The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1912-05-21
FROL|Cs OF CADETS.
Discipline Sometimes IL Hard &
Maintain.
TALES OFTEN EXAGGERATED
How One West Point Class Celebrated
the New Year With Firing Of Gums,
Explosion Of Pyrotschnlcs and
inferno Of Noise.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

BY GEORGE CLINTON.
Washington.-Maj. Gen. Thomas
Barry IL the superintendent Of the
United States Military Academy. II
the war department were to believe
oil the reports that como In, General
Barry Is having hard time Of it in
enforcing discipline. Government Of
dcials, however, have always taken
with more than grain Of salt stories
that come out. OF West Point. Cen
orally they have been found to grow
In the coming,
Major General Barry was sent to the
Military academy az superintendent
after notable career In Cuba and in
the Philippines, and with fine record
for efficiency and maintenance Of disci-
pline. The last story which came
from West Point was to the effect that
the superintendent virtually put tho
whole corps of cadets under arrest
while he was trying to find out which
Of the five hundred odd boys it was
who yelled Fore for the supe." Fore
is golf term, as everybody knows.
and General Barry, it was said, hear
ing the cadets words through an open
window Of the mess hall, took them as
being subversive of discipline and as
having the ring Of impertinence in
them. He did not find out who it was
that had used the offending words,
but the story Of his method and Of a
good many other things connected with
the incident were found to be untrue.
Every time anything happens at West
Point which Is enlarged in the telling
there are limitations that congress
will start investigating, but the
chances are that congress in this case
will have nothing to do. 81.
How Things Are Started.
To give an idea of how attempts are
made frequently to start the war de-
partment 'goin g. with stories about
West Point, it should be said that in
connection with this General Barry
matter, which was a trivialty in itself,
It was said the affair at the academy
was the most tremendous disciplinary
breach in quarter of century and
that the only thing which equaled it in
the history of the government tnstitu-
ton was when the cadets of Is years
ago managed to haul the reyeille
and sunset gun up to the top
Of the barracks and there discharge
1t, to the smashing of few win
dows and the breaking of many
regulations. g., -.
In the growth Of West Point stories
this can be cited as the one case where
Z yarn dwindled instead of increasing,
and army officers in Washington say
that the fact that the gun episode
happened Is years and more ago, prob
ably was responsible for tho mild char
| acter Of the tale, the men who told
| It having to depend upon hearsay,
which came from the lips Of some one
not familiar with the facts.
The class OF 1880 wanted in some
way to mark tho incoming of the year
pf their graduation. SO its members
resolved to have celebration at the
stroke Of twelve at midnight of the
New Year, January 1, 1880: Now this
affair at the academy, instead of be-
Ing mere matter of taking 9 cannon
on the roof and firing it of, was really
= terrific outbreak Of noise, confusion
and regulation breaking. Some mem.
bers Of tho corps had been given 2
Christmas leave of three days. and
on their return from New York they
brought to the academy q large guam
tity Of fireworks, which they hid in q
convenient place after they landed Ut
the dock. Later these fireworks were
transferred TO- barracks and hid in
mattresses and from that time until
the night Of December u, the eve OF
New Year. great many cadets slept
on veritable mines. f.
Fired OF All tho Guns.
A detachment Of cadets tolled OF
for tho purpose went down to tho river
early on the night Of December 81 and
loaded all the seacoast gums, the siege
battery gun, and old smooth-bore guns
Of Battery Knox. At ton minutes BE-
fore midnight 20 cadets left barracks
and made their way to the river bat
tories. At the stroke Of IL they be.
gan pulling the lanyard and it was
'roar and boom and tear" from every
gun along the plateau's front. The
echoes were awakened far up the Hud.
son to Newbsrg and down to Sing
Sing. It sounded as IL tho post were
under bombardment, and In q twink
ling the whole post was up. officers
runn a,1. mere ana 'neio ~ nan waAeo
So ~. no ",ns s .a.. 800. 70.