Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-06-16
NO. l42.
Gales aud Sketehes.
CAVALRY DRILL At WEST POINT.

Va
and it is founded upon the recollection of
a long list of escapes that are truly mar
vellous. Another was added to the list
to-day when the graduating class was 60
ing through the last of The military drills.
This was cavalry exhibition-school of
he company-under direction of Eugene
b. Beaumont, the present instructor in
riding. The weather was charming, the
ground was in splendid condition after
the rain OF yesterday and large number
Of spectators had assembled to witness
the spectacle, which is generally consid-
cred the most interesting and exciting of
military exercises. When the seventy
hive young men In their neat uniforms.
with bright buttons glisteniDg in the sun
light cleaning sabres at hips and mount
ed upon spirited and we'll groomed horses,
drew up in line in front of the barracks,
and facing the hotel. a quarter of mile
distant across the plain, they presented
pretty picture. Alter performing various
tactical Notwithstanding right and
lett and forming and reforming into CON-
panies, columns and dozen figures
know only to the initiated with rapidty
and precision that indicated long training
under skiltul teachers, they were again
brought into line, and each drew his sa-
bre. A blast from the trumpet and they
set off across the plain at a trot, the
horses prancng and neighing and the
youthful riders bending first to the right
and then to the LETT, slashing the gravel
with their sabres as they went, as ii strik-
ing at PROSTATE foes. Another call of
the trumpet and the horses, as if moved
by common mechanism, break into u
gallop, and the line, without break,
dashes forward, the riders making the
gravel fly with rapidity. Around each
gray jacket, like torked lightning. the
cleaning sabre plays, the horses warm up
10 their work, and, with foaming mouths
and distended nostrls, strive to escape
the curb, and the hills re-echo with the
mighty tbud of their hoois mingling with
the strong notes of the trumpet.
my God ~ exclaims a nervous specta-
tor, they will dash right into the riv-
erw
But no. Just before the elder hedge.
which with "A light rail divides the plain
from the lawn of the hotel, the shrill
Halt" of the bug.e rises above the clan
gor, and the horses are with difficulty
| reined in. Turning about an order sends
| the company charging back to the other
| side of the plain. A few seconds to give
the horses breath, and once more the line
whirls across. 1t il hardly well under
| way when the notes of the bugle ring ont,
Charges as foragers," and with a veil
| that would do credit to Comanche In
| dian each rider digs his heels into the
foaming fianks of his steed, wildly bran
dishes his weapon and thunders madly
| forward at the top of his speed regardless
! OF his fellows as if pursuing a routed en-
| emy. The quality of horse now tells.
Some sprnging with the velocity of an ar
| row released from the bow bear their
| riders lar in advance of the rest. Horses
| and men seem mad. Both catch their
breath. both dilate their nostrils, and the
| flushed face OF the man corresponds to
| the foaming mouth of the beast as they
wildly dart across the field Another half
minute OF this. and it will be impossible
TO restrain them from going over the
| heights into the river. But few wards
from the hedge are they. when the imper-
alive voice OF Colonel Beaumont Translate
ed through the trumpet brings the cadets
to their senses, aud the horses are, there
fore, back upon theit launches. s-r
RUNAWAY. ~
But see, three Ut the lads go out at
| breakneck speed up the gravelled walk of
| the hotel lawn. disappear for a moment
and again are seen flying like the wind
along the walk which skirts the plain and
slightly In advance. two abreast. The
horses have gone wild and ran away with
| their riders.
The spectators do not realize the fact
for moment, and fancy they are looking
at race US the three gray jackets fash in
and out OF view through the trees. Then
the faces of the ladies blanch and the men
are nervous.
| "What if they should be dashed against
the treesP' says one
That's the only danger" responds an
| officer, "these lads cannot be thrown 9TH
erwise."
Clear around the Plain skins the runa-
ways and, as the troops ride back at a
gallop. one OF the three is whisked across
| their line. VIII he not be carried in the
opposite direction by his fractious aud still
unmanageable beastp After fitting twice
around the Plain two OF the horses are
| brought under subsection through the skill
of their riders and rejoin the troops. Ca
| det McMartin, who rides the third, has a
harder task before him. With mouth
hardened by constan. riding and driving,
4
and fairly takes his own way. The stables
are located down beside the river under
the bluff, and in that direction the plucky
cadet is carried at terrible speed. just as
| the animal reaches the brow of the declivi.
| ty, MeMartin. with the agility of an aero
bat smoothly trotting around circle,
swings himself lightly from the saddle in
the same direction the horse is going and
planting his feet firmly against the turf as
he alights he fairly drags the beast to
standstll without having received a
scratch. Meanwhile the troop is drawn
up opposite the barracks for another
charge.
81 wish they would not have any MORE"
mutter the ladies.
Splendid exhibition r exclaim the gen.
tiemen. more exhilarating than cham
pagnem
Again the long line gallops forward,
N tbn oh