The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-04
AN AWFUL POSSIBILITY
TWO CoLoRED YOUTHS MAY BE AD-
MITTED TO THE NAVAL ACADEMY.
what Officers and Others Say About
the Matter-LiyeIy Hazing Pre-
dicted for the Boys.

| selves at the Naval Academy at Annapolis
this week for physical examination for adj
| mittance, remains the topic of universal
| gossip at the Navy Department and at the
army and navy clubs here. 1t is discussed
too. with the deepest interest in society
/ circles in Washington, for the army and
| navy move in the most select circles of
| Washington high life, and the army and
navy ladies are contemplating with horror
the possibility of being compelled to re-
| ceive two young colored gentlemen in their
| natty blue uniforms of the Naval Academy
a uniform that is the passport everywhere
| in Washington. Society here exercises a
| rigid supervision over the cadets at West
! Point and Annapolis, for the first thing
| these young gentlemen do when they grad
uate is to marry, and their wives must of
| course be received. 1t is within brief re-
membrance that a cadet at West Point
married the daughter of a noncommissioned
officer at the post, and that shortly after
ward he found it desirable to resign from
the army. Last week a naval cadet from
Missouri married the daughter of a small
farmer near Annapolis, and, returning from
a little honeymoon found awaiting him his
dismissal from the academy. 1t can be
imagined, therefore, with what emotions
Washington society is regarding the future
of these two colored boys.
Much criticism is heaped upon the heads
of the two members of Congress to whom
these lads owe their appointment, and it
has even been seriously suggested that in
asmuch the right to appoint cadets lies
really with the President of the United
States, and is only by courtesy delegated
to members of Congress- President Cleve-
land could exercise his right to annul the
appointment. Criticism of these mem
bers Of Congress who appointed the
boys is unjust Competitive examinations
were held in their respective districts, and
large numbers of lads, white and black
took part. These two colored boys were
the brightest and best educated young men,
apparently, in their respective examina-
tons, and therefore the Congressman could
not in justice withhold the appointment
from them.
Only a few officers of the Navy Depart
Inent believe that the white cadets will
submit tamely to association with the COL
ored boys. OF course the iron discipline
of the academy will insist that the colored
cadets shall be treated with official cour-
tesy and justice. Said officer to-day:
THE colored cadets will receive the same
official attention from the instructors and
the officers of the academy as the white
cadets. The colored cadets will drill with
II
division and will mess with that division
and attend the same Instructions There
will not be the slightest deviation from the
lronclad rules of the academy His every
rlgnt Will be Rigidly enforced and any white
GaueI VINO undertakes to draw the color
me IN olHclal intercourse with these coIored
boys Will find himself Summarily punished
1ou will remember that some twenty years
ago d white cadet was dismissed from the
academy because he refused to meet the
co.ored boy Conyers in the fencing school"
A naval cadet, who is in Washington to-
day. discusses the difficulties that viii arise
IN the everyday life OF the cadets at the
9cao EN- sad ne: 1t is all well enough
Tor the ofhcers to talk about the cadets
not Delng affected by the presence of ne
groes among us, but that Is all nonsense,
and the officers know it. Our personal as
ISOLATION with these boys is constant and
1t would be impossible to exclude them
from from daily personal contact. We would
them at table, and, two of us bunk in
one room, there is the possibility that We
one OF them Of course, if both of them
pass their physical examinations this week.
which very much doubt will be the case,
Iney can DUNK together in the same room
but otherwise there is no protection to us
from having one of them put in the same
room with white boy.
Then consider the social features of life
at the academy. There is the annual bail
and the frequent hops. All of the cadets
penses involved in giving this ball and
every cadet in the academy has a right to
pdi liClpelle III these social occasions, He is
given certain number of invitations and
he can send these invitations to whomsoever
he pleases. If these colored boys choose to
invite their black sisters sweethearts. no
one can object. A naval cadet is from the
fact OF his presence at the academy pre-
sumably a gentleman and would not invite
any one but eminentiy respectable people |
TO meet the friends of his associates. We |
have committee which is supposed to
certain that no member of the COMMITTEES |
would dare to question the right of these |
to the ball room. Another thing: After |
the first year the coored cadets by the |
absolute right to order around the boys of |
the first year. the 'plebs.' Fancy white |
boy being ordered by a colored boy to |
some other personal service, such as the |
second class boy has the perfect right to |
demand of 'pleb.' There is no use hop
ing that these colored boys won't last to |
reach the second year, because the fact that |
they passed first in then. examinations
there is no likelihood in their being dropped
at the examinations. Their first year at the
them. They will be subjected to all the
hazing that now exists at the academy,
md, doubtless less a good deal more. and as
spirit imagine their first year will be a
pretty lively one
An officer, who was in the class of 1873.
said Il remember the constant trouble we
mad on account of the colored cadets. One
lieutenant colonel of his battalion. was re-
luced to the ranks because he would not
order a white cadet to join in the exercises
with the colored boys. Lieutenant Hood !
low stationed at the Naval Academy was |
dismissed while cadet for an offense of
he same kind
An officer in the medical department
made a very significant comment. These
young men are not yet cadets at the acad-
smy. They have not yet passed their
physical examinations, and they have yet
o undergo one ordeal and he smiled as
lie spoke, (which is a source of constant
lefeat to the ambition of colored boys eager
o enter the academy. It is the eye. which
n the negro is seldom found to be up to
he requirements demanded by the acad-
my. 1t does not readily master shade and
one of color, nor does the negro eye equal
he white eye for sighting objects at a dis
ance. l shall feel surprised if both boys are
lot found deficient in eyesight. That will
,e the solution of the entire diff
ulty'' 1t is impossible not to understand
What the officer meant.
THE MEN BEHIND BRYAN