The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-16
THE MAKING OF A MUDDY
TELLING HOW 4 BOY CAN
 GET INTO THE NAYAL ACADEMY.

dential Appointment and the Congress l sional l"PulP'-PIeasant and Unpleasant l Features of Cadet Life.
 Middies are made at Annapolis An American boy who wants to be a mid- ] dy usually draws ships on his state
 when he ought to be studying, writes l letters to his unfortunate congressman, | who knows no more about Annapolis
 than he does, but writes to the secre-
 tary of the navy and gets in reply an
 official pamphlet on the admission of candidates to the United States naval 1 academy. I wish, before speaking of the academy, to tell such boy just
 how he can get there. Regularly, there are only two possibilities. One is to get
 an appointment at large from the pres | ident The other is to get an appoint
 ment from the congressman of ones l own district. There are ten of these appointments at large-ten altogether, usually one or two each year. If a
 boy is the son of an admiral, or if his
 father carried state for the party in clover, there may be chance for the
 appointment at large. Though there
 will be 50 or 100 applicants, there is nothing to hinder the boy who has the
 strongest pull" But the ordinary pri- vate citizen of boy has either to work
 upon the feelings of his congressman and get the district appointment direct,
 or else, if the congressman gives the l lad chance, he must coach for con- petitive examination. Though the con- | gressman isn't required to hold this, he 1 usually does so. These competitives,
 which are based on the entrance ex-
 aminations at Annapolis, test a. boys
 knowledge of arithmetic, elementary
 algebra, United States history, geogra- | phy, grammar and spelling. As com l petition is like mule-you never
 know when it is going to throw you our boy won't pass first on his winning
 ways or on his knowledge of calculus.
 If he really means to visit Annapolis
 he wants to spend six months in find- l ing out how little he knows about
 arithmetic and geography. He won't | regret the output of time, for by work
 ing to beat the other fellows he Is get i ting in trim for rigid entrance exam | nation. When he reaches the academy he must be between 15 and 20 years of
 age. He may save round trip expenses by taking physical examination be- 1 fore going on, for many a fellow learns that he has throat trouble or defective l eyesight only when the doctors reject him at Annapolis. Though he may en- ter in either May or September he will
 be wise to choose the earlier examina- tion, as in this case he will gain a lead
 over the later members of his class.
 May plebs." May plebs go on the sum-
 mer cruise, and by the time they join | the rest of their class in September are tough, sunburned and nautical. Though
 this 'pleb cruise" is not yachting ex- | cursion-though the homesick seasick,
 tar sick pleb. shivering in his white I working clothes, wandering about in 1 the vain search for friendly face, is 1 oppressed by the strangeness and dis | comfort of ship life, he gains, during l this period of voluntary suffering, ] running start that helps him wonder | fully all through his course. By Sep tember he knows what g. eef-earing is
 and and can find the port mizzen top | sail halyards. Not only the fourth
 class, but also the third and first class l es go on this summer cruise. Its pur- pose Is to teach cadets the ship routine
 and to give them practice in the hand ling of sail-for since some vessels in | the navy still carry sail an officer must | understand reefing and furling. Though | the new practice ship Is to be fitted | with modern guns and appliances, 1t will have no steam for motive power. 1 Much of the summer cruising has been | done in Long Island sound, though of | late years there have been several | deep sea cruisers as far as the coast of
 Portugal. There are pleasant features
 to the summer cruises. About once a
 week, when cruising in the sound the ship goes into port-usually New Lon- don or Newport--and the sailsick voy- 1 agers have a chance to attend hops and beach parties. The hotels usually give a stnding invitation to their hops. Vis-
 iting girls give a gracious welcome
 without sticking for the p's and s's of
 an introduction. On one occasion, not
 long ago, when two cadets entered a
 hotel ball room filled with strangers, one of the officers introduced them by
 saying, Ladies and gentlemen, this is
 MT. P. and MT. C." MT. F. and MT. c.
 had no difficulty in securing partners.
 The work on the cruise varies for diff 1 ferent classes. Third and fourth class
 men haul on ropes and lay aloft to loose, furl and reef sails. They have
 some drill at the guns, occasional prac-
 tice in rowing and sailing and lessons
 in seamanship. First class men act as
 officers part of the time and have sev-
 eral hours of daily work in theoretical
 avigation-calculating tides, finding
 latitude and longitude, after shooting
 the sun" with the seXtant-and so on.
 A first attempt at placing the ship off,
 ten results in landing her somewhere
 in Central New York. When the ship
 sails home about the last of August the
 two upper classes go on leave, while
 the fourth class which by this time has
 all it's members, remains at Annapolis
 drilling, boating, tying knots and learn
 ing seamanship. About the first of Oc-
 tober the serious work of the academ-
 ic year begins. Though the fourth
 class work at only three subjects-En-
 glish, French and mathematics-they
 are kept very busy. Ten or fifteen are
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