TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL, SATURDAY EVENING,
lAG-fflCEKT QUARTERS FOR OUR
lAvAL
CADET
S
"T WAS in accordance with the en
j lightened sentiment of the age that
t on.--tress two years aso made a pre
liminary .".ooropi iution of $l,C0O.Ou0 look
ins? towurJ the complete renovation of
the United states Xaval academy at
Annapolis and the ultimate possi
ble expenditure of $8,000,000. Aside
from the 'objection that a contem
plation of &ums well up in the
millions is likely to beget a spirit of
waste and extravagance, it is universal
ly a -knowludged that there is a true
" onomy in la ing the foundations of
pu'olie institutions broad and deep and
erecting buildings that shall defy the
0"rrodinjT tooth of time and express
aren't cturally the status of national
a'lvaiict'ro lit.
"While the general sitmtion of the
Naval academy is considered as an
Meal one, vim ins its natural features
an t imnuViK't environment, yet so far
as most of its structures are concerned
"jaekies" have or should have received
their education and training.
Additions have been made from time
to time to the grounds about the fort
until at present Uncle Sam owns sev
eral hundred acres, and is contemplat
ing an increase of his holdings by
dredging out the flats of the river and
bay.
Beautifully situated as are the
grounds, with the Chesapeake north
and east and one side bounded by the
Severn river, the buildings to be seen
there about 50 in number look as if
they might have been shaken out of
some giant's pepper box and dumped
here and there as chance decreed all
over the lot.
Take th armory, for instance, as an
example of the makeshifts which neces
sity has compelled the academy to
adopt. It was built in 1SS1, is one story
high, 2ii0 feet long, S3 feet in width
and is one of the most modern build
ings here. The committee appointed a
weight of the roof. It required the rig
ging of ropes and spars before it could
with safety be taken down.
Such incidents as these furnish some
of the spice of the cadets' shore exist
ence without which the "eternal grind"
might become monotonous. It is not
known that they have formally com
plained, for one of the first lessons they
learn at Annapolis is discipline and
strict obedience: but it is a matter of
current comment that the sanitation is
bad, that many ordinary conveniences
to be found in modern dwellings are
conspicuous by their absence and that
the present accommodations are so in
adequate that instead of there being a
sleeping room and a study for each pair
of students, as in the average college,
one small room has to answer every
purpose for two during the four long
years of attendance.
But ail th's is soori to be changed, if
the intentions of congress are to be
taken as a criterion. The poor cadet
begin at the bottom and work a radical
renovation of the entire institution, so
that there will be located at Annapolis
in. the end not merely an academy for
the training of naval men, but a.-teal
university with everything that the
term implies.
The pictures presented on this page
will convey a more correct conception
than mere words of the character and
magnitude of the vast undertaking.
Starting out with most favorable topo
graphical conditions, which lend them
selves to beautiful landscape and
architectural effects, the results will be
as great from the artistic as from the
economic point of view. According to
the general plans, the key of the scheme
will be the magnificent memorial chap
el, with its foundations. 160 feet square,
and a dome rising to the height of 150
feet The disposition of the various
buildings will be such as not only to
bring every structure Into the place
most convenient for it, but also to
buildings, such as the officers' and ca
dets' quarters, the academic building,
the lyceum, physics and chemistry
building, boathouse and armory.
The fine old trees which now adorn
the campus are to be preserved, while
the lawns will be extended toward the
river, and the broad parade ground
will be enlarged by moving the sea
wall, which Is of immense monolithic
blocks, toward the river channel.
"When the proposed plan is carried
out, the buildings will be in three main
groups one on each of three sides
of the campus, the other side be
ing bounded by the basin. The ca
dets' quarters will be on the right
entering from the town, the academic
buildings on the left, and the offi
cers' quarters, as at present, on a line
parallel with and just inside the wall
which incloses the grounds on the side
toward the town. The cadets' quarters,
standing between the campus and-the
great parade ground, will be flanked on
On the shapely pier Jutting into the
Severn river and adorned with its flam
ing beacons 75 feet high, stands ths
power house, which will not only supply
power throughout the grounds, but will
serve, with its engines, machinery and
boilers, as an object lesson in engineer
ing for the students.
