The Minneapolis journal., 1905-11-23
MINNEAPOLIS MILDLY INVOLVED
in ANNAPOLIS CADET TRIAL
JAEGER SECOND
OF ME)RINEIHER
Minneapolis Cadet Says the Fight
Was Terrific Branch's Death
Unexpected.

Minneapolis Central high school and a
member of the third-year class, United
States naval academy, was a witness
Of the terrific fstfight between Minor
Meriwether. Jr.,. and James R. Branch,
Jr,:, at, the naval academy, which, it is
alleged. caused, the death Of the latter.
MI. Jaeger offciated as second for
Meriwether, member Of his class, and
has been one of the witnesses before the
courtmartial that is Investigating the
fight, now Of national prominence.
( Jaeger is the son of Luth Jaeger, one
new ne ' Union State ban bank easlsi Mr. jaeger eeT
has received several letters from his
son referring to the fight, and is highly
interested in the esinquiry Both Mr.. and
Mrs. Jaeger are much panied at the out
come Of the battle and tho they realize
that their son is absolutely free from
blame, dread the prominence he has
gained, Young Jaeger is 2l and en-
+, The illusions to the fight contained
in the letters Of Jaeger are highly in
teresting and dispute some of the pub
lished accounts of this particular en-
counter and others that have taken
place In one Of the later letters he
"The Baltimore Sun today contains
an editorial regarding the fight. The
whole article is a da1nnable lie. Every
midshipman who. has seen the thing is
at a point where anger cannot express
his state Of mind. One Of the things
the Sun says is that code exists
an upper classman for any offense, can m
get even by forcing. the upper class
man who reported him to fight. Fur
thermore, it is stated that this was the
cause of the Meriwether fight. There
is absolutely no code or anything else
which permits. Of such a way of getting
even. There is, on the contrary, dis
tinct understanding among all the
classes that no one who is reported by
an upper classman for any offense shall
attempt to get even .....
Called Branch a Coward. r.
Mr.. Jaeger then states that the Meri-
wether-B Branch fight was the outcome of
alleged insults offered the former, by
Branch when the latter was the mid
were the quarters of Meriwether. He
declares that the act of Branch was an
imposition and entirely out of the line
of his duty. HeSadmits that Meriweth-
er called Branch a "coward' = and other
epithets, but denies these words were
provoked by his having been reported
by Branch. ,..:S, fFa.s.@sss ..=t
Young Jaegerspe came connected with
the fight entirely aagainst his will and
his consent to act asda second was a
concessionat to the urgent solicitation OF
hiseclassmate. He says in this connec.
tion:
&HWhen he asked me to be his second
I told him he ought to get some one
else, because [ knew absolutely nothing
about prizefghting. He insisted and
finally agreed to act for him out OF
respect for classmate.' -~ .sz.--#t.
Young Jaeger then describes how he
met the seconds of Branch and rules
gloves, place, ETC.. for the fateful event
were chosen. He states, not know
ing his words were to be repeated, that
he took little active part in the negotia
tions, telling his father that when the
Branch seconds suggested the: referee
he merely asserted. The gloves agreed
upon were such as are used in bag
punching, as stated in the dispatches.
A Terrific Fight. -
The following extract from a lette
written Sunday night, few hours
after the fight, gives vivid descriptio
of the event: ...,.