The Lamar register., 1900-06-13
NO PLACE FOR DUDES
ALL MEN EQUAL AT WEST POINT
II Young Fellow Goes There With
Good Opinion of Himself 1t Is Soon
Taken Out of Him.

Good Opinion of Himself 1t Is Soon
Taken Out of Him.
One of the habitual objections that
have been raised to West Point by the
Darrow-minded is that 1T Is IA nursery
of aristocrats," and demagogues in
Congress declaim about the dudes"
that are here being pampered and pa
raded at the expense of the taxpayers;
but if there was ever n place where
the doctrine of equality was vigorous
ly enforced it is among the cadets at
this academy. If there was ever a
place where vanity and conceit were
extiuguished in the heart of a boy and
where manliness and truth and deyo-
tion are taught by precept and exam
pie, both among the faculty and
among the cadets, 1t Is here. The mill
tary academy is no place for dudes,
nor for any boy who thinks himself
better than his companions, because
the slightest evidence of consciousness
of such superiority, the slightest dis
closure of self-appreciation, Is almost
certain to call for discipline from his
fellow cadets that will impress the vir-
tue of humility upon his mind forever.
General King, in one Of his charming
stories. tells of a lad who came to the
academy from a northwestern town,
where he had been the captain of the
high-school cadets, and where, upon
his departure, the citizens gave him an
ovation and delivered eulogieS which
We're published in the local papers.
With the best Of intentions marked
copies of that paper We're sent to West
Point with the mistaken idea of secur-
ing a warmer welcome and greater re-
spect for the young cadet, but 1t was
a calamity, for the other cadets clipped
the article from the paper, pasted it
carefully upon board so that 1t could
not be destroyed or injured. and then,
when the hero of the northwestern
high school showed consciousness Of
his superiority, they would compel him
to read the account OF his farewell
ovation aloud, backward and forward,
until he had committed 1t to memory.
and several times they compelled him
TO sing ii to some familiar tune until
the poor fellow realized what miser-
able worm he was and had every atom
of conceit taken out of him.
The selection of cadets by comped-
tive examination, as is the custom in
many districts, gives boys of humble
parentage an opportunity to get into
the army. and the cadets come from
every class of society, to meet here on
common level, where wealth and
aristocratic connections are apt to be
to the disadvantage of a lad, particu-
larly II he is inclined to presume upon
them. Boys OF practical common sense
and modest manners, who have the
tact to avoid making themselves con-
spicuous and assume no airs, invaria-
bly, get along without trouble, but any
cadet who attempts, consciously or un-
consciously, to conform to the descrip-
ton given of the inmates OF this acadl
emy by the congressional demagogue
is often made to wish that he had
never been born before he Is reduced
to the ordinary clay that his comrades
are made of. 1t is only the upstarts,
the 'smarties," us they are called, that
have trouble. No boy is accepted at his
own valuation. 1t takes only few
weeks for his comrades to find him
out, and IL he has estimated himself
too highly they do not hesitate to teach
him where n discount should be ap-
plied.-Chicago Record.