FRESHMEN THANKFUL FOR LACK OF CLASS HAZING

Two of the Freshmen whose themes are quoted in today's CRIMSON emphasize their delight at the absence of hazing in the University. Presumably they wrote with the victroia in the next room sending in the strains of "Why do we all pick on Freshie" to their ears, and they seemed ignorant of the decision of last year's Freshman discussion club, which voted overwhelmingly for the reintroduction of hazing.

Hazing has not always been unknown at the University. In the old days it was closely connected with football, for before 1860 the big game of the football season was that between the Freshmen and the Sophomores. In 1860 both football and hazing were abolished and a demonstration marked the ending of each.

Hazing Abolished by Faculty

The vote of the faculty in 1860 on hazing read as fellows:

"Voted, That the President be requested to take measures for the suppression of the practice of annoying the Freshmen, which is represented to have grown into an intolerable abuse, and to inform the Sophomore Class that any person detected in such practice will be summarily dismissed from College."

A paper of that day, commenting on this, continued: "Notwithstanding this warning, on the 19th, a band of Sophomores met two Freshmen, and began to 'haze' them, until one of the two drew a pistol loaded with powder, and fired it into the face of one of the Sophs. The latter then withdrew to their rooms, making a great noise, and threatning to annihilate the Freshmen. Next day the Faculty met, heard evidence on the subject, and decided to suspend eight of the Sophs."

The abolition of the football game resulted in a great demonstration on the day when it usually was played, the Sophomores drawing a hearse to the field and staging a mock funeral for "Football Fightum."

Of the demonstration caused by the suspension of the Sophomores, we quote: "They hired a wagon, placed the suspended students in it, and drew them through the streets of Cambridge. Opposite President Felton's house, they gave him three cheers and called, jeeringly, for a speech. . . Next day the suspended students were notified that they must leave town. Some 100 Sophs met them with cheers, and groans for the Faculty.

But whereon football, which died with the abolition of the Freshman-Sophomore "Bloddy Monday" contest, revived 15 years later and gradually grew to vast proportions, hazing never regained a foot, hold in the University, and the Freshmen of today, unlike the callous first year debaters of last year, and thankful accordingly.