The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-29
Admiral Evans in
His Strenuous
Life.

%T% HAT the life of Admiral Robley
M D. Evans has been a strenuous
one is shown very plainly and
forcibly by the following chap
ters from IA Sailors Log" written by
the admiral, and very recently publish
ed:
1 passed my entrance examination to
the Naval Academy September Is, 1860,
and reported, as an acting m.dshipman
on board the frigate Constitution-"Old
Ironside5'-on the twentieth of the same
month. The examination, fortunately
for many of us, was a very simple one;
nothing like the elaborate and trying af-
fair of today, otherwise many of us
would not have followed the Navy as
a profession. The cand date had to be
sound physically, and to nave fair
foundation on which to build the educa-
ton required of a sea officer, who was
not In that day expected to be an engi-
neer, chemist, a scientist, an cleo
trician, lawyer, an artist, as he Is to-
day-only seaman and a gunner, with
the necessary knowledge of things that
pertained to the sea. The superintendent,
Captain George S. Blake.a was assisted
by half dozen officers, selected for their
Among the officers were two brothers
c.. r. 2. and George A.odgers, heutenants
both of whom made their mark in the
service, and wrote their names high up
in the history of the Navy which they
loved so well, and did so much to honor
We have never had two officers whose
standards were higher or whose conduct
reflected greater credit on the country
than that of those two, G. r. P Rodgers
was commandart of midshipmen and
George Rodgers was captain of the Con-
stitution, and to them I owe everything
in MY professional life.
We had one hundred and twenty-seven
men in the class when we settled down
to work, an average lot, from all parts of
the country, and representing the various
classes of American life-North. South,
East and West. was the only one from
Utah, and believe the first one ever ap-
pointed from that Territory either in the
Navy or the Army. Our life on board
ship was pleasant and novel, and our ed
ucatlon on the lines that would fit US
for the duties we should in the future
have to perform. English studies occu-
pied a considerable part of our time, but
practical seamanship and gunnery were
considered the important things, and
they were hammered into US so hard by
our honored captain that we had to learn
them in spite of ourselves. Many showed
wonderful cleverness. and after a few
months the class standing in seamanship
placed the men about as they have since
stood in the service.
The Constitution was moored at the end
of long, narrow wharf, which was the
only means of approach unless by boat
so that the class was completely Isolated
from the older classes. We never came
in contact with them except when on
shore for drill, or on Saturday, when we
passed their quarters on our way to town
on liberty. All our recitatons and most
of our drills took place on board ship
Under such conditions the disgracefuI
haZing, which later on gave the Naval
Academy such q bad name, was impos-
sible, even had the temper of the mid
shipmen been such as to tolerate it. At
the time of which 1 am writing hazing
was absolutely unknown, and I am sure
that any attempt TO practice 1t would
have led to a duel behind old Fort Sew
ern. 1t was not until we reached New
port and the senior classes had been
ordered into service, that this brutal, and
must say cowardly, practice took root
and grew until it was a disgrace to all
those engaged in it. BY some means the
class entering after 1862 got the idea from
West Point, and in their zeal to emulate
really went far beyond the practices of
that excellent institution, where hazing
of a certain kind was tradition, and
considered necessary to the discipline of
the cadets, among themselves. With US
the proper class distinctions and respect
were traditions which did not require
haZing to enforce them. / remember very
well one Saturday afternoon, two of us,
both very small, Were passing the quar-
tiers of the first class on our way to town
on liberty, when two seniors thought 1t
would be good fun to put us down on the
grass and sit on US. They promptly cIr-
ried out their plan, and sat on Us i've
minutes or so and then let us so. We
returned to the ship mad all over. and
In a few minutes we swarmed back with
most of our class. and there was a beau
ttful fight which resulted in many black
eyes. This was about the nearest ap-
proach to hazing We ever had.
AFRAID HE WAS GOING TO BE
HANGED.
The dissi ,Iue was str'c' or. tuarl Il. D
from the tart, and We were exl ectod 80
observe the regulations as s1on as they
had beea made Il, ir - us ll5 Ior'hsd
a warm friendship for = young fellow
from Ai:>s .sSifpi namai i}aniw'n. and l;e
somehox became involved IT. OF a-ir
with man twice his size; the quarrel
soon led to fight, and the large man
attempted to strike Baldwin with a
camp siocl, when 1 grabbed hin: from te-
h!nu preventing the blow, and thus my
self became part of tho row. The next
morning I was sent for on the quarter
deck, and, after having had the .irticles
OF War read 10 ME and receiving a long
lecture on the enormity of my ofrense.
was locked up in a dark room in the
wardroom. Someone had reported that
Baldwin had a knife in his hani during
the fight, and that I called out to him u
use 1t and that I would help him. After
being locked up 1 made UP my mind that
my time had come. in view of the many