The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-12
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
ANNAPOLIS. Nd, June s, 1890.


ANNAPOLIS. Nd, June s, 1890.
DEAR EAGLE-Tucked down behind an
old colonial capital, with the green sloping
swards of Maryland, my Maryland" on
the one side and the glinting blue waters
of the Chesapeake bay upon the other, and
hemmed in by high walls that are topped
out by broken glass bottles fxedin cement,
are three or four hundred picked American
boys, as also the writer. The boys are
learning how to command others by sub
jecting themselves to discipline which is
little short of servitude. AS for the writer,
he is here charged with the responsibility
of reporting how it is all done. As within
these autocratic precincts land lubber is
seldom seen, it will hardly be expected
that mere prairie plodder will be able to
say much of general interest. We believe
it was De Tocqueville who, a hundred
years ago, wrote that Annapolis was the
only finished city found by him in Ameri-
Ca A city finished a century ago could
hardly be other than pretty dead now.
The freshest piece of gossip that we have
yet heard since our arrival was about how
Washington used to bring Martha over
here for a dance, and the youngest thing
within these sleepy precincts is the old
tree under which he resigned his general
ship. The ancient buildings of st. Johns
college are buried as deeply in ivy as is the
history of the city by memories and tradi-
tons For miles and miles the soil is ex-
hausted, its greatest possibilities being
peas and Strawberries, and but
for the plenteous and inexhaustible
fish supply of the bay its inhabit-
ants would all 90 to bed hungry
ten months in the year. No throb of the
inspiration or enterprise of their day
touches the life of it's secluded people, who
would only have to cultivate little moss
upon their backs to pass for gravestones
set up in memory of themselves.
To this quiet seclusion and un-American
quaintness may be attributed the fact of
the little knowledge possessed by the aver
age American of the great national school
here, for it is a great school as measured
by any modern standard of physical de-
or the compass of any curricu
lum, and the boy who with its diploma in
his hand steps from it's campus to the deck
of his first vessel is indeed man in body
and in brain. However, details as to the
academic course, its many advantages in
the physical and mental sciences, its strong
corps of accomplished professors, its train
ing ships, shops, drills, etc, etc, will have
to be excused, the entire past week having
been taken up in getting but a glimpse of
each. From its walls have come the Farra-
CUTS and Kimberleys whose deeds and
lives have shed an imperishable lustre over
the history of American navy.
The great ball of the graduating class
last night, at which shone the beautiful
bellies of the eastern shore, and of the cities
of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washing
ton, in all the bewildering glitter
Of foibles and fashion, ended COM
week. The armory building,
go feet in length by 100 feet in width, had
been cleared and decorated and festooned
with flowers and bunting, and thousand
terrapin pampered girls and clam fed boys
whirled away the hours of the night, and
so we dismiss the town and its people, the
academy and its graduating class.
Having taken n general survey and
account of all the grounds-and they COM
prise, with their buildings, one of the most
delightful and attractive spots in
America, and having acquired some
thing of the staggering roll of
the sailor and learned to hitch-up
our panjamis in true jack tar style, the
visiting committee accompanied by their
ladies were taken out into the bay on three
days to witness something of
The grounds of the school
are protected by a sea wall from the waters
of the Severn and bay in which are an
chored the cruiser Constellation, the man
of war Wyoming, the old monitor, Passaic,
the Santee. now out of service for many
years, together with a number of other
vessels and steam launches belonging to
the navy. One hundred and fifty cadets
handled the Constellation in a light breeze
in a most taking fashion. But on the sec
ond day the Wyoming with her great guns
was taken out for target practice, the tar
get having been anchored and
the vessel rounded to a mile away.
with the venerable Admiral L. A
the hero of Samoi, standing on
the forward deck, his bright eyes taking
in every movement, the boys limbered up
the guns and for half an hour broadsides
Of fire and shell and solid shot We're belched
forth, while the great ship staggered be
meath the recoil of the guns and until the
bay had become obscured in their smoke
One after another, a dozen per minute,
four and five in second. the huge black |
she'll and balls went singing, ringing and
away, closely following each
other ricOchetting along the surface, ex-
ploding and finally disappearing beneath
the waters. There wasn't grease spot
left of that target nor would there have
been of any vessel occupying its place
Kimberly. from the quar-
ter deck complimented the ca
dets for their fine craftsmanship.
While returning to the Severn, Cadet y. /
L. Irwin fell overheard from the starboard I
The officer of the deck. Lieu
tenant Bowman, saw the miShap, and
shouted out, Man overheard: lower the
lifeboats" The order was obeyed with !
promptness by the cadets sta
toned in the lifeboats. Congressman
Boutelle, who, IN his early manhood. was
an officer in the navy. was standing on the /
after-poop deck by the life buoy apparatus /
With promp presence of mind he pulled