Daily globe., 1883-05-25
DIsGRACED BY A FRIEND.

u.
Army, Lived Under Charge of Theft for
Years.
[From the Chicago Daily News.]
"There is romance connected with
member of my class at the Point that
I have never seen published" said
well-known citizen of Chicago, who
graduated at the West Point Academy
early in the sixties and out of the facts
he furnished the following tale was
evolved: From the time the Military
Academy was first founded until the
present day there has existed at the
school an esprit dat corps that forbids
any student to commit any act that,
under the strict code of morals there
existing, can in the least be called dis
honorable. Lying and theft are acts
almost unknown to the corps, and
whenever discovered are punished more
thoroughly by the students themselves
than would be possible through any
action of the authorities.
In the first year of the class men
toned one Of the students lost consid-
cradle sum of money, and the circum-
stances connected with the loss showed
indisputably that it was robbery, and
probably committed by cadet. The
class at once took action to discover the
criminal, and, if possible, to prove to
the school that no member of their own
body had committed an act so false to
all the traditions of the institution and
dishonoring to the individual guilty.
Search was at once made through the
rooms and private effects of the cadets,
and in the room of a student named
Boyd the stolen money was discovered.
The result of the search was at once
communicated to the authorities of the
academy, and the supposed culprit
handed over to them for punishment. A
court martial was held for the trial of
Boyd, but he strenuously protested his
innocence, and professed entire ignor-
ance of the manner by which the money
came in his room. The court martial
dismissed the charge against him as not
proven, but the cadets refused to be-
Geve in his innocence, and he was sent
to coventry as means of forcing him
to leave the Point. Not cadet would
speak to him, not a fellowstudent
would give to him the notice that even
hungry, homeless cur, running around
in search of master, would elicit; he
was without friend, without COM
panion; if he was sick the hospital
nurses attended him, but none came to
see him, and no kindly inquiry as to his
welfare was made. He was alone, en-
tirely alone, and the situation was the
harder because he was of kindly, COM
panionable nature, that delighted in
society and took pleasure in social en-
joyments. One man alone in all the
corps believed in him and desired to
stand by him, but he was threatened
with the same treatment that Boyd en-
dured, and, being of a weak nature,
yielded and left his friend.
Such was the situation at the end of
his first year, and he had three more
graduating. The outlook was enough
30 make strong men hesitate and turn
b.yk, and Boyd was then only boy;
bat he argued to himself that should he
ie.tve the school it would amount to q
confession of guilt, and SO he staid-
sta d for three years more, years Of con-
STAT solitude and mental pain, while
al THAT time his comrades stunned him
aud Ge had not friend in whom he
| could confde his troubles; Joys he had
| none.
But the years were over at last and he
| graduated, and joined the army. He
san a little service during the latter end
| OF the war, but it was q snort period of
probation, and at the end OF it the
cavalry regiment to which he belonged
was ordered to Texas, and lie was forced
to live at military post where his only
companions were officers who knew of
the cloud under which he Lived, and
whose intercourse with him was limited
to that rendered necessary by military
duties. So he lived for six years more,
until one day relief came A class
mate dying in Philadelphia lay on his
death-bcd, and then, and then only,
confessed that he had stolen the money,
and, fearing detection, had hidden it in
Boyd', room. The story quickly spread
throughout the army, and then the
schooflnates of the man so long sus-
pectel of Il crime recognized that for
nine ears an innocent man had suffered
q punishment more severe to him than
any penitentiary could offer to crimi-
nal. Tue revlllsion of feeling among
his acqUaintances was great, and their
remorse knew no method of expiration
save extending to the innocent man a pro-
fusion of the society from which he had
been so long debarred, and to-day there
is no more popular officer in. all the
United States army than Li9dt. (now
Captain) Boyd.