The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-26

The Naval Cadets Who Threw Kisses to an
Excursion Party.

Excursion Party.
Special to New York sun,
For two days an Irish sentry with a musket
has been pacing up and Town before the steam
building in the Naval Academy yard at Annapo-
lis. For two days, within this building, a court
of inquiry has been sitting in plum-colored
chairs. The court is composed of Commander of
Cadets Farquhar and two brother officers. Be-
fore the trial table, which is Uttered with pom
derOus volumes and huge rolls of manuscript,
are arranged twenty members of the second
class of cadets. The scene is one of much i'm
| pressiveness, rendered more so by the unusual
gravity of the offense of which the cadets are
suspected. The offense consists in smiling and
blowing kisses to a lot of Baltimore Sunday
SCHOOL girls on a picnic.
a On last Wednesday afternoon the steamer
Nellie White cut loose from the Light street
wharf and dropped down the harbor, having on
board a merry excursion party, composed of the
choir, Sunday-school and officers of the Monu-
ment- street Methodist Episcopal Church. 1t was
nearly dusk when the steamer tied up at the
Naval Academy wharf at Annapolis. There she
remained an hour. The excursion was literally
supplied with music, the girls were in high
spirits, and as they tripped gaily down the gang
plank at Annapolis they became the focus of ad-
miration of perhaps thirty members of the
second class of cadets, who were %lounging around
the wharf, displaying to the best advantage
their neat uniforms, their polished boots, and
their rat tail moustacheS. The jolly girls were
under the watchful care of the teachers of the
school. and though they may have cast many shy
chances at the handsome uniforms, not the slight
est opportunity was allowed for the girls
and the cadets to exchange words. 1t was a
great temptation for the cadets, and they stood
about disconsolate, like cranes in shallow water,
and manifested their admiration for the girls by
smirking, dofing their caps, and throwing now
and then, it is said, a kiss from their fingers.
These attentions, however, were not returned by
the girls.
The cadets got up a sort of broom drill on the
campus, near the wharf, and performed a series
Of maneuvers, romping like school boys, and in
many ways exhibited their great appreciation
of the visit of the Sunday-school girls. Some
of them were noisy, but no bad language was
used. Some Of the cadets went on board the
steamer, and when she finally pulled away with
a fringe Of white dresses around the railing on
the upperdeck and handkerchiefs 1uttering in the
breeze, the cadets looked gloomy. The watch
man had been an unseen spectator or every
thing that had occurred. While the steamer
was at the wharf he was concealed in a sentry
! box, and made notes of the actions of the cadets,
which to him seemed highly uncalled for, in
judicious, and improper.
Accordingly. the next day he handed in a re-
port to Commander of Cadets Farquhar, in
which We're the names of about twenty Of the
cadets covered with the following offenses:
Covertly kissing the hand at an unknown female.
Covertly tipping the hat aldo.
Covertly sniin 6 at person or persons unknown to
the observer.
Exposing the head to the malarial influence of the
night air IN an improper manner, by laying the hat on
the ground and jumping over it.
Wilfully and maliciously winking the eye in the
direction of the person or persons OF the female gen.
der above mentioned.
Exhibition of uncalled for interest in the arrival of
theexcursion.
Hollerin' ard c~arryin' on.
The charges were copied by Commander
Farquhar. The attention of several of the other
| officers was called to them, and the court Of in
quiry was convened on Monday. Nearly every
cadet at the Academy has been examined.
When the news of the matter was carried to
Superintendent Ramsey he Immediately ordered
that a curtain of deep crimson mystery and ST.
lence be lowered over the Academy grounds.
This was at once done, and it has not yet been
removed. The court of inquiry expects to be in
session several days. They intend to sift the
matter thoroughly, and the Academy is greatly
scandalized at the base suspicion that a cadet
could be guilty of smiling at a girl or waving his
handkerchief at her from a distance.
To-day the members of the court stalked
| about the Academy grounds in deep thought
Superintendent Ramsay declined to give out
any information about the trial. He talked Of
boys crimes and Juvenile backslidings, and
thought the information should be kept from
the world, as it made their parents feel bad to
read about it in the papers. The Waterman and
guards had plasters over their mouths. They
knew nothing and had seen nothing. but one of
them gave it out in a mysterious whisper that
the class would all be discharged.
The penalty for flirting with girls, under the
new code of rules instituted by Superintendent
Ramsay, varies by degrees of severity from three
days iii solitary confinement on the ship Santee,
| on a diet of box corn and sour balls, to suspension
from the Academy. He has the reputation of
being one of the ~strictest disciplinarians in the
service.
To-day Commander Farquhar hung his hat
over the keyhole as an extra precaution. All the
! be examined. and it is rumored that every one