Five Students Were Jailed

Five freshmen students spent Friday night in jail and breakfasted and dined there. Five young men are on tenter hooks as to the permanence of their stay in the University.

While the rush between the two under classes Friday night was harmless and everything was all right until the after celebration, youthful exuberance carried the students too far and placed some of them in the position of lawbreakers with serious charges hanging over them.

The trouble began with an attempt on the part of the freshmen to build a bonfire on the State street pavement at the corner of State street and North University avenue, largely with lumber taken from Sauer & Co. in front of the new Y. M. C. A. building.

The pavement is of asphalt block and would burn like coal. To have allowed this bonfire to be built would have absolutely destroyed the pavement at this point and the police interfered. They asked the students to take their bonfire to the campus, but some of the hot-heads started to rush the officers, who picked up a little student with a sign he was about to add to the bonfire heap and started with him towards the jail.

The crowd followed and attempted a rescue. If they had dispersed or taken their bonfire to the regular place on the campus it is possible that this first student would not have seen the inside of the jail. As it was he suffered for the sins of his would-be friends. Hard chunks of mud and stones were thrown. Officer Ball was hit in the back with a stone. Officer Collins was hit on the shoulder with a big stone. Officer O'Mara was hit on the head with a chunk of hard mud and on the hip with a stone. Marshal Kelsey was also hit. Heavy rushes were tried and some of the officers used their clubs freely. At the corner of State and Washington streets, Officer Bert Gillen was struck on the head by a student in blue overalls and jumper and knocked to the ground.

At this point a student with a club hit Officer Isbell over the head cutting a big gash in his forehead and felling him. Marshal Kelsey was also felled and while down on the pavement a student in a white sweater attempted to kick him in the head, the only thing saving Kelsey being a quick dodge and another student who interfered and ordered the kicker to stop.

As the student who hit Isbell with a club swung his club back again Officer Collins had him and started to the jail with him. In the meantime Deputy Sheriffs Gauntlett and Bert Gillen had started again for the jail with the first student who was handcuffed to Gauntlett. The crowd didn't see them go and they proceeded unmolested, the crowd following the clubbing student whom Collins had arrested being prevented from rescuing him by all the officers who proceeded in a compact body.

Stones were thrown at the jail and a couple of students who were talking rather loudly about getting out the two students who were already in the jail were hustled into jail also, and after this the jail was given a wide berth.

A few minutes later the officers picked up a student with blue jumper and overalls in front of the opera house whom Bert Gillen recognized as the man who knocked him down. This made five in jail and they remained there until brought up in justice court this afternoon. Officer Isbell had four stitches taken in his forehead and was sent home in a hack. He demurred and although so dizzy that he could hardly stand, wanted to remain till danger of trouble was over. Isbell was hurt in the same way in a rush three years ago, his head being cut open by a picket in the hands of a student.

Resistance to an officer is a serious crime. The courts are supposed to protect the rights of anyone improperly arrested and not bystanders and where bystanders interfere the law makes it a serious offense. This is the lesson which the student body should impress upon the lower classmen, that fun ceases at a certain point and those who go beyond that point should not receive the moral encouragement and support of their fellows.

The five students gave their names as Frank Baker, John Statler, John Finch, Frank Fletcher and George Williams. Two of them were laws, one a medic and two engineers. Complaints were made against four of them for disorderly conduct. Complaint was made against Baker, whose real name is Hay Baker; an engineering student, from Adrian, for assault upon George Isbell with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and with resisting an officer. This last is a circuit court once.