The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-10-11
A HEALTHY AND HUSKY
LOT ARE WEST POINTERS
But One Death From Sickness at the
Academy in Ten Years.


That the recent order permitting the
West Point cadets to smoke under GER
tain prescribed conditions will make
any particular difference in the Young
mems habits with respect to the actual
use of tobacco-that is, as to the guam
tity used-is not believed by the old
tstagers who have known the cadet for
many years.
The cadets have always smoked, reg
ulations to the contrary notwlthstand-
ing. The only difference now is that
they will smoke openly instead of
sneakingly, and by that much the NOR
al tonic Of the Military Academy at
mosphere will be invigorated.
Not only have the cadets always
smoked, but melancholy as is the adj
mission, some of them have even chew
ed tobacco, though the cadet corps of
the United States Military Academy at
West Point is the healthiest body of
young men in any educational insti-
1 NoNAcAA III NAic Sou4iAi IL IOI III the
world.
This is not advanced by experts in
vital statistics as an argument in IA
vor of the use of tobacco by young
men. Anti-tobacco people, if they
choose, are at liberty to say that the
breath of the cadet corps is astonish-
ingly good in spite of the use of to-
bacco. But the good breath is there.
It cannot be explained away. 1t is
shown in the steel muscles under the
gray cadet uniform, the bronzed healthy
color in the cadet cheeks, the clear
snappy CLINT in the cadet eye and the
buoyant elasticity in the cadet bear
ling and movements.
One of the most surprising features
of this superb physical condition OF
the cadets is the rapid way in which
riosities of the Military Academy's life
is the transformation, after a few
weeks of the wholesome life in the
school, which young men fresh from
home undergo To appreciate this,
one should see the flabby, shambling,
llanguid and generally unpromising ma
lterial which nearly always comes with
each fresh batch of candidates, and
then see it after even a fortnights
grind in the Academy routine. Parents
would hardly recognize their own sons
after a month or six weeks of it. It
lis a very impressive object lesson in
what may be done for young men phys
ically if you have the machinery of
discipline to do it with and the -knowl-
ledge of how to set about the job. as
the medical and other officers at West
Point have.
The young man who only manages
to stay no more than a year at the
ACADEMY goes out into the world with
the all but indelible stamp of West
Point upon him and with a foundation
of health and habits of orderliness OF
living which are likely to last him
through life.
In the last ten years there has been
only one death from sickness in the
Military Academy, a record which it is
safe to say cannot be matched by any
Iother school in the country. The NOR
tally rate among the students. in
other words, is practically nil. Aside
from such incidents as colds, Commissions
and other trif1es the hospital authori-
ties have comparatively little call for
their services. They devote their time
and most successfully, to carrying on a
warfare of prevention instead of a war
. fare of cure. All that the latest re-
searches of science have discovered in
the way of sanitation are applied with
1.-THE iron inflexibility of military meth
DDS.
The menu of the cadets mess hall Is
inspected every day by the chief sur
geon of the post. All complaints as to
quality of food served are rigidly in
Ivestigated by him. If by chance the
food gets to running too much toward
this or that article of diet, the surgeon
directs a change of the character which
to him seems advisable. If physical
symptoms in the corps are developed
he adapts the food to meet those
symptoms.
There are climatic conditions at West
Point which make the post far from
ideal as an al1-the-year-round place of
residence. There is often intense cold
in the winter and intense heat in the
summer The transitions in winter
from ice, snow and cold to mildness.
slush and thawing weather are abrupt
land trying. One might say that prac-
lcorps suffer are due to these climatic
Iordeals combined with individual care
lessness after the sharp exercise which
makes up so large a part Of the cadets
daily routine of life.
Influenza, now and then case of
bronchitis. catarrhal troubles, and
plain colds about cover the list of
cadet Affections in the way Of illness.
And when they have even a cold the
cadets go to the hospital and stay in
bed for a couple of days until they are
over it, instead of going about their
duties until something worse is de-
iveloped, as is so often the case in the
rough and tumble of life.
/ The cadet when he is eft" has plen-
ty to do. He never has an opportunity
to forget that he is at West Point.
Every hour, nearly every minute, Of
his time has its allotted purpose and
generally its allotted, and by no means
trif1ing, task. It is work, work, work
and yet again work, when he is in
working condition; but few mothers