The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-02-28

l
Guilty as though the payment had been
guaranteed by the signatures of every
banker in Wall Street. The debtors
are the members of the class Of 1905
in the United States Military Academy
at West Point. They owe the money
principally for jewelry, confectionerles,
Photographic work, and rare hotel bills.
The pay-after- graduation credit sys-
| tenn at the Point is as we'll established
as the rest of the Academy's iron
bound. and better known, customs.
| Few, If any, of next June's class will
emerge from their four years Of toll
free from debt, and the financial con-
fldence their creditors have reposed in
them has been practically unlimited.
They could order whatever they liked,
and some Of them are lin for" as much
as 5000 or $7O0 apiece
The result is that the good spend
ers" viii see their equipment funds
wiped away Immediately after gradua-
tion day. This fund is the accumula-
ton of small monthly sums retained
by the Academy authorities from the
cadets salaries. 1t should aggregate
about $500, which Is intended to give
| the newly made army officer a start
in the way of uniforms and incidental
necessities. Fortunately the officer
| finds the same ease as the cadet in OBJ
tanning credit, so that the swampng
Of his fund simply prolongs his period
of indebtedness. Whereas he owed
money to New York photographers,
hotel men and sweetmeat dealers be-
fore graduation, he afterwards owes 1t
to the tailor.
A well-known jewelry house, big
grocery firm, an uptown hotel pro-
prietor, and a photographer are the
most regular creditors of the cadets.
From the jewelry store the embryo
soldiers buy Christmas and wedding
presents and the like.
Enclosed find my visiting card" a
cadet writes to the firm. "Please ship
to - a suitable gift, costing
s."
Sometimes he furnishes to the jew
elry house an elaborate description of
the person for whom the gift is intend
ed-maybe his sweetheart in a far-off
State, or his sister or his mother. The
firm has a man who has studied the
duty of selecting presents. The cadet
learns later what has been sent. The
amount is placed on his account-for
settlement after he graduates. If he
should die or should be expelled. or
for any reason should fail to make
good" his classmates club together to
pay his bill, however large or small it
may be. The merchant knows his
money is sure to come.
"Do you have to pay INTEREST," q
cadet was asked last week
"Oh, no." was the reply. "Thcy
charge us fancy prices for everything,
so as to avoid the trouble of calculating
interest"
From the grocery establishment,
which carries candies and fruits as a
side line, the cadets receive frequent
shipments, especially during the sum-
mer camping time.
"What do you do with the sweets?
Are they for gifts to the girlsg' was
inquired.
''Not a bit" said the cadet. "The
girls who come to West Point give us
candy by the peck, you know These
boxes we get from New York are ad
ditional. OF course, it's against the
rules for us to receive packages of any
sort or money in letters. The grocer
ships the eatables TO a man we know
in Highland Falls. which is a mile be-
low West Point. The boxes are hauled
up to us in a wagon and smuggled into
camp or barracks
THE PHOTOGRAPH ACCOUNT.
If a young woman were to spend as
much for photographs as does West
Point cadet, she would be open to the
charge of extreme vanity. But the
cadet has to do it. There are the folks
at home, calling for pictures of him
and his uniform every little while. His
young women frlends-and he has
many of them if he is a cadet of the
usual calibre-are making similar de-
mands, and there are scores of others.
The result is that the New York cam
era man reaps a harvest of debts,
which, like those Of the other dealers,
are as certain of payment as they are
unsecured. The cadet never signs
note. There is a rumor that mer-
chant once attempted to build up a
clientele at the academy and demanded
written promises to pay, and that the
cadets, indignant at the reflection on
their honor, swiftly boycotted him.
One of the creditors who is sure to
have almost every member Of each |
graduating class on his list, is the pro- |
prietor Of the hotel at which the young |
sters stop in passing through New |
York during their infrequent furloughs.
For years the cadets have had free
rein there, getting whatever the house
afforded without restriction as to cost. |
They register, eat, drink, occupy the
best rooms available, use theatre tick |
cts bought with money advanced by |
the hotel--all with no thought of pay
ing until years or months afterward.
For the first time they begin to fig
ure up their debts when the last year
is well under way. About this time,
for instance, the graduates-to-be of