Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-12-20
THE BOOZ CASE
UNDER INQUIRY.
Hearing Begun at The Home Of The
Dead Cadets Family.
STATEMENTS In LETTERS HOME.
About The Hazing and The TObaScO Sauce
Never Revealed Identity of PerSecu-
tOrs-DOctOr TeStifes Death Came
of tuberculosis of the Larynx.

Philadelphia, December 17.-TLe taking
of testimony in the case of Oscar l.. Booz,
the West Point cadet who died two weeks
ago from injuries which his parents alege
were inflicted at the West Point Military
Academy, was begun today by the board
of inquiry appointed by the Secretary OF
War. Two sessions were held at Bristol,
the home of the Booz family and another
in this city in the late afternoon. The
members of the board are Generals
Brooke, Clous and Bates, accompanied by
Captain Dean, Of the Fifth Artillery, who
acted as recorder.
The court sat in the study of the church
which adoins the Booz homestead. The
witnesses were William II. Booz, father;
Mrs. Sarah II. Booz, mother; Nellie Booz,
sister of the young man; Rev. DR.. Allison,
DR.. Weaver, a Bristol physician who at
tended Oscar Booz, and several others.
The board left for New York tonight and
will sit at West Point tomorrow afternoon.
Mr.. Booz, the father, testified that his
son had written home on several occasions
that he had been hazed. He entered the
academy in June, 1898, and in August he
wrote home that he had been in a fight
and had received pair of black eyes, and
that he had been knocked ont by blow
over the heart. Mr.. BOoz said he went to
West Point to see his son, and told him
he must stand it. Oscar told his father he
expected TO be hazed, but he did not want
to be treated brutally. The father said
Oscar did not want his mother to know
how ne was being treated.
MIR. Booz then told how Oscar had in
formed him tobasco sauce had been forced
down his throat. Oscar said the cadets
would pull the blankets from him and
pour hot wax from a candle on his bod =.
MIR. Booz thought the officers at the acad-
emy could stop the brutality, but he would
not say that they condoned it. He could
not understand why they had treated his
son in such a severe manner. Oscar spent
all of the last year at home in an endeavor
to build up his health. He never would
reveal the identity of his prosecutors.
Mrs. Booz testified her son had written
her that West Point was unfit for a young
man who wanted to dc right, and that
parents should not send tneir sons there.
Nellie Booz, sister of the deceased,
testified that in letter received by the
family on August T. Oscar told of the fight
he had had with another cadet, and that
he fought until he was winded. The
cadets called him coward and a disgrace
to the corps. If he did not 90 into the
fight, he said, the 'fellows would make
life unbearable for him." He asked his
father for permission to resign. Oscar de-
scribed many little indignities which were
practiced on him. If he had not swallow
ed the tobasco sauce he would have
strangled. They were holding him down,
and he could d. nothing else.
DR.. J. Soils Cohen, throat specialist,
testified here this afternoon that Oscar had
tuberculosis Of the larynx, and that he
came to this city for treatment, but his
case was hopeless. He thought that If
tobasco sauce had been forced down Booz's
throat it may have made him more sus-
ceptible to tuberculosis.
Sgmond S. Albert, classmate of Oscar
Booz, said that Booz was not hazed any
more than other cadets. lie was one of
Booz' terminates while in camp. He and
Booz and other fourth year men, he said &,
we're made to do ridiculous stunts" such
as making the upper classmen's beds, and
"other unmanly and disgraceful things. "
What he meant 10y the latter, he said, was
none of the public's business. One night
some fourth year men were forced to open
their mouths and shut their eyes, when
some one squilted into their mouths what
he believed to be tobasco sauce. 1t did
not hurt Albert because there was not
enough Of it.