The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-07

sells, son of Col. H. w. Vessels of
Gen. H. W. VESSELS, is also new
cadet
see that the Savannah lawyers have
been discussing the question of admit
ting females into their ranks. 1t is
now in order for the military of Savan-
nah to discuss the advent of young wo-
men into military circles here in the
South. Camp Walker of the U. Q. v,
in Atlanta, has added a uniformed
corps of young women to their public
parades at home and abroad. The Carr
Burdette Female College at Sherman,
Tex, built and donated by "a true
Daughter of the Confederacy," and
said to be equal to any Northern fe-
male college, has a military company
of girls in handsome Confederate uni
forms, with guns, drums, etc. The
noted Normal and High School at st.
Petersburg, Va, not only has a fine
boys cadet corps. but the larger girls
are uniformed and have their drills,
and, as 1 saw them, they can march
with the best military commands in
| Savannah. At the North, in many of
the colleges, the young women have
military feature at their gyms" that
''sets them up" and otherwise bene-
! fits them physically. The fire drills"
in the public schools do the same thing
| for the boys and girls alike. But SYRIA
cuse. N. Y, claims to have the best
| drilled, uniformed and equipped female
military company in the Union. Miss
Fannie Armstrong, daughter of a Civil
| War veteran, organized and COM
mands the company and puts 1t
through the regular infantry drill. The
! company is to the G. A. r. what the
! Camp Walkers female company is to
! the U. c. ", beautiful and attractive
| escort on parade.
The cups and down" in the career
of cadet at West Point are worthy
of note, in the matter of class Eudy-
| ing. Few cadets take a high rank
and hold it through the four years.
| Cadet William A. Mitchell, the Ala
| bama Georgian of Columbus, stood No.
| in the fourth class QS99) but jumped
to No. l in the third class, then back
to No. in the second class. yet was
able to regain lost ground and grad
uated No. in 1902. Cadet Francis F.
| Longley of Illinois, Michigan, was ca
! Diet No. in the fourth class, the same
in the third, but jumped Mitchell in
the second and became No. l. However.
| he made bad drop back to No. 3 In
the graduating class. In 1900 the
fourth class stood Macarthur, Grant,
Collins, Leeds. Nichols, Schley. AS
the third class it stood Macarthur,
Leeds, Fiske, Grant, Schley, Collins.
Thus Fiske who was No. Z, came up
and dropped Collins to No. 6, while
! Schley became No. and Nichols
! dropped to No. 10. In the second class
| they stood Fiske, Leeds, Tyler, Mac
] Arthur, Grant, Telford. In this case
| Tyler jumped from No. 7 to No. 8,
while Macarthur fell from No to No.
and Schley from No. to No. 9. AS
| this class graduates the coming June
/ the final "exams" will be spirited, and
the result cannot thus early be pre-
dicted.
Nothing better illustrates the strict
impartiality of West Point examina-
| tons, and the factor 1t is fact
! that the poorest and humblest cadet
at West Point has an equal chance
J with the richest and the most high
/ born Douglas Macarthur, who drop
ped from No. 1 to No. 4, is the son of
| Maj Gen. Arthur Macarthur, u.
S. A, and Ulysses S. Grant
Ghe third, who fell from No.
2 to No. 5, is the grandson
of the iIlustrious Gen. u. S. Grant and
the son of Brig Gen. Fred Dent Grant,
U. S. A. And this rule of strict i'm
partiality has always been applied to
| the colored cadets, and this fact en-
abled Flipper of Georgia to graduate
with class standing higher than that
of Oscar ]. Brown and D. A Freder-
lex, also of Georgia, and a son of Maj.
| Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. There were
seventy-six in the class and Flipper
| was the fiftieth. John Hanks Alex
! ander of Arkansas Ohio, was another
negro cadet who graduated in 1887 as
! No. 80 in a class of sixtyfour, while
I Samuel A. Smoke of Florida was No.
! g. Now, to my mind, this strict
sense of impartiality is one of the
! chief elements that have combined to
| make the Military Academy the best
| of it's kind in the world. l do not
| need Lord (Gen.) Wolseley's endorse
ment that our American soldiers are
| the best on earth, because l know that
| West Point turns out the best disci-