SAVAGERY AT THE SEATS OF LEARNING.
By Editor
We are compelled from time to time to witness or read of displays of the most reasonless savagery where we should be permitted to look for culture. In foot-ball games, in annual college rushes, and in brutal “initiations” into academic or collegiate secret societies, this tendency to revert to the savage is frequently seen. Many of those in responsible positions have labored to prevent these brutal exhibitions, but to little or no purpose; and it is frequently a question whether these bands of students have not imbibed the spirit that actuates these displays directly from some of those who have been set to instruct them. One of these deplorable exhibitions took place at Columbia University, New York, on September 30, in what is termed a “rush” between the sophomores and freshmen. It was a pitched battle between the two classes. The report states: “When the fight came to an end, the big field resembled a battle-ground. Men with half their clothes torn off were lying insensible on the grass. Those who were able to walk were covered with blood. The battle to-day was the culmination of the annual ‘rough house’ which attends the opening of the class season. When the sophomores walked out on the field with a torn shirt as their flag, and hoisted it in an old oak tree, the freshmen were quick to accept the challenge. In the battle that followed the freshmen were defeated, altho the victors suffered so badly that they were glad to stop.” There certainly is need in the world to-day of Christian education, of Christian colleges, and Christian church schools, which will not pander to, nor permit the indulgence of, the perversities and cruelties of a carnal nature.