Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-04-25
No LUXURY THERE
What House Committee viii See
at West Point.
HARD BEDS IN BARE ROOMS
Simplicity and Discipline Carried &c
the Extreme in Quarters Where
the Cadets Live-Further
Economy Not Needed.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

BY GEORGE CLINTON.
WashingtOn.-Most Of the members
Of the house committe on military al
fairs soon will be designated to act
az board Of visitors to the United
States military academy to study the
institution and to make recommends
tons for changes. 1t will be case
OF civilians offering suggestions to the
soldier superintendent and comman-
dant. It Is possible that Speaker
Champ Clark may have membership
on the visiting board
Speaker CIark's mental picture Of
cadets room at the military acad-
envy probably includes a Turkish car
pet, two diVans, six rocking chairs,
two mahogany tables, lambrequins
and curtains, spring beds, hair mat
tresses, down pillows, hot and cold
running water, bathroom annex and
a fountain playing perfume from
reVeiIle to taps and from taps to
reveille.
The speaker was poor boy, but
when some cadet takes him into quar-
ters and shows him the combined bed
room, Washroom, sitting-room and
study-room which the West Pointer
uses. the hardships of Mr.. Clark's
rose leaves.
Here's the Way Cadets Live.
The speaker will be shown into a
room with four bare walls, curtainIess
windows, rugless floors and table
cI0thless tables. If Mr.. Clark be bare
foot when he enters that room he will
get splinters in his feet but he won't
get them dirty for a speck of dirt on
that bare floor would cost the cadet
occupant of the room three days lib
erty. There is a liberal coat Of white
wash on the walls Of the rooms of the
cadets at West Point. If a reckless
cadet should hang a picture Oh the
wall, even though 1t were a picture of
his dead mother, he'd be shut up a
week in quarters and walk ten extra
guard tours for introducing the "ener-
waiting influence of art into the life
Of the soldier"
If Speaker Clark should be inclined
to examine the beds he will find that
they are hard, that the mattress is
about two inches thick and that the
pillows In size are like unto that
which the man in the vaudeville per
Torrance doing a Pullman sleeping
car stunt pulls out of his ear after a
long hunt in the berth. He may also
notice that the cadet washstand is of
pine, dear at so cents; that his water
pitcher is a bucket and that his com
bined drinking cup. tooth mug and
medicine glass is a gourd dipper.
It is possible that the speaker viii
also notice that the two cadet occu-
pants of the room have no chairs to
offer visitors. They have one
straightforward affair each, so straight
backed, IN fact, that the occupants
can't lounge out of the position of a
soldier if they desire.
There has been no let-up in the grip
or the old iron hand of discipline and
simplicity at West Point since the
new barracks were built. There are
still bare floors, whitewashed walls,
hard beds straight-backed chairs
wooden water buckets and gourd dip,
pers. There is a chance to give the
cadets the necessary number of cubic
feet of air in the new quarters, with
an opportunity to take a bath when
the spirit moves
After MIR. Clark has seen the boys
sweep their own floors and fill their
water buSkets, and has watched them
drill and work for sixteen hours out
Of the tweRty-four, he probably will be
in a mood to tell congress that econ,
omy is all right, but that it ought to
begin somewhere else than at West
Point. At any rate, If he doesn't say
this to his colleagues there will be a
disappointed lot of embryo United
States army officers on the Hudson
river fifty miles above New York city
Romance Of Everglades.
The matter Of the reclamation OF
the Florida Everglades recently has
been the subject of discussion in con
gross. Moreover, there has been
something sayoring of sharp trouble
for the agricultural department in the
affair.
Not all the darkness and the TO
nance of the Everglades passed with
the ending of the long wars with the
Seminoles, who made that region
their stronghold. Semi-wild men live
in the recesses of the gIades today
and tragedies stiu frequently MARI
the land Game in abundance still
finds a place from the hunter in The
iungles, and at least two species O.
birds. the Carolina paroquet and the
great ivory-bilIed woodpecker. ex
tinct in all other parts OF the United
States, have managed there to keel
their race from determination.
Defiance of Oseeola.
The older tragedies of the Ever
glades. dark as they were. hold tn,
most interest. 1t was on the edge O
the jungle country that OsceoIa tn,
Seminole, when asked to sign a treaty
with the whites by which the lanC
was to be given up, drew his knife
struck its blade through the documen
of transfer, and said: There is m,
signature"
1t has been said that It takes onr
one drop of red blood to make al
American Indian. The EvergIade
once furnished proof of the saying
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