The Dolores star., 1924-08-08

are off in four battleshps for three
months practice cruise in European waters will
not be In continuous need of pity
1t was back in the old days before the Civil vo-
that the middies used to cruise around on Cbes,
peake bay. 1t was in the early Fifties that The
practice cruises We're begun The first cruising
middies nnvigated Chesapeake bay on the John
Hancock and finished up the sIoop of wor
frebie Off the coast of Maine. During the Civil
war the middieS got their practice on Tnion sbfns
searching for Confederate prvateers One of tho
later practice ships was the famous Old sailing
Tigate Constellation, built in 1885, which took n
summer cruise every year from 1871 to 1893. In
the period of American naval decadence after tba
Civil war the mddies got their practice on an,os+
any old kind of hull that would float
AT that their lot was happy compared with that
OF the middies Of the still older days. Originally
mldshiDman was sort of messenger how on a
ship of war to run crrands for the officers tn.
old sea dogs of early days did believe in edu-
catn" these embryo admirals and gave them fe,,
advantages.
In the American navy of a hundred years ago
the mddles were so much to be pied that tbev
came to be scandal. They were pepniIess a
knocked-about, half-starved and ragged lot uere,s
what usually happened when one of our warsbip
touched at foreign port The rniddjes tool
ashore with them everything portable and salabIe
-sextants, chronometers and the like-determined
to have square meal at all costs
Nowadays a middle has clothes lots n, cIo,bo.
white service, blue SERVICE dress uniforms otc
etc, whole wardrobe. In those days tbere
weren't clothes enough to around. Why the
scarcity Of clothing got to be joke all along our
coast. 1t was well understood that not more than
third or half of the midshpmen's mess couId
oe counted on to attend governors ball or otber
social function. SO the hosts and hostesses had ,
good laugh over the minority representation and
the 'bare majority" that staid aboard shin
Speaking Of clothes. everyone knows that q
Uniform plays havoc with maiden's heart Wbv
no less than ten of this years class got married
the minute the graduating exercises were over
Chaplain Sydney X. Evans performing seven mar
riages right on the spot. Doubtless there yera
some real romances; the fame of the sailor as n
lover is worldwide. Anyway, an ensign from Ar,
zona married maid from Charleston s O.. a
hero from New York city captured bride from
Halifax n. s.. and an embryonic admiral from
Utah made an Annapolis beauty strike her colors
And when the 800 undergraduates went aboord
the warships for foreign waters bound-wbat a
scene was staged at Santee basin. Girls pIrs
girls in the crowd on the dock say farewell for
three long months-and maybe forever-and not
few of them In tears as subchasers and cutter,
carried away the middies to the big fighting sbins
Out on the bny.
These are the warships Of the squadron: wvo
ming (fngshp), New York, Texas and Arkansas
Vice Admiral Newton A. McCully is the SQUADRON
commander. The senior officer aboard the hap-
ship representing the Naval academy and in di-
rect charge of the middies. Is Commander Charles