The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-15

In speaking OF the reports M SeTlOus
results from hazing, General King said
he had never known of a casa In his
own experience.
"Talk of brutality" he remarked
"You take 300 or 400 boys anywhere and
| If you don't find some bra-es among
them they must have been recreated.
A bully is rare at West Point. He's
sent to coventry so quick that he speed
lily mends h,s ways. TIL admit Their.
have been cases Of brutal hazing, but
I'd like to say here and now that it
was only INDUCED in by 4 few who
never succeeded in graduating il ex-
| cept one--no, three men. But none of
those three was a great suc:ass, and
some of them went to the bad. Bru-
tality was not popular at the Point III
my day and l don't believe it is now
and hazing was then as it is now nine
tenths pure fun and mischief. The
trouble Is that occasionally 1t Is carried
too far, and though in my own cadet
days no one apparently cared rap
what was done to us, to-day the whole
country is agitated when q case OF
plebe hazing is reported"
General King not only hal his share
of hazing, but went thrJugn court
of inquiry similar to the one in session
now.
"Tbey had the whole corps up as wit.
nesses in the case" he said, land it
was shown that there were just two
cadets in the whole academy who had
never leased or tormented pleb9. And
one of them died shortly after. He
was too good for this world. The rest
of us did what the boys are doing to-
day-told the truth about it. Our fur
loughs were cut, but that was all that
happened to speak of, and the 'deviling
continued practically as before. The
particular hazing that brought the
court of inquiry into session had for its
victim the son of an eminent professor.
He never complained himself, but his
family thinking 1t was an indignity
aimed at the learned man, made COM
plant, and the matter was investigat-
ed. 1t was always the sons of the most
distinguished men who suffered most
there was Totten, the grandson of the
inspector MISUNDERSTANDING Of
Kentucky; Farragut, son of the ad-
miral and Fred Grant, the son of the
general But no one ever heard them
complain of winning a commission
through West Point was worth all 1t
cost, deviling included.
"Of late years." General King went
on, there has been so much of pub
lie cutlery raised about the reported
brutal hazing that the officers of the
academy have done their best to put a
stop to it. It's my belief, however, that
it Is only to be reached through the
Cadet corps itself. I've heard 1t said
that the Point was insuff1ciently Off
cered or hazing would not go on, but
IL you put 1000 officers there you may
be sure that deviling would continue in
some form despite all their efforts In
my belief, the only way Is to let the
cadets see for themselves the harm that
is being done to the old academy, to
make them realize this and gradually
spread a sentiment that will discourage
the practice. Something of that sort
was done by the present class of year
lings, and to my mind IT. is the only
way"
But do you think 1t will ever be
broken up?" he was asked.
do you believe the millennium is to |
,ome?" was the evasve answer.
w. H. Upmahm, later governor of |
was classmate of Cen
aral King but escaped because of the |
wound that he had received at Bull |
Run.
"You can't say that Upham was ex-
lctly hero because of the bullet hole
n his lungs and the record he had |
made in the volunteer service before he
entered the Point" said General King.
West Point cadets are not hero wor-
hippers, but they had vast respect
or him, and he was let off easily. So,
90, and for the same reason, was Hen
y Reed, who entered from Wisconsin
n 1856. He had been wounded in the
var and the cadets never tormented
i'm, but his classmate, Fred Grant,
ode the goat in the livelest sort of
ray and took his medicine with the
tmost good nature. Fred was just
bout as far behind his father in schol-
rship as Fred's son was ahead of his
record Ulysses s.
rant, jr,, having only one superior in
is class to-day-Douglas Macarthur,
Wisconsin, who has been among the
illnesses in the last court of inquiry.
Three of the most active yearlings
/ my day were Wisconsin cadets.
mong them was Elisha Keyes, as he
as called, now dead, and a nephew of
!. w. Reyes, of Madison. The other
vo Wisconsin men are still in the ser
ice and one Of them has made most
rilliant record in the artillery-John p.
tory, who in 1861 hailed from Wiscon-
In. So you see Wisconsin came in for
er full share Of the very lively devil
lg' which was carried on in the sos"
Milwaukee Sentinel.