The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-19

roughness of their surroundings was | reflected in the customs and inter course of the younger officers and that when they were not fighting Malays they were falling upon one another. The so-called code of honor" MT. Benjamin declares, became strained enough to include the squabbles of boys, which today would be settled by fisticuffs.S It was unfortunate that the commanding officers of the navy should have dealt with these affairs with the same pompous solemnity with which they manage their own, and permitted the youngsters to main and kill one another at will. But they took their cue from the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. who an- nounced that, while he was determined l to stop dueling between officers and citizens. he would not interfere be- tween oft4ers, whose profession is fighting and who are trained to arms The newspapers of the period furnish sad record of these encounters. Mid shipman Sherburne killed Midshipman Key. Midshipman May mutilated Mid shipman Baldwin; Midshipman Wood seriously wounded Midshipman Barton. and the list might be extended indefi- nitely.
 A Case of "yVhitewash."
 The Wood-Barton duel is especially
 
 the twisted ideas of discipline. as we'll as of honor. which seem then to have prevailed. After the affair, Commodore Elliott, then commanding the Mediter- ranean squadron, put Barton under ar rest, refused to allow him to come aboard the flagship for treatment, and finally left him in Smyrna when the ship sailed. There was a great outcry in this country against Elliott for bru tality, and. as something had to be done, a courtmartial was ordered on Wood-not for fighting a duel and maiming q messmatc for life, but be- cause while attached to the schooner Shark, at smyrna. between November 10, 1885, and January 1. 1886. he did run into debt to one Paul Bontface, 'when,' as the specifications ran, he had no means of paying he same thereby causing the Commodore oftthe squadron to be aroused from his bed at midnight previous to the morning of sailing, to order the purser of the schooner to liquidate his debt from funds destined for the use of the squadron And thereupon the court. still ignoring the | duel, solemnly proceeded to convict him l of running into debt and held not prov en the charges that the Commodore | was aroused or the public funds exclus- l lively appropriated to pay Midshlpman | Woods debts
 The youngsters went on killing one l another. and such journals as the | Southern Literary Messenger and others l in the sections of the country where | the code flourl5hed more luxuriantly 1 than in the frozen North. printed, ele- 1 giac verses on the victims and copied l their epitaphs as they were written in | Johnsonian style by bereaved relatives"
 Empress Got Middies Involved.
 One of the most interesting affairs | of honor discussed by MT Benjamin oc- cured during the visit of the Queen | Dowager of Prussia to the American | at Genoa in 1S43. She had | expressed a desire to see the vessel, and the commodore ordered every ceremony | rendered in her honor. When she went aboard the vessel she was greeted by | the commodore. near whom the mid shlpmen. in their best uniforms and high-eocked hats, were drawn up in After she had passed the under escort of the commo- dore an affair of honor was precipf- tated, beginning with dialogue which MT. Benjamin describes as follows:
 Fine woman that. remarked Mid shipman Bier to Midshipman Cook as the Queen Dowager walked aft toward the cabin.
 Don't agree with you returned Cook shortly.
 What taste!
 Taste-who the deuce accused you of having any?'
 Not you--you haven't sense enough ---swabp
 Sir hissed the other. were 1t not for the respect due the quarterdeck.