Show lAZING AP47 WEST Poi CAOETcl CLING TO PRACTCE IN PITE OF REPRESSIVE MFMLRES JT J LJ I 4 rp2 qi A II I 04IiIIIPlJt I moccccsr z c zUK r WRIGHT 247RY oJ WAR Vb recent cafe of hazing at tho Vest Point Mllliary academy bus again drawn the wttontlon of the public pub-lic to tile fact that the practice still prevails among Us cadets despite the earnest and determined efforts of tho officials of tho academy to stamp it out It Is i a disease of long standing dating back for a century and no doubt the germs of tho disorder so saturate n tho grounds and buildings that It will perhaps take Another generation to fully destroy th vlUillty of tho hazing microbe and completely eradicate tho disease The recent outcropping of hazing has been In spite of tho voluntary agreement on the part of the corps of cadets In 1901 to null the practice and in direct violation of the drastic laws passed by congress In the same year but as wo have Kohl n century of seed sowing Is still producing its fruitage There are oVlginnl documents In existence ex-istence to nrovo that hazlne benan in un the early lifo of the Institution For instance away back In 1814 flea Ramsey Ram-sey wrote that thu new cadets sweep out tho rooms ami shovel the snow but there Is no hAzing From this rather Innocent beginning developed the prhctlccs that dIn d-In tho cadet eplttode of a few days ago when Col Hwtt the superintendent superintend-ent at West Point in obedience to the mandate of congress as expressed in tho law on hazing sent to their homes eight cadets who had been convicted of hazing there to await the action of tho secretary of war who under the regulations as prescribed by congress had no alternative but to summarily expel the offenders That the hazing which bogan with the ludicrous acts that characterised It before the civil war grew Into tho tortures that caused the congressional Investigation of 1901 Is 11 matter of history In the cadet days of Lee Grant and Sheridan and the other great martial figures In American history his-tory the plebes of course had their stunts to do but those acts wore as mild as can ho imagined when compared com-pared with tlit modern ways of doing things that wire laid bare In tho investigations in-vestigations Gen John M Schofield is on record as having told tho cadet corps when he was superintendent at West Point that If tho acts that the young men of that da > were guilty of had occurred u L before the war there would nave wen bloodshed before such things would have been submitted to Other older officers havo talked the samo way and they tell how nccordlng to the tradition tradi-tion Ulysses S Giant Robert E Lee Phil Sheridan anti Stonewall Jackson used to brace themselves as plebes walking about the plains with chin drawn In and shoulders thrown back But they didnt drink tabasco sauce neither did they do eagles till they fell from exhaustion ns did young Douglas MacArthur and Pngram of Virginia the latter a son ol the confederate officer of-ficer of the same name Of course In the history of West Point hazing tho case that stands out above nil others was the hazing of young Oscar lions of Pennsylvania to the rigors of which treatment his ant ily went before the congressional Investigating In-vestigating committee and sworo was due the tuberculosis of the throat that eventually caused that poor young fellows fel-lows death When Booz died the cause of death was given as thro it tuberculosis and on December 11 eight days after his death tho matter was brought up In congress and alto the warmest port of dobatp tho coug csslonal committee was appointed to investigate conditions condi-tions at West Point The father ok Cidet Booz told the OrjioUo board that Ills son had refused re-fused to his dying Jay to disclose tho names of inn cadctn who had torment M i aJ lRl1lllJlEcf 71wr B1lIIJ ed him with such relontlossness that tho boy was finally compelled to send In his resignation ns a cadet Ho mild that his son told him In addition to the tabasco treatment that one of time things they did to him nt West Point was to pull tho bedclothes oft of him at night amid then pour molted wax on his bare body Ills mother testified that hor son wrotn her that time cadets at Wost Point were brutes and bullies bul-lies k But tho boards that Investigated hail their hands full getting the cadots to talk as Is shown on every pago of tho records of the proceedings Cadot after cadet would admit having been subjected sub-jected to the molted wax treatment and other Innocent tortures but they were loath to tell the name of the young man who melted thq wax and did the pouring I put my finger In the sauce said ono cadet witness and was told to lick It I mado an awful face and licked tho wrong finger I officiated at a rat funeral said another cadet What Is a rat funeral asked a member of tho Investigating board A rather simple Httlo affair an I sworcd tho cadet with a smile and It didnt do anybody any harm Tho rat was caught and killed and wo were 1 ordered to give him n funeral The rodent was placed In a little box that looked like a coffin and thin box was placed on a table and surrounded by four lighted candles Then a white towol arranged to look like a shroud was placed over tho box and the funeral fu-neral ceremonies began We rend a few extracts from the black book the cadet name of the book of regulation regula-tion Then we placed flowers on tho casket There was a song or two and then the rat was taken away tobe burled Tile cadets admitted that tbeywere J compelled to crow like roosters that thoy had to climb the ridge pole brace exercise one fellow admitting that ho stood on his head in a bathtub bath-tub full of water and adding that It did not hurt him The Investigation also made public for the first time what a cadot has to do to qualify ag the cadets put It for the moss hall Hero Is how a cadet explained dlnln room qualifying First we wero given a large dish full of prunes the exact number of which was 85 and wo wqro required to cat all of them at one sitting Then wo wore given a bowl of molasses and told to swallow that after which we tried to eat six slices of dry bread Tho molasses test sometimes took two or three trials before we could accomplish accom-plish it Young Phil Sheridan had to ride around tho campus on a broomstick the exorcise being intended to remind thoso that saw him that lie was a H04 of the commander made famous lu Sheridans Ride Ulysses S Grant 3d used to get up and shout I will fight It out along these lines If It takes all Bummer while J M Hobson Jr a brother of the naval commander had to teXI over and over again tho story of his brothers exploit at Santiago Of course there were singing speaking speak-ing bracing and exercising galore besides I sides nil this Of tho officers who have grown up since tho civil war all tell of their experiences as plcibos but it is Interesting Inter-esting to note that almost to a man II thoy have forgotten about tho lenl j strenuous things they had to do I |