The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1906-12-07
The Heis and 1pteIlisepcer.
A WEST POINT STORY
ODD INCIDENT TtiAT MADE GENERAL
BUELL. BREAK A RECORD.

saved General Grant from defeat, was
known in the old army as 1.-The man
who can't laugh" General Buell. was
not grave merely: he was grim. Yet
two yearling cadets at West Point
made General Buell. break Il record.
1t was hot gu the plateau above the
waters of the Hudson, hotter than the
cheek of tieldpiece that has been in
action, so hot that the leaves on the
elm tree shriveled and the feet of the
pacing sentries burned from contact
with the only paved path on the gov
eminent reservation.
The plebes had reported and were
chartered In two divisions of barracks,
the upper class men having been turn
ed out to share quarters with their
comrades in the other divisions.
The June examinations were on.
The board of visitors. of which Gen
eral Buell. was member, had paid ITS
perfunctory visits to mess hall, to aca-
demic building and to barracks. 1t
was 10 o'clock i'll the morning. Two
cadets had been thrown by fate and
by the arrival of the plebes into the
same room of the fifth division Of bar
racks The thermometer in the shade
of the guardhouSe registered 80 de-
gress. In the room in which the two
cadets We're Quartered doubtless it
stood 10 degrees higher.
There had been one morning inSpec-
ton of quarters by an army officer. and
the two yearlings. gasping for breath
in a room into which the sun beat with
no regard for cadet feelings. had every
reason to believe that there would he
no further inspections that morning.
They had stood the ordeal of the exam
inging board at o o'clock. and, with no
studies in hand. they thought they We're
safe until the first call for dinner.
BY the law of the academy every
cadet in quarters was to be in full dress
uniform until IL o'clock. He was not
allowed to smoke His bedding was to
he neatly piled at the head of his bunk.
In other words, the cadet room and the
cadets person We're to be properly or
dered and properly arrayed for inspec-
ton
become an artillery officer.
ITS hotter than that" said his COM
rade.
Lets strip" said the one.
Done" said the other.
And forthwith they stripped. Then
the mattresses We're pulled from the
hunks and thrown under the window,
Il, n
Whit of breeze, grateful though heat
laden.
I'D like to smoke" said the future
artilleryman us he threw himself on
one of the mattresses.
Pm going to smoke" said his COM
rade.
And instantrr pipes We're lighted, and
the room began filling with fragrant
blue fog.
There was Il clinl of 4 sword heard
in the hallway. Its sound brought con-
stcrnation. An inspection was on. Be
fore the two ycarlings had time to
think there was rap. and the door
was thrown open, and In came, not the
ordinary second lieutenant inspecting
officer, but Lieutenant Colonel Henry
NJ. Lazelle. commandant of cadets, and
Major General Don Carlos Buell., Unit
ed States army.
Discipline strikes in. The two cul-
prit cadets sprang to attention in
stantly. heels together. arms hanging
naturally and the little fingers where
the seams of the trousers would have
been if they'd had any trousers on.
The future artilleryman was clothed
in one sock. and in this attire he was
one sock the better of his cOmrade.
They stood there rigid. The position
of soldier was never better main
| tanned. Commandant LaZelle turned
purple with rage ut this graceless
| breach of discipline actually paraded
before a major general of the United
| States army and n member Of the
| board of visitors.
The cadet who one day was to COM
mand battery had dropped his pipe.
| The hot bowl touched his great toe,
and the burning was too much for
| even a soldiers stolidity, and he emit
| ted q very boylike Ouch
General Don Carlos Buell. took In the
| spectacle and all the glorious humor
| of the situation. His grimness was
not proof against such n sight as this.
| He leaned back against table and
! roared, and not even the wrath in the
| commandments face could check his
| roaring.
| Come, general" said the comman-
dant; "let us go. 1 shall report these
young men for three fragrant viola
tons of the rules of the academy"
General Buell. looked at the guilty
| ones and roared again. The comman
dant led the way out Of the room, but
| the culprits heard the laugh Of Buell.
| all the way through the hall. across
the area of barracks, until finally II
| came as a sort of chuckling echo from
| the office of the guardhouse.
| The culprits We're confronted with
the probability of about three months
| confinement to quarters and about
fifty tours of extra guard duty as re
suit of their disregard for discipline
They were i'll the depths for twenty
four hours, and then the list of the
| days deliuCuents was read, and 10
their names did not appear!
General Don Carlos Buell. had had
the laugh Of his lifetime, and because
of the joy of. it he had asked the com
mandant to spare the offenders.-Chi
| cagO Post
| Parliament.
The name parliament" is derived
from the French word "parler," tc
| Tho ,,-nrl nrir,