Daily globe., 1883-06-17
CHAT.

ratory to his being tried by court martial
on charges ''unbecoming" to an officer and
gentleman. Major Nickerson it will be
remembered is that sweet, but just now
rudely culled flower of chivalry who sent
his wife to Europe on plausibly contriv
ed educational and economical plea for his
daughter and himself.
His unsuspecting consort went, and the
major adroitly contrived that she should
never have enough money at once to re-
turn to America. In timeIhis correspond
ence ceased, and next when certain in
terval had passed he got a divorce, mar
ried Baltimore woman, and began brill
liant social career in Washington next door
to James G. Blaine. But the
wife with cruel interference
has the divorce set aside as the criminal
fgment that it is, and behold the gallant
major gobbled in the midst of his bliss,
and asked to answer charges ''unbecom-
ing' to an officer and a gentleman.
Isn't that neat and non-committal
way to put so much rascality? The ques-
ton naturally arises in the civilian mind
in what phraseology the official apprehen-
sion would couch the coolIy planned be-
trayal and bigamy aforementioned outside
of the charmed circle of army life?
There is lovely. esprit de corps which
euphemizes meannesses, vices, and even
crimes, when they are done in uniform.
But ''unbecoming an officer (the officer
is frst) and gentleman" is the formula
whether it is Major Marcus \. Reno, in the
antics of crazy dissipation, or this biga-
nous other major whose scourdrelism is
going through the same inane ordeal of ac-
cusation in the appointed time-if he's
caught, which seems problematical just at
| the present writing. I turn to the GLOBE Of
March 80, 1880, and I come upon a sue
cinct bit of biography concerning Major
Marcus A. Reno, where the prelude is just
the same, to wit:
Charge-Conduct unbecoming an officer and
| gentleman.
| Specification First-In this that Major Mar
Gus A. Reno, Seventh cavalry, did violate and
| engage in disreputable disturbance or brawl in
a public billiard saloon and did violently assault
| and strike Second Lieut VIM. j Nichalson
| Seventh cavalry, with billiard cue, with the
manifest intent of inficting severe bodily injury
| upon the person of said Nichalson, and did per
sist in continuing said disturbance until threat
ened with arrest by Second Lieut.. James S.
| Petttit, United States Firs. infantry. This at
Fort Meade, D. T., on about the 25th day of
October, 1879, to the scandal and disgrace of the
| military service.
| Specification Socond-In this that Major Mar
| Gus A. Reno, Seventy cavalry, was drunk and
disorderly in public billiard room and did
several times wantOnly and in a riotous manner
knock money out of the hands of the saloon
| keeper, Mr.. Joseph Smythe, scattering said
money over the floor, and did in a wantOn and
| riotOus manner smash in with chairs the glass
| Of one or more of the windows of said billiard
| saloon. This at Fort Meade, on or about August
| 9Th, 1879
Specification Third-In this that Major
| Marcus A. Reno, Seventh cavalry, was In a dis
| gusting condition of intoxication at the resi-
dence of Mr.. W. S, Fanshawe, post trader This
| at Fort Meade, on or about August Sd, 1879.
| Additional Charge Conduct unbecoming an
| officer and gentleman.
| Specifcation--In this, that Major Marcus A.
| Reno, Seventh cavalry, did in the darkness and
at late hour of the evening, surrephtiOusly
| enter the side grounds adjoining the private
| residence or quarters of his commanding officer,
| Col S. D. Sturgis, and did peer into a side and
| rotirod window of the family sitting room of
| said private residence or quarters, approaching
so near and stealthily as to very seriously af-
|
| said Col. S. D. Sturgis which had not yet re-
tired for the night, and were still below stairs
| and occupants of said family sitting room. All
this at Fort Meade, D. T., between the hours of
| and II o'clock p. m, on or about November
10. 1879.
| To which charges and specifications the ac-
cused, Mai. Reno, Seventh cavalry, pleaded
| ''Not Guilty
Now Webster tells US that the meaning
of unbecoming is unsuitable, indecent, in
decorous, and the charges and spec1fca-
tions show that Major Marcus A. Reno was
on repreheusibly intimate terms with all
these adiectives, and nothing more serious,
unless perhaps the prudence which saved
him to fight another day after Custer
didn't need him.
But the common mind-outside the army
would straightway find other terms to
designate the rascality of Major Nickerson,
and it would likewise be glad to know that
such conduct is only possible to gentle
men" of the Nickerson school, the Yelver-
ton school and the Valentine Baker school
in its refinement of damaging and detesta-
bic cruelty.
The rotulier or commoner may thump
his wife, and desert her, but fortunately he
is seldom educated to the pitch of sending
her to Europe, keeping her there on short
allowance, and then setting her aside to
marry some one more to his humor.
Why, what a howl of derision and de-
nunciation old man Tabor started while
ago when ne set out for Washington with
his dashing new mate and those wonderful
night shirts, costing singly $50!
Did anybody say twas conduct ''unbe-
coming gentleman" Presumably not,
because he wasn't-above all and first and
foremost he wasn't an ''oficer," nor a
decent common man.
But even if he wasn't a gentleman"
his conduct was "unbecoming' enough to
excite the strongest language of disappro-
val throughout the land, without the pal
liating circumstance being mentioned,
either that his old woman let him off with
the stunning McCourt, at his own figure
deep in his fortune.
That wedding breakfast of his in Wash
ington, with the chief magistrate of the