United States Naval Academy - Lucky Bag Yearbook (Annapolis, MD)

Page 28 text:

Vv 's’,'0 . j ISTORY repeats itself.” At least Class History does, and if you know one, you know all : but each class imagines it is a little better than the others—at any rate, a little different;—hence these pages. We first became Neptune’s proteges in the Fall of’91, and were received by the small band of May Spartans that had been hardened by the Summer cruise, and who prepared us for the welcome accorded the verdant “plebes,” when the youngsters return with dreadful mien from September leave. But why dwell on these harrowing details ? All classes go through the same ordeal ; all have these little unpleasantnesses to pass through; and ’twould be but the reiteration of experiences undergone by every class since the founding of the institution, to recite the tale of that first meeting between the two under-classes. We were mildly submissive like all the rest, and endured the stings and arrows of our outrageous fortune as thousands of others had done before. Having ascertained early in the game that our list of “stars” was to be very limited, we set our minds toward other goals, and dreamed of other things than studies. Though contrary to all customs of plebeian propriety, we aimed at the Inter-Class Base Ball Championship, and it was ours ; fur- thermore we did this for the two succeeding years. We saw to it that the foot ball and base ball teams should be fittingly accommodated with repre- sentatives from our members. In track athletics, too, our worth was recog- nized, and wherever skill and strength could have their sway, the pale blue and white waved triumphantly. 20

Page 27 text:

( 1 ass of p inctvj-fS' i rc Class C«Jlv r : lpalc 35Iuc .ini' tClbite Class Ykll. Boom Rah ! Boom Ray ! U. S. X. A.! Who's alive ? Ninety Five ! Navy! Bag lev. Worth, Baldwin, Frank Pardee, Banxox, Philip Michael, Barxes, Cassii s Bartlett, Bexxett, Kenneth Marratt, Breckinridge, Joseph Cabell,Jr., Brumby, Frank Hardeman, Butler, Henry Varxum, Jr., Chester, Arthur Tremaine, Cushman, William Reynolds, Davidson, William Christopher, Dennett, Stanley Pullen, Dick, Thomas Merritt, Dunn, Edward Howard, Eckhardt, Ernest Frederick, Freeman, Frederick Newton, Garrison, Daniel Mershox, Gherardi, Walter Rockwell, Groesbeck, William Gerard, Hall, Newt Hamill, Izard, Walter Blake, Johnston, Rufus Zen as, Jr., Karns, Franklin D., Klemann, John Valentine, Knepper, Orlo Smith, Laning, Harris, Mallory, Charles Kino, McCormack, Michael James, Mann, George Hiram, M ANSFIELD, X EWTON, Marshall, John Francis, Jr., Merritt, Darwin Robert, Monaghan, John Robert, Morton, James Proctor, Raby, James Joseph, Sayers, Joseph Draper, Jr., Smith, Stuart Farrar, Staxdley, William Harry, Takasaki, Motohiko, Todd, David Wooster, Vestal, Samuel Curtis, Wadhams, Albion James, Walker, Charles Henry, Walker, James Krling, Howe. Watson, Edward 19

Page 29 text:

The plebe year passed swiftly, and before we could realize it. w e were on the threshold of youngsterdom, with its coveted joys and “rate.’’ How we had looked forward to its changes, and to that promotion in June, that should transform us from unknown, belittled, despised and long-suffering plebes to gaily, conceited and pompous youngsters. What pen can fully describe the tumultuous, feverish, maddening joy that seizes a cadet at this sudden step? He is no longer a nonentity in the little world of academic life; he is an absolute and existing feature in it. (And in justice let it be said, he feels it.) But alas! every rose must have its thorn, and while we went up a round, some of our well-beloved left us. and the sanguine band of ’86 was sadly reduced in numbers. The names of many of our cherished ones were in the lists of those found wanting. Our youngster cruise wras made on the old Constellation, during which we visited New London and Newport. There, as usual, we vied with the envious “ Cit in social matters, and began to “spoon” with youngsters' characteristic zest. We learned a thing or two on that cruise, and went home in September with the satisfaction of knowing what difference exists between a Turk’s head and a Granny knot. It was on this leave that we sported our uniforms—a thing we could not have been bribed to do on the two succeeding leaves. We returned to be quartered in stribling row. far from the madding crowd, and to bone Trig and Stereo, with Skinny and Conics in the dim future. We had not yet reached the time when the struggle for stripes and buzzards worried us. and all went merry as the proverbial marriage bell. We sailed between the Scylla of Skinny and the Charybdis of Conics, but sacrificed a few more of the grand old class. But the second class Summer was the dearest period of our career. Twas then we would creep out oft in the stilly night and bring apples from the government farm, or go canoeing on the silent Severn; twas then the tragic episode was enacted in which “ Flop-ity-flop told the story of a love-lorn youth’s sad fate, and we thought to ourselves. “How are the mighty fallen.” Then eight weeks of joyous leave:—but this was the calm before the storm: it was over all too soon, and we returned to battle with the three arch-fiends—Math, 21