The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-19

interesting references to naval codes of honor" are contained in the recent
 work of MT. Park Benjamin, who was a
 midshipman at the Naval Academy in 1867, and whose volume, monumental in character, is to be found in the library gives a close-range study of life at the Naval Academy and in the navy from the earliest days to the present time.
 The Surgeon Was aWise." In one chapter relating to dueling and
 early formative influences in the lives Of midshipmen, MT. Benjamin makes this reference to the Naval Academy: Although dueling in the navy had become nominally unfashionabIe, the forty-one midshipmen revived it at the school. One pleasant summers even- ing just after supper two of them had the impudence to fight behind the mess- room building. The one who fell was
 borne gloriously from the Held of
 honor by his comrades to the gas
 house. They then called in Surgeon
 Lockwood to explore for the bullet
 which they told him had been received
 by accident in his hip. but Lockwood
 uncovered the fraud by suddenly ask
 ing. What distance? and getting the answer, Ten paces,' from two or three of the sympathizing lookers-on before they Dethought themselves.
 Another duel came off at Bladens-
 burg, strange to say, with a similar wound, and at this time the President
 dismissed all the participants, although they were reinstated some years later. Upshur was not in posi- tion to object to duels among midship- men at the Naval Academy. since he had himself endeavored to resign while a past midshlpman in order to call out his first lieutenant"
 Creighton And Perry Duels.
 Two other duels described by MT. Benjamin are the Creighton and Perry. duels. Referring to the latter. which occurred shortly after the former, he says:
 Captain Oliver Hazard Perry not only grossly insulted his marine officer. Captain Heath, but also assaulted him. Perry attempted to dispose of the mat ter with a doubtful apology. When the court was detailed the members were the same as in the Creighton pro- ceeding, with Creighton now a judge instead of a prisoner, and Perry pris oner instead of judge. The facts were conclusively proved and the guilt of the accused manifest. but the sentence merely imposed a private reprimand' from the Commodore, Thereupou for ty-one commissioned officers of both the line and stan united in q remon strance to Congress, in which. besides bitterly denouncing the partiality of the courts-martial. they said that they have no guarantee for the safety of their persons but the use of arms, l which the laws of the country have 1 placed in their hands. and that person. al strength with which nature has | blessed them.'"
 Mir. Benjamin says the commanding | officers of the fleet forwarded coun- | terblast demanding the removal of the | signers of the memorial to Congress, | and that the House of Representatives, after bewailing everything, did noth- 1 Ing except express the wish that ''offi- ,ers of the navy will exert themselves .o heal the wounds with which the dis :, ,ipline of the navy has been threat ened," and tabled the question.
 Mir. Benjamin says that the captains who complained against this memorial were sustained and "continued their | .yrannica1 behavior. and the midship- men, when they became captains in urn, forgot their early grievances and initiated them. Thus the young officers ,f the navy for many q long day learn ed that discipline was merely the ar )itrary enforcement of the voice of an lutocrat, and their intelligence and ad- suffered in proportion"
 Slight Pretexts Sufficient.
 For thirty years after the close of f he war of 1872. the service of young ,ation, with little glory. and consisted argely of police work against piracy n the West Indies, the Leyant and Asiatic waters, and in the African | ,oast MT. Benjamin says that the