Catawba College Youth Who Intended to Assault and Lash Another, Was Himself Assaulted and Lashed, Jan. 15, 1919

From the Hickory Daily Record, Jan. 15, 1919. Ah, yes, courtship in the good old days! 

Catawba College Youth Assaulted and Lashed

Instead of Catawba College students waylaying a Newton boy on last Friday night and giving him a severe lashing with a leather strap, it was the other way, and eight young men of Newton are under $200 bond for their appearance in the county court next week to answer to the charge of assaulting Mr. Ralph Linn, a Rowan boy, who is a student at the college.

The Record was able to gather the facts from a reliable source today, with the request that it set the matter straight. The item in the Catawba County News, from which the Record’s story was based, was not exactly clear, probably because the circumstances were not known when the story appeared.

According to the Record’s authority, eight Newton boys, after warning Mr. Linn, who was calling on a young lady friend, intercepted him on his return to the college, stripped his coat and each in tern applied a leather strap to his back. His injuries were painful, if not serious, and it is intimated that the father, who is a well known manufacturer in Rowan county, may institute civil proceedings against the young men who are charged with the affair.

Those under bond for the offense are said to be Frank Gamble, Cecil Reinhardt, Burdette Trott, George Hewitt, Junius Gaither, Delmar Ervin, Byron Little and another young man whose name was not learned.