United States Military Academy West Point - Howitzer Yearbook (West Point, NY)

Page 7 text:

Charles IDilliam larncb Class of ‘ fOciifp HIS is the Book of Never Again' a record of beginnings and endings; a book of endeavor, of endurance, of achievement; an epitome of the survival of the fittest; a chronicle of grind and grinds; a catalogue of heroes and sheroes. of actions and reactions, of virtue and reward, of crime and punishment. In this volume is set forth in type and art the rugged path of virtue that leads to the academic summit where stands Alma Mater waiting to bestow the degree of B. S. Bachelor of Slaughter and to attest that eighty-five of her neophytes are proficient in the gentle art of throat-cutting as scientifically practiced in the year Nineteen Hundred and Eleven of the Christian era. Incidentally are exploited some bypaths, not altogether so virtuous as hilarious and sportive, that relieve the somber regions of the Art of War and exhibit the sons of Mars as other sons, relaxed and gay, laying aside the grim visage of their bloody trade for the innocent joys of sport and spooning, of hazing “Tacs’ and getting even with the Academic departments. These Eighty-Five nursed at the breast of our dear Highland Bellona, babes and sucklings four years ago, men now, tempered and tried, with a bit of iron in their blood; sound of heart and of l ody and of mind so far as training can assure; tuned to a high pitch; straining at the leash and clamorous for the heritage of youth, are here for the last time together a band of gray brothers closely knit by common trials and interests and a common objective; lined up at the scratch awaiting the pistol of graduation to break away for the glorious race of life. Bang! Away with you! Father Time is referee and holds the hourglass for your record. Run fair; keep your eyes fixed on the goal; don't swerve; do your best, ami may the best man win. Bear this in mind the man who loses but has done his best, has won; the man who wins and fails of his best, has lost. It is only the best that is in you that is the true criterion of success, the standard by which you must be measured, the gauge of your merit. These Eighty-Five have “arrived —at the scratch. The others herein recorded are on the way to toe the mark, developed in due proportion by the same influences towards the same ideal. This twelfth day of June. Anno Domini Nineteen Hundred and Eleven, they stand shoulder to shoulder; but within the hour “Never Again. When the first of Nineteen-Eleven shall have set his foot ujxrn the boat or car that is to hale him into the hereafter, not once more