Des Arc weekly citizen., 1868-02-08
Merals at west Point.


 Point, which is rather severe on the. morals of the Military Academy. Af- ter praising it -as-a school of science, the writer says:
 At West Point there is no moral in- fuence. Not even the comm on barriers of society are tffere to check and re- strain the strong tendency toward vice. Religion there is not even name. save to be scoffed at and derided. The nat ural result of all this is immortality, vulgarity, profanity and licentiousness to fearful degree. Much of this is checked by the strict. confinement and rigid discipline, but it bursts forth at every opportunity and nothing but a strong, thorough reorganizing of the whole course of training can ever change the moral atmospbere-of West Point.
 Young men go there every- year with good habits, with unsullied repu- tations, and ere six months have passed they are completely debauehed-their ideassre all changed. The principles which were as dear to them as life are broken and forgotten. Morally they are shipwrecked, and those who come after. them imbibe their ideas and fol- low their bad example. IN order to make their practices more distinctly known to you, will begin with the time the young cadet reports. He, is put under the charge of the older ca- dets, who, under the pretense ot teach ing him discipline, treat him. with the greatest brutality; {; and those whose duty it is to care for him will assist the other cadets to heap insults and petty indignities upon him. He is made to repeat, from the mouths of his tormen- ters, the vilest and most indecent sto- ries and songs stand upon the mantle piece and address (upon some vulgar subject) his audience of older cadets, until his limbs are ready to fail of their duty; and many other harrassing things (some of which it would not be decent to write) he is made to do.
 You may ask whya an American youth of any spirit will endure such things, and why the officers allow it. First, when new cadet arrives he is aioue, without friends, and Ut once he Is set upon by twenty CT thirty old cadets, whom he hardly knows whether he ought 10 obey or not. If he dares to disobey he must fight, else the opinion of the corps will be that he is coward. If hc fights le :s sure Of being beaten, for stronger man is always pitted against him, and 1t is the custom of the corps for the third class to go into training" about month before the 'Piebes" arrive, so as to be able to fog tue new corners. You may exclaim, What high toned honor.' It is the honor which West Point cadets show to new cadets. After going into camp the new cadet, or 'd-d Plebe,' as he is called, must do the work of the old cadets, make beds, clean guns, run er- rands, light pipes, and fill pails with water, which have been upset on pur- pose to make work for him these and other things must he do, and at the same time hear the most brutal ian guage addressed ro him. If he refuses 10 work, he is struck, or a pail of water is threwn upon him, and then the pub lie opinion of the corps requires him to fight; and, with seconds, umpire, and all the equipments of the prize ring, these affairs of honor come of. Even at the mess hall, this petty tyrannical system is displayed the ..Plebcs" are only allowed what the older cadets do not wish to eat themselves.
 There arc a certain number of the upper classes of the cadets, appointed officers over the rest, and if they have any dislike for any of the fourth class (Plebes) they show their rcvengcful spirit by reporting them for deeds which they have never committed. The old cadets do not consider it dis honorable to treat a "Plebev in this manner. They are dead to every idea of justice, decency, or even common humanity.
 HJNTS TO ApyERTtsERS aIver