uart
Lathrop Pierso on, the freshman Of the
little college of Kenyon, Ohio, to sub.
NIT, as part Of his initiation into the
fraternity of the Delta Kappa Ep
stlon, and without sign or word or
murmur, to the awful ordeal Of being
tied to the railroad tracks OF the
Cleveland. Akron & Ohio Railroad,
there to be left until q train came
along and ground to pieces.
For In its effect upon the mind OF
an imp~rersionable boy this vow Is In
vested with mere Of awful portent
and more of sols unity than the osths
Of the Molly Mlguires, the White caps
or of the Suicide Club, pictured by
Robt. Louis Stevenson In the New
Arabian Nights
Given five Thousand members o.
the alumni of q college fraternity In
possession Of the 8 secrets Of this order,
and not one, throughout q long life,
shall ever betray them. Stuart Pier.
son, lying tound to the track on the
railroad river bridge at Gambler,
hearing the ojsts Mt runple OF the ap'
preaching train and realizing In that
supreme moment Of horror the awful
mistake Of his fellow students that
doomed him, on the very threshold
Of his young life, to death under the
wheels was true In spirit to his Eel.
lows. Could he, in that moment
have escaped by some miracle, his
lips must have been forever sealed.
Bring him back from the grave now
and he shall not utter a word OF de
nunciatlop:
Strong In the heart Of his father
himself an alumnus Of the college and
member Of the fraternity OF the DKE
is the spirit of the oath and Of blind.
unreasonable loyalty. For In face Of
cumulative proof, sufficient to con
vince every other man in the country
that the son was, with a cold-blooded
cruelty worthy Of the 6ends, tied to
the railroad tracks and left there,
Mr.. Pierson, hu-rying the mutllateo
remains Of his son out OF sight OF tn
coroner and the police, Fl freely Ops
es every stage Of investigation, blind
ly insistiIg that This boy" vas not
tied TO the Lacks, but that lie fell
asleep 1t his pest and was TITUS run
down by the train. And Cf him Coro-
ner Scs r corough and the citizens OF
Gambler, Loyalty seeking the whole
truth Cf this barborous slaughter.
have said that the honor Of his college
Is dearer to him than the life Of his
child. In prof of their assertions
they have produced evidence that, in
the very momen Mt that his son lay on
the track, watching the lights OF
the trasu bearing down uron him ,ano
enduls & in these few moments the
agOnies Ci q hundred!. deaths, he 8
business man Of mature years, was
engaged with another party Of stud.
ents in the work Of Initiating anoth
er victim"
But the accident tf the advent Ct a
special train where, according to the
schedule of the initiating committee,
no train should have been, has led to
q gigantic reVulsion of every college
in the country, !uch as will put an
end forever to barbarism In the prac-
tice Of initiating CT bazing.
For the whole Safe OF Ohio, a1ame
with anger over his waDton slaughter,
demands that the students who bound
and gagged Plerson, and led him to
the tracks, shall be discovered and
heavily punished. And. standing
alone against the power and might OF
Of the State, Is DR.. Pierce, the presi
dent Of tie college, declaring in the
face Ct all the evidence, that bis pup
lis are ~guiltless Of wrong. The senti.
ment of the Ohio people, however,
has spread over the country, for IN
this case the apex Of boyish cruelty,
has been reached.
And while ope-ha,f the country
watches In anger and anxiety the de
Velopment OF the story Ct the death
of Stuart T.. Piesson, comes evideLc
that woman has quickly adopted the
lessons.
The fraternity girls OF the Evan
ston High School have branded the
arms Of their sisters with the sigh Ct
the Phi Delta Sigma, and here the
story is told Of how another Person
Murisl-whc, however, Is not in the