Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-14

| he got after leaving the hospital. Upper
class men crowded to his tent to annoy him.
One fellow in particular worried him 9
great deal. and at length, provoked beyond
/ all patience. the ''plebe" started down to
| the commandant's tent to report his perse.
! cutors. They rushed after him. and fright
ened or persuaded him to go back. Indeed,
one cadet-said that if the ''plebe" reported
him he would skill him." and this threat
he several times made to the "plebe" him.
self in the most violent manner and menac-
ing tone.
The poor 'plebe" was desperate. Few
men have experienced, and few can realize,
such intense mental agony as he must have
suffered the rest of the week. He could
not endure the strain. He deserted, with
no very clear notion of where he should go,
and he stopped at a little village two miles
from West Point. was captured and brought
back. A few days later he offered his
resignation. He left West Point, went
West and was tor long time dangerously
i'll.
IF he had died he would have been q man
murdered by West Point hazing.
If it was unpleasant to be punished for
violation of the queer code to which fourth
class men were supposed to conform, still
more disagreeable was it to be tormented
without excuse. Yet there was a great deal
of punishment inflicted for the mere caprice
of the old cadets
Doing the Double Step.
For example, in one of the companies was
q tent where 'plebes" were made to do
double step to make the record of the great
est number of double steps ever done in one
tent Double step, as military men know,
is an exercise which Stimulates running
without advancing. The soldier in execut-
~ Ii -.
nately as in running, but does not move to
the front One speedily becomes tatigued
BY this kind of motion, and when one has
to raise the legs 500 or 1000 times, bringing
the knee each time above the waist, he soon
tires out completely. Yet sometimes men
all weary from the drills had to "do five
thousand" in single evening.
At the particular tent spoken of a record
was kept of the double ''steps" done by
each man. The occupants-two third class
men-would send out plebe to the other
companies to collect other plebes and the
whole squad would edo" double step for Is
or 20 minutes. In this way the total
rapidly mounted, and it was designed that
100. 900 double steps should be f'done" in
that one tent.
Other upper class men delighted in crack
ing jokes with captive plcbes Even from
the ''plebes' point of view this was not
always disagreeable, but sometimes these con-
versations were extremely obscene and men
were occasionally compelled TO listen to
foods of nastiness which they would prob
ably have checked had not the dead line of
plebedom kept them back.
But nothing annoyed us more than the
visits, in our own tents, of certain errant
third class men. These men would wander
from tent to tent, and wherever they
i 1 xl~as-
bearing and dogged determine ion to hu-
initiate and give pain, leave behind helpless
anger and shame. Fourth class men would
fairly turn white when they heard one of
these prosecutors coming down the COM
pany street. 1t was one of these fellows
who ''double stepped" a young boy until
he tainted on his tent floor. "Plebes" used
to swear many oaths that the next visit
should be the last that blow from rifle
butt should stop the next upper class man
who should enter bent on hazing. But the