It is well known, of cqurse.that what
West Point is to the army: Annapolis is
to the navy, though electricity, lan
guages, steam and steam -engineering
are in a measure substituted for and
carried further than mechanics, chem
istry, tactics and. the art of .war in
general. The manner of appointment is
the same, howeverf-one cadet from
each . congressional district,'; to: be be
tween 15 and 20 years of age and sub
ject to a mental and physical examina
tion. As at West-Point, also, he must
pass a creditable examination in Eng
lish grammar. United States history, al
gebra and the "three it's", and a phys
ical test 'as well, so that not more than
40 per cent of the applicants are liable
to get in. - - - , .. , .
Examinations for admission, take
place in May and September,, those
who pass in the spring being quartered
on the old war vessel Santee, which
likewise serves as a prison ship for ca
dets who are rebellious, and is called
the lockup. As the advanced classes
are usually absent on a cruise at the
time the green hand secures admission
he is to a certain extent exempt from
the more severe hazing to': which the
GENERAL VIEW
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THE CHAPEU'
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From drawings by the architect, Ernest Flagg.J
PROJECTED BUILDINGS FOR THE NAVAL ACADEMY AT ANNAPOLIS.
It Is a standing reproach to the Amer
ican conception of j rogress.
Without denying that Annapolis, ad
jacent to which the Naval academy is
Hituated. is a spot to be cherished, with
its traditions of Washington and Cap
tain John Smith and its colonial and
Revolutionary associations, it must be
admitted that it looks backward rather
th,-:n forward and hardly keeps step
with the spirit of the times. A glit
tering halo of antiquity is a good thing
to have in its place, and the chief crit
icism of Kuropcan writers has been
that the United States lacks that air of
mellowness and maturity that goes
with the possession of ruins and an
tiquity. Hut if the teachings of history
mean anything they show that matur
ity, ruins and the halo usually indicate
r.nd immediately precede an undesirable
condition of decay.
It is now 55 years since the Hon.
George Bancroft, the eminent historian,
then secretary of the navy, waved his
wand of authority and brought into be
ing the United States Naval academy.
The very best place at that time avail
able was old Fort Severn, an army post
comprising, besides the fort, about nine
acres of grounds, officers' quarters, bar
racks for troops and a windmill. Here
the naval school was formally opened
on Oct. 10, 1845. and here all the naval
officers who lord it over American
few years ago to examine into condi
tions here pronounced it actually un
safe and the cadets' lives in dang:r
from a possible collapse. For nearly
"00 feet of its length it is shored
up on the outside with heavy timbers
bolted together, until it looks more like
a building in process of construction
than one finished years ago, in which,
when the weather will not permit of
outdoor work, all drills must be per
formed. To illustrate the flimsy character of
the old buildings, one of the congres
sional committee, a graduate of the
academy, related a story of his own ad
ventures. One night, he said, when he
and some of his comrades were hard
at work on their studies they suddenly
heard a rumbling sound, followed by a
terrible crash, and their lights were ex
tinguished by a rush of cold air. One
side of the building had fallen out, ex
posing the rooms on the side toward
the water and leaving the young men
sitting on a sort of shelf in the open
air, staring into space and wondering
how in the world they should ever get
down. The floor beams held, however,
else there might have been great loss of
life.
