The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-08-20
CADETS
.DRANKM|LKP|U
Court-M Atrial Recommended
Dismissal OF Four Guilty
Seniors.
PRESIDENT M ORE LENlENT5
if----- ------------------------
Confines Men to Barracks Until
Next March. With Extra
Duty Tours.

Z los. u ~ +. +
New York, August 1o.-Four West:
Point cadets, all members OF the first
or senior class at the Military Academy,
who have been on trial before a gen.
eral court-martial for several weeks
past, charged with drinking a milk
punch, have been found guilty and their
dismissal from the academy recon-
Imended to the President. The papers
were submitted to the President by Adj
jutant-G General Ainsworth, and the
President, after reading the evidence
approved the sentence and then COM
8nuted 1t to what is perhaps the sever
est punishment not involving dismissal
in the history Of the academy
The cadets who were proved to have
partaken of the punch and all OF whom
are effected by the Presidents review
of the case are Wilfrid Mason Blunt.
of Maryland; Charles Laurence Byrne.
lof Washington, D. c.; Harry james
Simpson, of Michigan. Blunt and
Byrne are sons of retired officers, while
Simpsons father is Major Wendell L.
Simpson, who Is on duty at the Army
Building in Whitehall Street, this city.
Colonel Byrne, the father of another OF
the cadets, is an ex-surgeon-general Of
the Department of the East, on Cover
nor's Island.
The predicament into which the ca
diets got themselves was the result OF
| a little celebration they got up when
| they became first classmen last June.
| Nobody knows how they got the whis-
key that was dropped into the punch;
neither Is 1t known how the quart of
milk that was another OF the principal
( ingredients was smuggled into bar
racks. Rumor has It. however. that
"some Kind friend" brought In the
stuff that made all the trouble.
Drastic Regulations.
There Is no regulation OF the acad-.
| envy that is more drastic than the one
| relating to intoxicating drinks. the
punishment for drinking or having In
toxicants in ones possession being
| United States. and as the cadets In
this case were all upper classmen
there is no doubt that they realized
that they were taking their careers
In their hands when they decided to
make the punch.
The recipe for the punch was two
quarts Of milk, a pint Of rye whiskey.
two grated nutmegs. half cup OF
sugar two lemons. and the skin OF
one orange. The name. of the cadet
who made 1t was not made public. but
llle llilpIeSSlOIi lHe I1uuoOIl IllSIl
| lands is that 1t tasted good. None OF
the cadets drank much Of the punch,
| for the good reason that there was
not sufficient quantity on hand for
| more than two drinks for those who
! congregoted in that darkened room on
| the night in question. There was no
/ hilarity connected with the making
/ Of the punch, and nobody would prob
| ably have ever heard OF 1t had not
| First Lieutenant Benjamin Z. Grey,
i Twenty-flrst United States Infantry.
who was the officer in charge that
night in the course of the evening
made tour OF the barracks.
UP to the moment that Lieutenant
Grey began that inspection, which
was to have such disastrous results
4 for four OF the cadets who were In
| the room where the punch was. there
i had not been a drop of whiskey In
the barrack building for moro than
five years, and great was Grey's sur
prise when as he entered the room,
he whitfield something in the air that
reminded him of the gilded drinking
| palaces of Broadway.
| Whats this?" asked Grey. drawing
in another long breath, There was =
scurrying Of feet. and when the lights
We're turned on only SIX cadets re-
manned in the room Two Of them were
able to prove that they had not tasted
! of the punch, and SO they did not fig
ure in the dismissal recommendations
that We're sent to President Taft a few
days ago. !.
Before Court-Mnrtial.
to retire to their cots for the night
and tha Lnext norninc. tha mat en- wa a