The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1916-10-06
G0LNE 70 LItZ7YG QzI4REE12S

the department Of mathematics and T sot yoIiontIv
" ~ WIN 10 make our quarters at least habtabIe
. li'.'' furniture has an eXasperating way Of
icPieSehiihg the combined tastes of long line
OF former occupants
1--WE were ASSIGNED to - .o,, d. A.. :, =, -,
norough row. the one where Admiral Theodoric
Porters daughter wrote her nomo with do
'"ohu Oh Il window pane when she was n child
ana he but Il lieutenant. Admiral Henson orr
present chief Of operations lived in tbe somo not
ana oouDtiess endured remnants of the same fur
hlture when he an ensign The midsbinn,on
called the old place the Corrals and sometimes
the lncubatOrs-young devils! The whole row,
~ gone now to make way for green lawn but
It's memories will go out only with the last of the
souls who peoped the shabby rooms
II think it must bc this succession of roon,o
facing at different times the same problems and
dlfhculties, stepping actually into each others
footsteps in work and play, which gives lis that
splendid spirit of the service the warm brother
hood of thought and action that no outsider NAV
really understand 1t begins with the plebe class
in the academy and goes on down n mans life till
he IL struck off the list forever and its warmth is
his Children's heritage. II is the unspoken gcne-
rosty OF the upper-cass men at the academy To
lend hand to youngsters (third-claSS mcn) or
plebe alike. 1t begins i'm discipline and ends i'm
justice.
"It is the cooperation of officer with men II
stands behind our guns and sweatS i'm the stokers
he'll. 1t is the chap who stays aboard TO take
another fellows duty that some waiting wife
may be happy, some child discover that the pho
tograph he is taught to call father isn't Just
makebelicve. 1t is, more than any other one
thing fleet efficiency. Its steady, unchanging ex-
iStence is the armament against which politicians
errors break like froth. 1t is our safeguard for
protection and against mllitarsm.
"My father had never let me visit the naval
academy a girl for fear might marry n naval
officer, so l looked forward To meeting my first
midshipman with a curious bareback of youth,
almost as IL were to see them through the eyes
OF girl. i had determined when we went To
duty at the academy to have home place for
the boys who not invited out very much.
My husband told me once long years ago. when
! had gone all the way from Boston to Gibraltar
TO be with him for four days. that had
ever asked him out to a single meal at the time
he was at the academy.
"I never forgot that little confidence or the look
in his eyes and when picked my first midship-
man TO invite to our quarters II was because he
said Yes, me'nm' to me and didn't know what to
do with his hands.
'"The Sunday after s. reported we went to
chapel In the academy. We wse seated well
back and I'm the shadow of one Of the side bal
comics. IL infinitely quiet there the very
light held a quality Of silence and the rows and
rows Of empty pews beneath the splendid dome
seemed TO be waiting tensely with me for some
expected sound.
81 looked up into the rapidly filling balconies.
So many girls. go yohng and eager. men and
women. town folk and visitors. Then. my