R4TTALJON
W year fnm jWol. 72 No. 63
»a very good p Rages in 2 Sections
■s are 1-1 so
Thursday, November 30, 1978
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
No Battalion Friday
The Battalion will not be published Friday in conjunction
with classes not being held because of the A&M-University of
Texas football game.
Ill
Bonfire
egendary tradition
By CLAY WEBER
Battalion Reporter
bhn Adams, a former student of Texas
:M University, remembers attending a
eting in New York a few years ago and
eting a man who asked where Adams
nt to college.
Texas A&M, sir,” replied Adams.
Ah, yes, Texas A&M,” the man said,
m’t that the school that builds the big
nfire which burns a month and a half?”
okingly, Adams said “No, sir, only
weeks.”
j \dams said the man didn’t bat an eye.
n truth, the Texas Aggie Bonfire will
bably burn for about one or two days
l the 1978 version will be lit at 7:30
light at the Intramural field behind
ncan Dining Hall.
The planning for the Bonfire, which
nbolizes the Aggies’ love for their
hool and their burning desire to “beat
shell out of t.u.,” is a year round job.
bod cutting and stacking begins weeks
Jfore the Texas game.
[he precise planning and construction of
I ifires of past years is a far cry from early
fires, which were hurriedly made of
sh, outhouses and old boxes.
Ine understandably irate rancher dis-
vered in 1935 that his new barn
>vided fuel for that year’s Bonfire. Since
early days. Bonfire wood has been cut
Tt places where owners allowed Aggies
tear the land.
[he flame which will light this year’s
nfire was lit at Memorial Stadium in
stin and will be transported to the Bon-
! site by residents of Walton Hall.
Harry Davis, College Station fire mar-
11, said streets behind Jersey Street will
closed in order to clear the way for
ergency vehicles if they become neces-
y. Police will block off streets connect-
j Jersey.
In past years people were parking on
se streets and walking to the Bonfire,”
11 )e said. “The cars would cause a problem
we ever needed to reach the site
i
Davis said two or three emergency ve-
les would patrol the area of the Bonfire,
th special emphasis on the area where
| : most sparks are blowing.
He also said that watering down the
roofs of the houses in the area would be left
up to their occupants. Davis advised
people living near the bonfire area to re
move debris from the top of their houses
to avoid having them set afire by stray
sparks.
Last year’s Bonfire cost taxpayers about
$800 in man-hour wages for the fire depart
ment to patrol the Bonfire area, and this
year’s fire should cost about that much,
Davis said.
Origins of the Bonfire are somwhat
hazy, but accounts in old yearbooks indi
cate that the first one was probably around
the turn of the century.
“In 1912 we beat Texas, and when the
Corps came back through Bryan they
stopped there and made an impromptu
fire of trash and whatever else they could
lay' their hands on,” Adams said. “They
must have made some of the people in
Bryan mad because when they returned to
the campus they were met by the college
president and the commandant.” Adams
said the tradition of holding the Bonfire
before the Texas game probably began
sometime around that period.
The first centerpole went up in 1946.
Up until 1955 the Bonfire was built on the
drill field but was moved to preserve the
trees planted around the drill field in
honor of the Aggies killed in World War I.
The largest Bonfire was built in 1969
and was 109 feet high. The outhouse at the
top of the centerpole of the Bonfire is usu
ally painted orange and white to represent
the University of Texas Tower. Aggie
Band members build the outhouse.
UT also has a Bonfire before the game.
In fact, many of the pranks surrounding
the Texas A&M-UT rivalry have included
the Bonfires of both schools. In past years
there have been numerous attempts by
both schools to destroy or light each
other’s bonfire prematurely. The Aggies
keep theirs under close guard before the
game. Both schools have tried to bomb the
other’s bonfire with gasoline bombs from
airplanes.
There is another Bonfire tradition which
might interest Aggies: if the centerpole of
the Bonfire stays up past midnight the
night of the burning, the Aggies are sup
posed to beat UT.
