Dean's Action Ousts Two Yardlings After '57 Smoker Bomb Explosion

Two freshmen have officially left, school and one is still awaiting disciplinary action as a result of the detonation of a home-made bomb the night of the '57 Smoker.

Thomas M. Stout '57, who was hospitalized for more than a week with facial injuries received in the March 9 explosion, is presently recovering at his home in Worcester. The Dean's Office will take no disciplinary action on his case until he returns to Cambridge and tells his version of the incident to Dean von Stade, a University official said last night.

Accompanying Stout when the bomb exploded in front of Whitman Hall at Radcliffe was a Wigglesworth dormmate, who left College March 16 as a result of Dean's Office action.

Another Wigglesworth freshman involved in the bomb episode also left school officially as of March 16.

Stout was discharged Wednesday from Massachusetts General Hospital, where doctors operated on him ten days ago to remove bits of gunpowder that had lodged in his face. Last night, Stout said that his condition was improving.

Faulty Fuse

The bomb which caused Stout's injury was a prank devised by him and several of his friends in preparation for the Smoker celebration. It consisted of an empty beer can filled with a quantity of black gunpowder that had been emptied from some 23 shotgun shells. The constructors did not buy a mechanical detonator to set the explosive off, but planned instead to make their own fuse out of some extra gunpowder.

After the Smoker had ended, Stout and a friend walked up to Radcliffe in order to set the explosive off. They lit one fuse and hurried out of range, but nothing happened. Stout then went up to the bomb, and, in the dark, made a new fuse. However, he used to much powder, the fuse went too fast, and the explosion hit him in the face before he could move back.

Despite Stout's serious injury, he walked all the way back to Wigglesworth before enlisting medical aid.

On the same night, Brewster A. Righter '57 of Holworthy Hall, was assaulted; but his condition is now described as a complete recovery.