But The Whole Management Of The Young With The
Americans Differs Much From That In Vogue With Us.
We do not
require so much at so early an age, either in knowledge, in morals,
or even in manliness.
In America, if a lad be under control, as at
West Point, he is called upon for an amount of labor and a degree
of conduct which would be considered quite transcendental and out
of the question in England. But if he be not under control, if at
the age of eighteen he be living at home, or be from his
circumstances exempt from professorial power, he is a full-fledged
man, with his pipe apparatus and his bar acquaintances.
And then I was told, at West Point, how needful and yet how painful
it was that all should be removed who were in any way deficient in
credit to the establishment. "Our rules are very exact," my
informant told me; "but the carrying out of our rules is a task not
always very easy." As to this also I had already heard something
from that little bird of West Point; but of course I wisely
assented to my informant, remarking that discipline in such an
establishment was essentially necessary. The little bird had told
me that discipline at West Point had been rendered terribly
difficult by political interference. "A young man will be
dismissed by the unanimous voice of the board, and will be sent
away. And then, after a week or two, he will be sent back, with an
order from Washington that another trial shall be given him.
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