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Maryland State Archives Adam Goodheart Collection MSA SC 5826 msa_sc5826_3_1-0024 Enlarge and print image (887K) |
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Maryland State Archives Adam Goodheart Collection MSA SC 5826 msa_sc5826_3_1-0024 Enlarge and print image (887K) |
| - 24 - great violence on my breast, and run over by the whole Battery, I should not have been injured very much but for the unmilitary and ugly button, a large round globe, which was then worn & is worn to this day, and is the cause of my mentioning the accident now, in the hope that a better taste and judgment may yet prevail in the uniform given the Cadets. These spherical and projecting buttons, driven against the body, leave painful wounds, but cadet prejudices, and veneration for old customs are so strong, I doubt if any thing will induce them to consent to a change of plumage. Some religious sects object to the dominance of Mathematics in an academic course, as tending to a want of veneration and belief in tradition. I do not believe it has had this effect at W. Point, if the traditional love of hazing, tight belting, and large brass globules for buttons is to be taken as a test. The style of dress, and equipments is unmilitary to the last degree; with it you cannot use a sabre, pull an oar, or draw a long breath. Besides, the tight-belting may, as it did in my case, inflict indigestion and inconvenience which may last the greater part of a long life, and which to a soldier who should always be ready to move at the tap of the drum, may prove a great drawback. The mode of feeding the Cadet is no more to be admired than the style of dressing him. The food is bulky and in joints, always enough to satisfy appetite but deficient in vegetables and fruits, inducing the use of stimulants, such as mustard, pepper and pickles, to which, I have observed, the Graduate, on joining the Army is much addicted. There is but one step from the immoderate use of these condiments to the use of whiskey, which in my day, and still is, to some extent, particularly in the West, where generous wines are inaccessible, the bane of the young men of America I do not know which is the greater drawback to the manhood of young America, whiskey or tobacco, but the attempt to suppress the use of either at msa_sc5826_3_l-0024 ©Maryland State Archives |