Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1901-01-04
WEST POINT LIFE.
Nels Hawkinson Furnishes q Few
"reminiscences.

Nels Hawkinson Furnishes a Few
"reminiscences.
Grand Forks Herald.
It is quite safe to say that there
is no one in the northwest who
uses paper in large quantities who
does not know Nels w. Hawkin-
son, travelling representative of the
house Of Wright, Barrett & Still
we'll, st. Paul, but there are few
who know that Nels is an ex- West
Point cadet. He was at this fam
GUS school in 1889, in the fresh
man class, but defective eye-sight
prevented his remaining there.
Nels dropped in yesterday, and
some reference in the papers to
the hazing of Cadet Booz caused
him to recall some Of the incidents
of his term as a pupil of Uncle
Sam.
"Thsre was some hazing, of
course" said Nels, 'as there is at
all colleges, but they didn't try to
hurt anybodyvery bad. The main
thing was to find out how much
sand fellow had. They'd come
along and try to make you do some
fool thing, and if you refused you
pretty near had to fight. A lot of
upper class men came to my tent
one night, and proposed to have
me eat a chunk Of soap. I never
cared1much for soap, and said I'd
see them hanged first. They we're
going to try to make me eat it and
[ hit the first fellow, bif across
the face with a piece of board and
he jumped back. He came again
and we clinched and rolled over in
the dirt. I kicked him in the
stomach and he kicked. me in the
face. The other fellows were all
doing business, too. Say, it was
the prettiest rough and tumble you
ever saw. We we're a sorry look
ing lot next morning, and we lied
like pirates when the officers asked
how it happened.
"But we had one fellow there
that was a beaut. His name was
Kane, and he came from Ken
lucky. He was the .queerest speci-
men / ever saw. He was big and
awkward. Must have stood nearly
six feet, and had a pair of should
ers on him like an OK. He had a
big head stuck up on top of thin
neck like a cancels. He always
stood with his hands wide open,
thumbs in, knuckles forward, and
he toed in.
He was a quiet, sleepy sort of
chap, and wouldn't hurt a fly.
Some of the boys guyed him a
little, but he was such a poor,
homely, inoffensive cuss that most
of us felt sorry for him.
"Well, one night a lot of fresh
men, Kane among them, we're in a
tent, and a gang of upper classmen
came along. They began by ask
ing us, one at time, if we liked
the upper classmen. We wern't
looking for trouble, and most of us
lied like thunder and said YES
When they put it to Kane he
drawled out in a wooden sort of
tone that he thought not. Don't
you know you don't?' one of them
asked him. YES he drawled out,
I'm. d. sure I DON'T This
was a little differentfrom what the
uppers had figured on, and they
went off to hold a council of war.
We didn't see any more of them
that night. Of course we knew
that poor Kane had got his foot in
it, and that he'd have to fight or
funk. He couldn't seem to under
stand what it all meant, and said
the fellows had asked him a
straight question and got a
straight answer. He didn't think
that ought to make a fellow any
trouble. Well, next day Kane
got his challenge, and he came
over to me and told me about it.
'Hawkey,' he said, you'll have to
L. 8 N