The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-17
NORMAN RAMsEY's SUCCESS.
VIII Be Manager of West Point Foot
ball Team Next Season.

Three years ago Norman Ramsey
graduated from the Topeka high school.
and two years before that he returned
from service in the Philippines with the
Twentieth Kansas.
Three years ago this summer he en-
tered the West Point military academy.
For the past year ne has been a lieu
tenant in the corps of cadets and as
sistant manager of the football team.
During the coming school year he will
be manager of the football team and
ne has been recommended to be a cap
tain. There are some 145 members of
his class and several hundred more in
the school. There are only about a
dozen or less captains and only one
football manager. That is a pretty good
record.
Ramsey will graduate in June 1905
and will become a second lieutenant
in the United States army and he will
receive some extra pay for the reason
that he saw active service in the Phil
ippines. After his graduation he will
have a three months vacation before
joining the regiment to which he will
be assigned. He is now with the West
Point cadets at the st. Louis EXPOSE
ton.
Now all the foregoing will be read
aloud by Norman Ramsey to the rest
of the corps of cadets. That's a custom
they have at the Point. Ramsey will
have to stand on a dry goods box or
a. barrel head and read all this at the
top of his voice. West Pointers have
done it before him and will do it after
ne graduates. 1t is one of the sacred
customs of the academy.
Whenever a. West Point cadet writes
home to his folks and his letter, or any
part of it, is printed in the home paper
in some manner, unknown but sure,
those papers always reach the West
Point academy and fall into the hands
of some one other than the hero of the
article and then it is that the cadet
- 10,
box or the barrel and read all that to
the other cadets. So, as Ramsey's con-
temporaneous warriors in gray viii in
that same unknown manner get hold
of this it is just as well to give Ram
sey something real good to read to
them from his prominent position on
the box or barrel.
Since Ramsey went to the academy
the son of General Phil Sheridan was
there and ne could not escape this
sacred tradition. Young Sheridan was
made to ride UP and down the drill
ground, astride a broom stick Tor
horse. shouting the words of his illus
triolls father at The Battle of WincheS-
ter. when he reached there. Young
Sheridan on the broom stick was forced
to shout. Turn boys, turn, we're go
ing back while the corps of cadets
looked on we'll pleased.
So, when Ramsey reads this to the
assembled cadets he might tell the ca
diets that his father lived as neighbor
poet, now commissioner of pensions,
and that while his father was thus liv-
ing as neighbor and the son was in
Luzon with the Twentieth Kansas
s'IronouilI' wrote the following rhyme
with him as the inspiration:
have got a wealthy neighbor
Who is living without labor
VINO has cash and stocks and bonds
and stuff and asks me out to dine.
And have another neighbor,
Living by the hardest labor,
Who's got a Twentieth Kansas boy out
on the firing line.
There's no fun in being weary,
But if you should put the query,
(which of these two peoples places
would you take?" Well, opine.
Not the man that's got the money.
But the man that's got the sonny
Got the snorting, rip-cavorting, boy
down on the firing line