Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1907-10-25
WATER TUG OF WAR
Contest That SuppIants Class
Rush at Iowa State College.
FRESHMEN THE CON0UERORS
Ames Students Engage In Clean,
Manly Sport Which Is Not Lacking
In Excitement and Is Approved Of
by the Faculty.

IN CSCItement ana Us approved OF
by the Faculty.
With their class yell upon their lips
and their nerve never giving way for
u moment, though they We're pulling in
water up to their waists, the forty
Iowa State college freshmen OF the
first squad in the tug of war contest
at Ames. Ia. We're dragged into the
water, receiving thorough ducking at
the hands of their older and more
steady brothers, the sophomores, says
an Ames dispatch TO the New York
Herald. The pull started at just twen-
ty-nye minutes past 3, and twelve
minutes were required for the sopho-
mores to pull their young brothers into
the water. Again everything was
ready, and the starting pistol was
fired, only to see the freshmen second
squad follow In the tracks of the first
in twenty one minutes. But the fresh
men were game TO the finish. One de-
feat or even two did not make them
waver. They We're ready for the third
In very SHORT order.
The tug Of war was arranged for
the freshmen and sophomores that
they might settle their differences and
have a manly sport deciding the supe-
riority Of one class or the other with
Hazing was one OF the regular items
on the programme of affairs at the
Iowa State college Il few years ago.
but the past two or three years have
marked strenuous effort on the part
OF the authorities to stamp out the
practice.
Last year plan was tried in which
the sophomores gathered around their
class numeral and defended it from
the freshmen, who attempted to paint
out the sophomore sign and put up
theirs in its place. The scramble last
ed two hours, and the freshmen won,
thereby getting leave to have their
numeral where all the 1900 people
who gathered at the harvest home ex-
cursiOn might see It, The plan was
considered quite satisfactory from
most points of view, but the need Of a
plan which would answer the same
purpose and allow less brutal treat
ment of the parties to the contest was
seen. A number of persons have been
endeavoring to work up such plan
the present term, and the result of
their combined opinions and efforts
was tug of war across Briley's pond,
a mile west Of the college.
The plan was finally agreed upon
several days beforehand. and the novel
| contest was advertised until the whole
neighborhood turned out to witness the
| pulling. From 5000 to 5000 people
gathered on the banks Of the pond and
waited anxiously for the sport to be-
gin. They gathered an hour in ad-
vance of the advertised time, and the
game was delayed a trifie in prepara-
tion, but the crowd was entertained
by the yells, most of them coming
from the enthusiastic freshmen. The
standard first year yell Of up we
60 by step! Who are we? Prep, prep,
prepr was followed by number OF
yels made up for the occasion. A
yell that made much mirth was:
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven;
freshmen, freshmen, go to heaven.
One, two, three, four, don't you tell;
sophomores, sophomores. go to -
There were so many contestants that
II was impossible to let them all pull
at once SO it was planned to divide
them. Two hundred available sopho-
mores were counted for the fray and
an equal number of freshmen chosen
to work against these. Each body OF
200 was divided into squads of forty
each, and five squads pulled from each
body, the three best out of five being
winners. Sophomore stock was high
to start. Their men looked the more
husky, and people. reasoned they were
used to the treatment. But they reck-
oned without knowing. The freshmen
were men that were ready for the
worst. Though they were defeated
they won. Defeat was not to be recog.
nized. Twice pulled into the cold wa
ter, they drew the remaining squads
together and made three final stands
| of such stpady and nersistent nature