Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1916 — STORIES from the BIG CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORIES from the BIG CITIES

Fantastic Initiation of New York College Boy —— ft NEW YORK.—There is an elm tree on Seventh avenue near the corner of One Hundred and Twenty-eighth street. Around the elm tree is a puddle. In some places the puddle may be six Inches deep. Oblivious of snow, sleet

and rain, a chubby youth sat by that puddle on a recent morning fishing. His feet were clad in large shoes in a state of partial decay. His eyes were obscured by a tattered brown hat and his shirt was red. He had no collar, but eleven yards of -bright red ribbon were wound about his neck. At his right was an alarm clock; at his left one of those unhygienic vessels which adorn the lobbies of cheap hotels. Ever and anon he gazed anxiously at the alarm clock, and

every five minutes he spat into the cuspidor. It was the hour for early churchgoers. So many of them stopped to see what kind of fish he was catching that Patrolman Hartwig strolled up to see what the crowd was doing. Patrolman Gabel joined him. _ “Whatche doing?*’ said Hartwig. The chubby youth was silent. “What’s yer name?” Still the sphinxlike silence. “Come along with us then, and we’ll soon show you what you’re doing.” He was George Edward Peppis, eighteen, a sophomore in the College of the City of New York. At eight o’clock in the morning he had reported, as per instructions, at the chapter house of the Tau Delta Phi fraternity. There he had been dressed up, bundled into, an automobile and taken to Seventh avenue, where he had been left with instructions not to stir or speak until the boys came back for him. He was also instructed to violate the municipal health ordinance every five minutes. “What kind of a stunt do you call that?” asked the lieutenant. “Getting initiated,” replied. "Sure, I call it disorderly conduct,” said the lieutenant.