At another time, and more recently,
one of the buildings in this same row
split in two from top to bottom and
seemed to be held together only by the
who hitherto has had to submit to the
boast of the West Pointer that he was
lapped in luxury by comparison, may
now cherish the hope that nowhere else
in the world will be found such accom
modations for the student of naval af
fairs as at Annapolis assuming that
his Uncle Samuel, who is supposed to
take care of good boys and punish the
bad ones, will do as he has promised
and cause congress to eventually ap
propriate the full $8,000,000 which the
plans call for. That is what the total
will be, it is said, by the time all the
schemes of improvement are carried
out, and then the United States will be
able to truly boast that it has the
grandest and most complete school for
the training of its sea fighters to be
found anywhere in the wide, wide
world.
And this time the great American
eagle is not indulging in hyperbole, but
is proclaiming a concrete and solid
fact. Not only have the general plans
been approved and adopted by which
the entire renovation and rearrange
ment of the Annapolis buildings are to
be worked out, but about Jl.000,000 has
already been expended. Convinced at
last that the old structures are entirely
inadequate and equally sure that the
makeshift policy of patching and shor
ing up is the dearest in the long run,
the powers that be have concluded to
IF
i.
4
V 'A
rTTtjTiftr
HE OBEYED ORDERS.
"When I was traveling for a house in
Chicago some years ago," says a com
mercial traveler, "I put up at a small
but excellent hotel. There I made
the acquaintance of a gentleman from
Chicago who, I
learned, was the
president of a
bank. He talked
to me for quite
a time and in
formed me that '
he ' was very
particular about
his. room and
the service when
he stopped at a
hotel, and that
he made it a
-point to exact
the utmost re
spect from all
the employees
from the cleric
down. v
. "A but H
o'clock the -same
night I was
startled to hear
"Shut
said
yer mouth,'
the porter.'
loud conversation In the next room to
mine, and, listening, soon discovered
that one voice was that of my friend
the president. Apparently the porter
had invaded? hi3 privacy. u
" 'What are you going to do, porter?"
asked the president.
" 'I'm going to throw you out," an
swered the porter.
" 'How dare you, sir! Leave the
room!"
"'I will, but you'll go wid me!'
"And with that the porter leaped
upon the astonished guest.
"'Help! Fire! Murder! yelled the
president. ...
"'Shut yer mouth!' said the porter,
and he began to drag my friend out
and down the stairs.
"Out they went, the president yelling
for help like a Comanche. When the
door was reached, the porter threw him
out and returned to the office, where he
was accosted by the astonished proprie
tor. " "What did you throw that man out
for?' he demanded. f
" 'Becuz I was told to, said the por
ter.
Who told you to?" queried the pro
prietor.
" 'This here woman,' replied the por
ter, indicating the housekeeper, who
happened to be standing near by.
Why, sir, I did nothing of the kind,
said the indignant woman.
" 'Yes, she did, sir,' said the porter,
'and here's her orders,' pulling out a
small scrap of paper.
"Taking the paper, the proprietor
read the following words:
' 'Fire. No. 40. 10:30." "
NEEDED MORE "KIVTERS."
Harvey Johnson, a brother of Tom
Johnson, the street railway magnate,
who was United States consul to Ant
werp under the Cleveland administra
tion, is a very clever raconteur. Re
cently, while with a party of friends, he
told the following yarn:
"To some negroes," he said, "a death in
a family offers an outlet for a display,
sometimes ludicrous, of grief and finery.
A nervous per
son could hard
ly remain in the
same block in
some cities
where the color
ed folk gather
to mourn over
a deceased rel
ative. Not long
ago a much re
spected old
'uncle' named
Toby in Atlanta
became sudden
ly ill, and a
physician was
called. Two
hours later the
doctor pronounced him dead. Uncle
Toby had all his life been noted for his
chilly temperament. He could never
get warm enough. Well, he was stretch
ed on a table in the little room he lived
in with his wife and seven children,
and they, with all the neighbors and
friends, gathered to give way to heart
rending shrieks of agony. The under
taker came and made his melancholy
preparations and went away, and the
tumult of anguish was at its height
when there was a quivering of the sheet
over Uncle Toby, and suddenly he
straightened up.
