The Savannah morning news., 1904-04-14
ADMIRAL URIU AT ANNAPOLIS.
A CIassmnte Tells Stories of the Lit
tie Jap.
From the New York Sun.

tie Jap.
From the New York Sun.
Over the coffee and cigars at the Del
aware Society dinner on Thursday night
William H. Stayton, formerly of the
United States Navy and now lawyer
in the city, told some stories of his old
Naval Academy classmate. Sotokichi
Uriu, now Rear Admiral of the Japa-
nese fleet that turned out to be such a
surprising proposition to the Russians.
Congress passed an act back in the
70s allowing Japan to send one cadet
year to the Naval Academy on pay
ment of their pro rata share of the ac-
tual expenses.
Japan punched her privilege and
sent four cadets at one time. They en-
tered in the class of 81. Uriu was one
OF these and Yunoski Enoye, a nephew
of the Mikado, was another. These two
chaps roomed together. We cadets
heard that this was done. at the Mi
kado's request, and we naturally con-
Guided that Uriu was of noble blood,
too.
AT that time class feeling was very
strong in Japan. Unless a man was
of noble blood he could not address
even the remotest ramification of the
royal family without humbling himself
to the ground. Neither Enoye nor
Uriu showed the slightest trace of class
arrogance, however. They were sim
ply good fellows we'll met, like all the
rest of us. But it afterward leaked out
from a roundabout source that Uriu
belonged to the laboring class, the low
est in the Japanese social scale.
las a youngster Uriu was of an in
curing, mechanical turn of mind. He
was the kind of a fellow that could
take a watch to pieces and then put it
together again. A wandering English
carpenter came to Uriu's native vii
lage, and the progressive little Jap
saw that here was an opportunity to
learn new language. He scraped an
acquaintance with the carpenter, and
got him to teach him the English Ian
guage as the Cockney laborer knows
it. In spite of his academy training
Uriu's English is still we'll favored
with Cockneyisms.
Then Uriu heard of the competi-
tive examination that was to be held
at the Royal School of Toxic for the
Naval Academy appointments. 1t was
understood that the examination was
to be open only to the sons of the
nobility. But Uriu presented himself
just the same, and asked to be exam
ined. Japan had already broken pref
ty we'll away from her old feudalistic
ideas. The workingmans son was adj
mitted to the examinations, and he car
ried off one of the prizes. 1t was the
Mikado's idea that chap who had
proved himself the mental equal of the
three other Japs who were going to
Annapolis should be put on the same
social level. 1t was for this reason that
he requested that Uriu and his nephew
should room together.
Uriu was very popular with the
academy boys. He proved his spunk
on a number of occasions, but what
the fellows liked about him was his
absolute squareness. McGiffen, that
rowing fighter who afterward became
mentally unbalanced as the result of
wounds received in the battle of the
Yalu river and who committed sui
eide in the Post Graduate Hospital,
was a classmate of ours. He once
| said of Uriu: That fellows the only
real Christian in the academy
",The description fitted him so well
that he became known as the real
Christian-a name that stuck to him
throughout his academy days.
when he entered the academy he
got a good old-fashioned Annapolis
| hazing. like all the other fellows, and