The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-22
THE BULLY AS A BRAVE MAN.
Mr.. WOlcOtt Refers the Senate to
BcnvenutO CeIlint.

| During the debate in the Senate Tues
day on the question of hazing. there oc-
| CURED colloquy SO amusing and so
characteristic that it ought not to be
buried away in the heavy pages of the
| Congressional Record The Hon. Porter
James McCumber. the modest, boyish-
looking. mild-mannered Senator from
NORTH Dakota, was adding his mite to the
eHort to put a brand upon West Point
| hazers tfat would cling to them through
out their life and in doing SO incidentally
| discussed the question of what constitutes
puiiy ana brave man. No one could be
| Doth, Mr. McCumber thought. and he said
1t seems to me that bravery is 10 be
determined by the individual who Is will
ing to meet death when it is certain, or
one who knows that he will be worsted
in battle. and yet will not finch from
the fray. That is my idea of brave
| man."
Then up jumped the earnest. impulsive
! and eloquent Mr.. Wolcott, who, in his
breezy way and with all the eagerness of
a boy to make his point, said:
Mr.. President, | suggest to the Senator
from North Dakota that II he would like
the most illustrious example in history of
bully who was brave, | would cite him
to the autobiography of Benvenuto Gel
lini. who was the most distinguished bully
of history and the bravest man that ever
lived
In perfect innocence and good faith. Mr.
McCumber, who had stood leaning on his
desk and gazing admiringly and int .ly
at the learned coliegebred Senator from
Colorado, said, half regretfully: MIR.
President, | am not acquainted with the
person of whom the Senator speaks l.
however, would want to have all the facts
and circumstances surrounding the case
to give justification to the Senator's re-
marks"
AS soon as the laughter occasioned by
the North Dakota Senator's frank admis-
sion had quoted so that he could make
himself heard, Mr.. Tillman, in his charac-
teristic, rough-and-t tumble fashion, shout
ed across the chamber:
Mr.. President, will the Senator from
North Dakota allow me to ask the Senator
from Colorado to put on record this man?
l did not catch his name. and 1 do not
think anybody else did. We want the
truth of history preserved"
There was much more laughter at this,
which was not lessened by Mr.. Woicott's
statement that he was not surprised that
MI. Tillman had never heard OF Benvenuto
Cellini and offering to give him full &C
count of the famous Italian after ad-
journment. And presumably he did.
Later in the same debate Mr.. Wolcott
told an incident of hazing in college. and
it is the understanding of his colleagues
that he was one of the hazers referred to.
His story is this:
Il remember once in my freshman days
when one Of my class friends was caught
by the sophomores and had his hair cut
off on one side of his face 1t was in
tended to be gentle, but 1t was pretty
hard and bloody. because he fought. I
remember that night or two lfterward
the members of the freshman class found
one of the perpetrators and took him to
the most remote cemetery that could be
found and tied him to the most lonely
monument In it, in the depth of winter. and
returned and Informed his classmates
where he could be found. The man hazed
reached good conditions and position in
life and the men who did the hazing-
some did well in after life, some went
from bad to worse, and even landed in the
United States Senate"