Show WEST PONTER AS A PRIVATE Military Academy Graduate Who Prefer Service I the Ran Savannah News A former graduate of Vest Point I and an excommissfoncd officer of the I United States armYi serving as a corporal cor-poral in a ngrthern army regiment nOw stationed in Havana The exarmy officers I cer is not serving as a corporal of a volunteer regiment because he can get nothIng better On the contrary he I has been several jmes offered a commission com-mission and has always declined He is determined to go through this war asa as-a private Neither is he serving his country fOr a livelihood for he is independently in-dependently wealthy deDendenty story sounds like a romance but it is a true as the most ordinary narrative nar-rative of everyday occurrences As the gentleman who narrated the story to a Morning News reporter said the strangest dream that ever emanated from the brani of a confirmed victim of the morphine habit is often excelled by real fats I is another exemplification exemplifica-tion of the old saying that truth is indeed ton deed stranger than fiction This gentleman for such he is ent tLd t b called was1ha son of w alhy parents in a north r slate He was appointed to West Point by a man who Is one of the leading statesmen of the country and a possible candidate for the presidency After graduating from Vest Point he wasasigned to the Seventh cavalry Custers old regiment as a second lieutenant He participated in campaign in with his regiment the the northwe when the Indians were 11 so excited over the expected arrival of their Messiah and was in the thick of the fight with his company at the bat I fght tie of Wounded Xpg The lieutenant received p woun1vqh i dsablec him and hO turned eaSt to f e perme He found his father hi a very low state 01 I health and at the laters request se cured discharge from the army afterward af-terward accompanying his father to Europe His father died in the south of France and the young man returned I to this country just after the breaking out of the war with Spain A regiment had been formed in which I there was a company from his old home The governor of thestate was a friend of the young man and the colonel col-onel of the regiment was an old schoolmate school-mate He was offered a commission but enl sted a a private in the com pany from his native town His friends were surprised at such acton on the I part surprsed a who was so well quail fled by experience and natural ability to hold a commission A vacancy occurred oc-curred in the regiment and the young man was offered a commission but he positively declined to accept anything of the kind He insisted on remaining I a private So he caine south as a private pri-vate in the regiment of which his old friend and schoolmate was colonel at The regiment spent the summer Chickamauga The subject of this sketch who declined to accept a commission com-mission finally accepted a corporalcy and afterward a sergeantcy these pro motions not interfering with his detr motons mination to serve through the war asa I as-a private After the signing of the Afer I peace protocol with Spain the regiment regi-ment with which this strange genius was connected was one of the first ordered wa to be mustered out He dered home out returned to his native state with his regiment but just a short time before theregiinent was mustered out he succeeded regiment wa the ceeded in getting transferred to another an-other command from the same state which was recently ordered south with the expectation of beIng sent to Cuba expectaton The major in command of the battalion bat-talion to which he belongs is an old friend and since being attached to hIs new command he has again been offered of-fered a commission which consistently consistent-ly with his former course he has de dined He has since been made a corporal cor-poral the duties of which office he performs per-forms to the eminent satisfaction of his company commander By his fathers death the young man became heir to a large fortune Consequently Con-sequently the monthly stipend which he receiveS from Uncle Sam is a mere bagatelle to him fe does not spen l i however On the contrary he has every cent of the pay which he has received re-ceived since entering the service of the government He carries it around with him in a big wad He intends to keep I he says until it gets as big as a bas drum Then when his term of service is over he is going to present the entire roll to the government to repay it for the expense of his education at West Point This strange man who had rather be a corporal than a commissioned officer of-ficer has an old friend and schoolmate here now one of Savannahs promirm1t business men The business ma entertained en-tertained his friend the corporal at dinner tIe other day and listened to a strange story I anybodY else had told me this strange story as having occurred to someone else I would not have believed eved i said the business man in talking with a Morning News reporter I it is only another proof that the strangest fiction of which the imagin ton is capable can be excelled by col facts Who would ever have believed that an exarmy officer and graduate of Vest Point would be found fighting in the ranks when he could have a ommlssion for the asking The exarmy officer who is now a corporal Is determined to go to Cuba He knows what army life is from the he standard of the officer he says and be is determined to know it from the station of the private I Is remark Ible to say the least and most remarkable re-markable of all it is true In some Suture war this man may be a major eneral |