A West Point Yearling

Download or read book A West Point Yearling written by Paul Bernard Malone and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "During the period covered by this volume, hazing had become a serious menace to the discipline of the Military Academy. The efforts on the" part of the authorities to suppress the vice met with but little co-operation from the cadets who believed that no plebe could he inspired with the proper sense of instantaneous obedience except by the so-called system of hazing which had been practiced for many years at the Academy. So strong, honest and deep-seated was this belief that the cadet who opposed it was subject to suspicion as a sycophant and “boot-lick.” Among the opponents of the system, however, was Douglas Atwell, president of the yearling class, a recognized and stalwart leader among his comrades. In these pages an effort is made to trace his struggle against the growing opposition of his class; in a word, to follow out the system of hazing to its logical consequences. The early experiences of our hero had admirably fitted him for the crisis with which he soon found himself confronted. As a poor country boy on a lonely farm, he had acquired that hard "horse" sense which recognizes the fundamental and rejects convenient theory; as a soldier in the U.S. Army in the Philippines, he had trained his fearless nature to ignore consequences, and as a plebe at West Point he had seen the folly of the "system", the injustice of the "code", and now with his whole heart he resolved to oppose many of his classmates"--Introduction.