Student VP
resigns post
Pp ■
By DILLARD STONE
Battalion Staff
Fred Bayler, newly appointed student
senator, rose quickly through the ranks at
Wednesday’s Texas A&M University stu
dent senate meeting.
Bayler was elected vice president for
rules and regulations after Austin Sterling
resigned at the meeting. Only three hours
before, Bayler he had been appointed to
fill an off-campus undergraduate vacancy
in the senate.
In a prepared statement, Sterling called
his reasons for resigning as “strictly per
sonal.”
Bayler was elected by the senate at the
Wednesday meeting because, according to
the student body constitution, a new vice
president must be chosen within 14 class
days after a vacancy occurs. Wednesday’s
meeting was the last regularly scheduled
one of the semester.
The senate Wednesday approved a bill
recommending a change of the University
Rules and Regulations to revert to the
former graduation with honors policy.
The new policy states that designations
for graduation with honors, effective June
1, are: cum laude, 3.5-3.69; magna cum
laude, 3.7-3.89; summa cum laude, 3.9-
4.0.
Old designations were: cum laude,
3.25-3.49; magna cum laude, 3.5-3.749;
summa cum laude, 3.75-4.0.
The senate’s recommendation will be
forwarded to the University Rules and
Regulations Committee for consideration
and action.
Sterling voiced the rules and regulations
committee’s feelings about the bill.
“I don’t think the committee and senate
of spring 1976 did a credible job of inves
tigating this bill (the one which raised the
grade requirements) before passing it,” he
said.
The higher requirements were insti
tuted, he said, because of a fear initiated
by the Class of 1975, which graduated 31
percent of its members with honors.
Sterling said this was the exception
rather than the rule. The average for all
other classes in the last eight years was 520
percent, he said.
The senate also approved a bill recom
mending that the University administra
tion maintain the present Q-drop policy.
The bill was adopted in response to
suggestions by administrators that they
were considering shortening the present
Q-drop period, which allows a student to
drop a class without penalty up to the fifth
day after mid-semester grades are posted.
In other action, the senate approved a
set of by-laws and postponed a bill to
change the on-campus parking policy next
year.
Sterling said the parking bill was tabled
until next semester because the University
Traffic Panel will be meeting soon and
considering changes in parking and traffic
regulations.
Any proposed changes should be made
after the panel meets, he said.
Joe Beall, vice president for external af
fairs, reported that next semester’s Stu
dent Purchase Program would be run at no
cost to student government.
Local merchants are sharing the $2,800
cost of printing and distributing the
discount-coupon book, he said.
Elephant Walk: seniors walking aimlessly around the Texas A&M Uni
versity campus like old elephants about to die, symbolizing their useful
ness to the Twelfth Man is at an end. One of the traditions of Bonfire,
the walk was held at noon Wednesday. Juniors participated by “shoot
ing” the seniors in attempts to hasten their “death.” Of course, seniors
retaliated by quadding their tormentors. Battalion photo by Robert Cook
Office cleaning
reveals Declaration
For Bonfire celebrations
us tin Aggies giving rides
0 downtown Corps parade
Visiting hours extended
ince parking places will be few and far
ween in Austin for Friday afternoon’s
ade by the Corps of Cadets, the Austin
ja A&M Club has made special trans
lation arrangements for cadets and
fictators.
drps members have been encouraged
:arpool to the downtown parade site,
:re drivers will let off’their passengers.
Cadets and others may park their cars in
parking lot of Disch-Falk Field, the
iversity of Texas baseball field. From
re, they will be transported by buses
ted by the A&M Club to the parade
site. Buses will run from 12:45 to 2:45
p.m.
The Corps will conclude its parade at
the baseball field, but anyone wishing to
ride back to the parking area may catch a
bus at the northeast corner of Seventh and
Brazos streets from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.
The parade route, about 22 blocks long,
will begin at Third Street and Congress
Avenue, and will include portions of
Eleventh and Trinity streets and Martin
Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The parade will begin at 3:30 p.m.
