The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-01-08
so DECLARES BURNAM
He Was a Tent Mate of Booz While
in Camp.
BRETHS FAMILY GIVE THEIR TESTIMONY
Hazed Three Times in One Night by Three
Separate Sets Of Cadets. tainted Un-
der Third Ordeal and fright
cred HIS TormentcrS.
(By the Associated Press.)

Philadelphia, Jan. ACCORDING to the
testimony adduced before the Congress
sional Investigating Committee, which is
inquiring into the charges of hazing at
the West Point Military Academy, Oscar
L. Booz, of Bristol. Pa, and John E.
Breth, of Altoona Pa, had a rough time
of it during their 'plebe" year at that
institution. The star witness of the day
was former Cadet Anthony J. Burnam,
Jr., son of Judge Burnam, of the Court of
Appeals of the State of Kentucky. who
was Booz's tent mate while in camp. The
committee also heard for the first time
testimony in regard TO the experiences of
Breth from the lips of his father, broth
ers and sisters.
Burnam, who was dismissed from the
academy for deficiency in studies, said
Booz became unpopular after his fight
with Cadet Keller. Personally he was
good fellow, but the cadets of the upper
classes always taunted him as a coward.
During the twelve months Burnam was
at the academy there were ten fights, and
as far as he knew no one was punished.
Abused cadets, he said, feared to make
complaints because they felt the haZers
would make life all the more miserable
for him. Booz, while in their tent had
told him Of how upper classmen had COM
PEELED him TO swallow tobasco sauce under
penalty of being called out" The fourth
clas5men were allowed their liberty on
Saturday afternoons, according to the
regulations. but the upper classmen would
not allow them to leave camp. If they
disobeyed them the "plebes" as a rule
would be punished for it.
In the case of Breth il was testified by
members of his family that he died of
typhoid pneumonia but that he suffered
from nervous prOstration as result of his
alleged i'll treatment at the academy
Breth told his brothers and Sisters that
one night he was hazed three times by
three separate sets Of cadets. He stood
the first two ordeals, but was rendered
unconscious from exhaustion by
the third set. When he became
| conscious he found the hazers
| rubbing him vigorously. and they
appeared TO him to be frightened. A
cadet named Bender made him sit on the
| point OF a bayonet while Bender played
a violin. He fell off the bayonet and
was made to sit on it again. Breth told
his relatives he was put through all the
various hazing exercises which resulted
| in him being laid up in the hospital with
nervous prostration. Breth wrote home
| to his family that the surgeon said it re-
| suited from overwork, but this he said
was not so. His brothers and sisters
wanted to make complaint, but he told
| them not to do so, as he feared the cadets
would haze him more severely. He was
compelled to often eat soap" and chew
the end of ropes which his relatives be-
lieved impaired his digestion. Cadet
| Breth was discharged from the academy
for deficiency in mathematics. After he
left the academy he told his brother that
West Point was the best institution in
the world but added that the place was
run by the upper classmon."
Tomorrow the Breth family will submit
further evidence in the way of letters
from the cadet while he was at West
Point.
The committee got into a legal tangle
with Lucien Alexander, Secretary Of the
Board Of Examiners for the admission of
law students to the bar. The committee
wanted to learn what sort of average
Booz made in his examination, but Mr..
Alexander refused to state except on an
order from the courts of this city be-
ieving that under rule of the courts
he would be in contempt for making such
information public.
The committee allowed him until ten
O'Clock tomorrow morning to choose
whether to be in contempt of the courts
Of Philadelphia or the United States
House of Representatives.
The committee will probably conclude
its work here tomorrow, and will begin
the taking Of testimony of the cadets at
West Point on Wednesday.