" 'Fer de law's sake, Maria, he said,
"git me some more kivvers. I'ze cold."
"He recovered."
H iV
"Git
me some more kiv
vera."
group them where they will produce a
fine artistic effect and not interfere
with the natural beauties of the place.
The area of the grounds, says the con
sulting architect, Mr. Ernest Flags of
New York, who furnished the plans,
was thought to be too restricted. To
overcome this and at the same time to
deepen the water along the sea walls
it is proposed to reclaim flats which lie
under water on two sides and to obtain
the necessary filling by dredging out a
part of the area for a basin. In placing
the buildings it was thought that as
the institution was chiefly for the ben
efit of the cadets, their quarters ought
to occupy the best and most command
ing location on the grounds that is to
say, the site of the present superin
tendent's residence. .
By filling in the lower levels a ter
raced plateau is obtained for the larger
one side by the boathouse, on the other
by the armory and will be connected by
covered colonnades.
Work was. commenced in accordance
with the scheme of improvement a year
ago last March and has been in prog
ress ever since. The buildings now in
process of erection include only the
boathouse, armory and power house,
which are to be completed within a
year, when, as the appropriations are
made, others will be taken up in se
quence of importance. The largest of
these structures is the armory, which
will contain an immense hall 350 feet
long and 150 feet wide, with uninter
rupted floor space for drills and dances,
and above it a continuous gallery which
will serve as a sort of military museum,
while in the gallery of the boathouse
opposite will be collections of a naval
character.
West Point cadet Is exposed, and In
general it may be said that, while tha
rules of the academy and the discipline
are as rigid as in the other institution,
the lines between the different classes
are not quite so strictly drawn. The
term of service has been four years,
with two years' additional cruising on
board ship, and the graduate pledges
himself to serve at least eight years aft
er his release from the academy.
It has been proposed to extend the
term of study to five years and, per
haps, omit the extra two at sea, and
certainly the curriculum calls for in
tense application in order to crowd into
four years the amount of study neces
sary to pass muster and obtain a com
mission. Every hour of the day is filled
from the time the gun is fired at 6 In
the morning until "taps" is sounded at
10 at night. TRUMAN L. ELTON.
TOMMY'S SARCASM.
The jealousy which nearly always ex
ists between different arms of the mil
itary service used to be illustrated by
the dialogues which took place be
tween cavalrymen and infantrymen
during the civil war. It was a favorite
and brutal joke on the part of the cav
alrymen, who affected to despise the
foot soldiers, to shout to some soldiers
as the cavalry were passing the infan
try on the march:
"Are you tired of walking?"
Whereupon, if the infantryman, sup
posing that he was going to get a lift,
responded, "Yes." the cavalryman
would say, "Well, try running awhile!"
The infaaltrymen, for their part, rid
iculed the cavalrymen unmercifully
when they were in camp, where the
cavalrymen were compelled to spend
much of their time in acting as body
servants to their horses.
A cavalryman was one day engaged
in laboriously 'cleaning uuw u
rather rawboned steed. An infantry
man sauntered up and, with his hands
behind his back, leisurely inspected th
operation.
"Hello, John!" said the cavalryman.
"Think you'd like to be in the cavalry?"
"Oh, yes," said the infantryman; "but
only as a horse."
MILLIONS IN OSTRICH FARMING.
Cape Colony has a monopoly of os
trich farming in South Africa. A com
mon sight to the traveler is a great herd
of these valuable birds moving along la
stately fashion beside a railway train,
apparently wondering why the drivel
does not put on more steam. The cul
ture of ostriches is extremely profitable,
and so peculiarly adapted are the con
ditions in South Africa that the country
last year exported 1,500,000 worth
of feathers and furnishes nine-tenths of
the world's supply. An export duty ot
1 per egg protects the industry, and a
slight one on feathers encourages it.
In Illinois during the last 15 years
birds have decreased 38 per cent.
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