Visitation hours for residence halls at
Texas A&M University have been ex
tended to 1:30 a.m. following Bonfire and
the concert on Thursday, says Ron Blatch-
ley, associate director of student affairs.
The extension came Tuesday following a
request submitted to Blatchley by Lynne
Andrus, president of the Residence Hall
Association.
Andrus said that the concert being pres
ented by Town Hall following Bonfire on
Thursday night would last until approxi
mately midnight. Since Friday has been
designated a school holiday to allow stu
dents to drive safely to Austin, Thursday
is, in effect, the same as a weekend night,
Andrus said.
The extension of visitation hours will
allow dorm students to participate fully in
the Bonfire celebration, she said.
Blatchley said residents of each dorm
could vote to accept or reject the time ex
tension.
Bruce Cummings, president of Aston
Hall, said he didn’t expect any of the
dorms to reject the extension. He said he
thought it is traditional to extend hours
after Bonfire.
Corps’ visitation hours have also been
extended to 1:30 a.m.
Regular weeknight visitation hours are
until 6 p.m. for Spence, 9 p.m. for
Mosher, and 10 p.m. for other residence
halls. The Corps dorms do not have visita
tion hours during the week.
amblers travel for dogfights
United Press International
CONCORD, N.H. —- Office workers
cleaning a Statehouse vault stumbled
across priceless parchment originals of the
Bill of Rights and 11th Amendment and a
rare copy of the Declaration of Indepen
dence that “looked too good to be real.”
The documents, in clear handwriting
lettered on only slightly soiled parchment
that feels crisp to the touch, were unveiled
at a Tuesday news conference.
Secretary of State William Gardner said
the documents were found eight weeks
ago stuffed into the end of a 15-foot long
metal storage tube.
“There’s no telling how long they’d
been there,” he said.
“They looked too good to be real,”
Gardner said. “This may be the finest
copy.”
Officials put the documents in an un
guarded car and drove them to two experts
in Massachusetts, who authenticated
them, he said.
George Cunha, director emeritus of the
New England Document Conservation
Center in Andover, Mass., which helped
authenticate the documents, recom
mended they be insured for $1 million
each.
“But in my opinion you can’t put a price
on them,” he said. “They’re so precious
it’s impossible to put a price on them.”
The just-discovered Bill of Rights and
11th Amendment are among the originals
sent to the nation’s 13 states in 1789 and
1793, he said.
The Declaration of Independence was
an engraved copy made on orders of Pres
ident John Quincy Adams, Cunha said.
“There are no more than 525 or 30 of
those in existence today,” he said. “It is
important in its own right.”
Gardner said the engraved copy is in
better condition than the original docu
ment, which is kept in Washington.
The documents will be sent to experts
for cleaning and lubrication to make their
curled edges lie flat, which will take about
two months. Eventually they will be dis
played at the Statehouse.
Gardner said he didn’t know for how
long the three documents had been miss
ing. Historians first alerted state officials to
look for them seven or eight years ago, he
said.
“Before then, apparently no one had
ever asked,” he said.
1 RMV 1
I,
I
Editor’s note: This is the third of three
tticles on gambling in and around
yan-College Station. The reporter
nt three months researching the story
an observer and through interviews,
cause of the senstive nature of the ma-
|rial, the names of “inside” sources have
en changed. The identity of the re-
rter also has been protected by the use
»a pseudonym.
By BARNEY J. LEPERIE
Special to The Battalion
J>e crowd seems in good spirits today,
lot dog stands and beer concessions are
psy and everyone is examining the beau-
dogs in the arena.
j But this isn’t a dog show. The judges
ren t giving a “Best of Show” award to-
See that dog there ?
In a few minutes his body will be drip-
ng in blood. He will be battered and
I i angled, fangs dangling from his mouth.
J )e crowd — maybe 2,000 people — will
‘ roaring with excitement.
Not a pleasant picture, is it?
