The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-06

mendation for Gen. Scott Ship, as he
has recently done for the Virginia
/ Military Institute what Col. A. L..
Mills has done for the West Point
Military Academy-made hazing a
thing of the past and elevated the dis
cipline, study and moral influence OF
the institution to a much higher plane.
When 1 read of the heroic deeds of
the boy cadets of the Virginia Mill
tary Institute at the bloody battle of
New Market, Va, and of the brave
boy cadets from the Georgia Military
Institute during Sherman's march
from Atlanta to the sea- l am really
panied by the thought that the great
Empire State of the South does not
appreciate those young heroes enough
to rebuild the Georgia Military knsti-
tute that made them rank with the
best and ablest men in Georgia to-
day. And the Alabama cadets from
the university at Tuscaloosa were also
boy heroes in the Civil War. And up
in North Carolina a whole corps of
boy cadets ran away from a military
school to join the Confederates fighting
in South Carolina. And then the Citi-
del cadets of Charleston were also
boy heroes of the noblest type.
There is one instance of sole sur
vivor" that cannot be called in ques-
ton. Golfers Weekly of June q has
a full page photo engraving of Rev.
DR.. George Deshon, an eminent and
learned Roman Catholic divine, offer
ing the opening prayer of the West
Point Academy, in the Memorial Hall,
at the recent centennial. Standing be-
side Col. Mills, who is in the prime of
life, this veneragle prelate is surround
ed by a Gordon of grayhaired soldiers
who, like himself. years ago gradu-
ated at the Academy. What an inn
pressive and solemn scene it must have
been to the young cadets and visitors
in the audience that filled the hall.
Fifty nine years ago, Cadet Deshon,
second in his class to Gen. w. b.
Franklin, graduated into the Corps of
Topogra phical Engineers, having as
classmates Gems. u. S. Grant, j. j.
Peck, j. j. Reynolds, Rufus ingalls,,
Samuel G. French and others less
noted. But in 1851 he resigned to be-
come a Soldier of Christ in the priest
hood of the Roman Catholic Church,
and to-day he is revered for his piety,
his learning and his great work as Su-
peror of the Paulist Fathers in New
York He stood in prayer at the Acad-
my Memorial Hall the sole sur IVor'
of it's Soldier Preachers, all gone
from k-Clark-Parks-Ster
ling-CulbertSon- Woodbridge Pen
dleton- Reap-Allen-Pars Vinton
-Bledsoe Park Watson Swing =
-Eackley-Allston. The
last named is a new one on my list. In
some way l had overlooked the fact
that he entered the ministry of the
Episcopal Church in South Carolina in
1877, and died Jan. Is, 1900, at Wins
boro where he was rector of st. Johns
Church. He graduated from West
Point in 1858, and his father, Gov. r.
F. w. Allston. graduated in 1921 OF
the none graduates Wallace, McCos-
krey, Crane and Black-the latter a
Georgian, is the sole survivor" and
is an Episcopal clergyman near Brook
Ign, N. Y Deshon, Clark and Curd
became Roman Catholic priests. The
only black sheep" in the whole flock
80 far as known-was Bishop Nc
Coskrey of Michigan. deposed for i'm
morality. When these noble cadets
sheathed the Sword of their Country
and exchanged it for the Sword of
the Spirit" to serve under the Great
Captain of their Salvation" they vir-
tually said:
ITO the higher shrine of love divine
Our lowly feet have trod:
We seek no fame, no other name
Than this-a Priest of God"
Sidney Herbert.