New-York daily tribune., 1859-07-09
AyIsuTORIS RAPTUREs.

We have, in common with many others, sup
posed our warrior factory at West Point to be,
next to monastery Of La Trappe. the least CON-
Portable institution in this barely comfortable world.
We have figured to ourselves the calOw cadet in a
high and strangng state of tin stock, aud densely
padded about the chest with despair in his coun-
tenaDce and piece of chalk in his hand, facing
the Plutonian black board and wrestling with the
most melancholy mathematics, until despair beaded
bis brow and bis knees played together Ike pair
of castanets We have imagined him tossing upon
his bard couch, 10 which be was marched at night
to the music Of piercing ffe and stirring dram, only
10 dream Of snes and cosines, of positive and neg
i've coe tficents and the reduction Of equations,
until bideous formulas murdered sleep and the
little wretch swoke b,thed n an Arctic sea Of per
spiration. But if the boys were thus nocturnsuy
and diurnSlly distressed, what, We have thought
must be the pitiful feelings Of Board Of Visitors
officially compelled not only to witness but to To-
fct these juvenile agonies We had indeed sup
posed the annual examination TO be about IS festive
as a grand barbecue of heretes by the Inquistion
We were mistaken, and We acknowledge our mis-
take. "VP.V," who is one of the learned gen
tleu en- deputed this year by Gen James Bgcsansn
TO inspect this nursery OF sucking eutensnts, has
reported in rosy style to The KeOkuk Iowa Jour
nal and We must say, whatever MAJ have been the
cramps snd coics of the young gentlemen, that this
Visitor st least appears to have had what i, termed
I'D Light psrlance, merry gO-rOunder. '. F. '.
has experienced nothing but happiness during his
Aver In IA itE ht u. h pt.t
field, be encountered the Prince John who with
Characteristic af.bility, carried him TO pass the
evening with Mr. Justice Roosevelt Who shoald
be there but Miss Harriet Lane Who shonld be
be there but the Swedish Minister ; WHO should
be there but l. Frank Wudde sn old friend rho
:" bad not seen for thirty years" Shades Of Damon
aud Pythas what an embracing there must have
been; and when Y. P V. locked Mr. Frank in bis
manly arms, how TIE Swedish Minister must have
wept and how must Miss Harriet have enjoyed the
conclusion The young lady, who i, afablity
itself, invited V. P. V. Ito jOin small party who
" were goirg up to West POLs on the pretty little
" war ship bearing her name"
"wili thou temp, the with no -
VII, Mrs Harriet; aEswersdS
And be did. And so did Kerr, Of North Carolina
And so did Page, Of Mssissippi-both " choice
spirits" as We are informed, and not he only
" choice spirits" on board, We fancy. V. could
hardly contain himself on the voyage. There has
been nothing Ike If since Cleopatras little water
jsunt. "The music" says v, L" and the booming
" of the guns were most exciting"
Arrived at West Point, sterner duties began
the black boarding and bombsrding, the cross
examinations in tactics, in bookish theory, aud in
bloody practice. ~" was in rsptures and if We
had been there, although We never set squadron
in the field, and know DO more Of the division Of .
battle than Michael Cassus, yet We suppose that If
We had Lot been unfortunately killed IN sham
fight which would have been ridiculous and un-
pleasant, We should have been enrsptured with the
rest But duty did not monopoEze too jealousy
the fee,ipg moments. "On Saturday" says
V P V, II dined over the river with Gov.
"KembIe" Heavens what an important piece Of
information He lives as gentleman ough. TO
live" Does he, indeed But did you never
notice any body existing in that polished way be-
forei Do not gentlemen live as gentlemen ought
to live in Keokuki But what enrsptured V. most