This is the sport of bulldog fighting in
hich dogs are pitted against other till
'ey fight to their death, or until they are
worn from cuts and gashes, they can go
i no longer?
Why?
The answer is simply put by one insider:
there’s a lot of money involved, a lot of
Sibling involved.”
I' You learned of the fight from a personal
! ratend or through Pit Dog Report, an un-
erground magazine published by
aymond and Sharon Holt of Houston and
jstributed throughout the United States.
iey report recent matches, advertise
ups available and keep the circle of close
Mowers informed.
Tickets are sent out in advance to tell
lr ospective spectators where and when to
leet.
Perhaps it is in the backwoods some-
Mere in Texas or Louisiana.
The crowd is getting anxious for the
opening fight to begin. Referees conduct
the matches and check the dogs over be
fore they enter the ring.
The dogs fight in a ring that must be
14-feet square with walls 30 inches high,
usually lined with canvas or carpet.
Macleans magazine describes the scene
in its May 1978 issue: They were getting
conditioned. One of the dogs was held and
the man that was in charge started check
ing it over. He started licking it to be sure
that there was no poison or foreign mate
rial on the dog that could cause the other
dog to die. He licked it all over, the back
and down the sides of the legs and over the
front of the chest and neck. And then he
went in and licked the other dog.
Bets are being placed and the excite
ment begins.
In the opening round Wayne White vs.
Bobby Ackles. Male pit bull terriers will
be pitted against each other both weighing
in at 58 lbs. The referee for the match is
Tom Clampit.
The following appeared in Pit Dog Re
port describing a match: Both dogs were
very big and powerfully built. Wayne’s
dog was a light buckskin with a black mask
named “Major. ” Bobby fought with a black
dog out of the Eli bloodlines who was
called “Smokey.” “Major controlled the
early part of the fight and the black dog
began to weaken. A “turn” (dog cowers
away) was called on the black dog and a
handle made at the 26 min. mark; the
black dog gave a slow scratch. As the fight
progressed each dog made several good
scratches and the black dog appeared to
get his second wind. At the 1 hr. 28 min.
mark, the black dog failed to complete his
scratch and made Wayne White and
“Major” the winner; (ed. note) I am sorry
to report that “Major: has died since that
fight from an adverse reaction to some
medication.”
Texas Ranger Stewart Dowell of Tyler,
who helped bust the “Texas Derby” last
May said, “There were Cadillacs, motor
homes, your upper class people, dope
dealers, theater seats, all done up in first-
class fashion.” But Dowell recalls, “It was
the most disgusting, crudest thing I’ve
ever seen in my life.”
Only three people were actually
charged in this particular bust, but there
was a lot of heavy betting, as much as
$3,000 on a single bet.
People bet on either dog in each match,
sometimes as many as 12 in a single day.
Matches can last from 25 minutes to two
hours long. The big money is wagered on
the featured (a dog who has survived pre
vious bouts and is pitted in the finals.)
There is big money indeed. It can cost
as much as $45 to get a ringside seat and
and a good, well-trained bitch can cost as
much as $600. Take, for instance, Carver’s
“Miss Spike,” a true champion as reported
by the underground magazine.
“Gambling is the main purpose,”
another informant said. There are a few
people in Bryan who breed dogs but there
a lot of people who go to the fights.
A local breeder suggested by my infor
mant refused to give an interview and said
he had gotten out of the business but an
advertisement in Pit Dog Report bears his
name.
Dogfighting is widespread throughout
the United States and the American
Humane Society estimates there are a
thousand organized fights per year.
It is almost impossible to know when
the fights will occur unless you are in the
business.
“If you don’t know what a man sleeps in
at night, who with, where, and for how
long, keep him away from the dog fights
and don’t tell him anything,” says the
editor of Pit Dog Report.
“Snitches, police informants cost
everyone money,” says the editor.
The dogfights, unlike sports betting
with the bookie or the poker games do not
actually occur in Bryan-College Station.
But some local spectators do travel at least
60 miles to attend a prearranged fight.