Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 211, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1916 — Page 3

The famous old ballad- has been sung for nearly a century by the cadets of the United States Military Academy. Its history makes good reading

We’ll never fail to drink to her and Benny Havens, Oh! » / next West Pointer.you meet to jkkl tell you something about Benny Havens. He knows and you’ll ■ - y And that his eyes will kindle at the niention of the name, says the New York Sun. West Pointers for half a <*entury have told the story of Benny Havens they have bled and '^===== i ' died with it on their lips. Wherever Duty called they went, their steps were With* Alma Uaier on their lips, and "Benny Havens, Oh!” "Benny Havens, Oh!” is the epic of West Point. It is a story in song, the story of West Pointers and their sacrifices for duty, honor. West Point and country. « This old academy of West Point, laid out on a rugged shelf overlooking the majestic .sweep of the Hudson, has many unsullied, inalienable, but none more sacred to her sons than that of Benny Havens. Go to Cullum Memorial hall at West Poipt and read in impertshuble letters of bronze the story of her sons. She has seen them march out of her sallyports singing “Benny Havens, Oh 5" and seen them brought back while minute guns were echoing among the granite hills that surround her. The history of West Point Is closely interwoven with that of our country; West Pointers have written bright pages in the annals of the land. Their blood has watered Western plains and Northern wilds of snow. Has stained Sierra’s highest peaks, where piercing wlndie'er blow; Has dyed deep red the Everglades, and deeper still, you know. . The sacred Montezuma shades and walls of Mexico. Wherever duty has summoned them West Pointers have carri<frd “Benny Havens, Oh 1” The story of Benny Havens is ulraost as old as that of the academy itself. Many, many years ago, in 1824 to be precise, Benny Havens took-up his residence on the southern border of what then constituted the post of West Point. Almost Immediately he and the cadetij became friends. He was a genial soul, generous, and of good company and an inimitable spinner of yarns,.and he Inyariably plied his visitors with buckwheat cakes and maple sirup. Soon his refreshments acquired such fame that cadets often slipped away trom their duties and made their w ay to Benny’s retreat, where they found oblivion for their disciplinary woes. Almost every night after taps saw half a dozen darlpg cadets, who should have been in bed, gathered around Benny’s bountiful table. Only for a short time did Benny’* fare confine itself to buckwheat cakes and maple sirup. Grog and ’wine were added to the menu, an addition whereby Benny’s popularity increased tenfold. About this time the West Point authorities, who had previously shut their eyes to. Benny's liberalities, decided that the time had come to declare a blockade on Benny in so far as cadets were concerned, and consequently Benny’s haven of delight became “off limits” for the future generals and punishment was meted out by those caught running the t>lockade. Jefferson Davis, afterward president of the Confederate states, had the distinction of being among the first batch of cadets court-martialed for midnight revels at Benny Havens’. Benny was warned that his generosity to cadets, was demoralizing to discipline and that unless he called a halt summary proceedings ttould result. He was unable to refuse v those few cadets who “ran it out” to his home and finally he was expelled from the post shortly after 1829, taking up his abode at the base of a high cliff near the river’s edge about a mile below West Point Here he lived In a small frame house until his death in 1877 at the age of ninety- He was buried in Union cemetery, about midway between Highland Falls and Fort Montgomery on the West Point road. men who rose %» hum after leaving West * ,» - "Ls '* ‘ . ' ' fg.'

Why West Poin Cadets Sing “Benny Havens. Oh!"

"GUARD MOUNT” AT WEST POINT

Point—Grant, Fltzhugh Lee, Sherman, Custer anU others—spent happy hours in Benny’s retreat. In 1838 Lieut. Lucius O’Brien of the Eighth United States infantry paid a visit to Cadet Kipley A. Arnold, who was then a first classman. Arnold Introduced O’Brien to Benny Havens, a warm friendship at once springing up between the two. In the academy at this time were John Thomas Metcalfe, who after graduation studied - medicine and became one of the foremost surgeons in the country, and Irvin McDowell, who commanded the Union forces at the first battle of Bull Itun. Both Metcalfe and McDowell were great friends of Benny. Benny Havens, Lleutennnt O’Brien. Metcalfe and Arnold- together composed the original five verses of the song “Benny Havens. Oh!” and set it to the tune of “The Wearing of the Green.” An obituary notice of Doctor Metcalfe says: “He had an early taste for versifying, and with skill at the guitar and a good*tenor voice, composed many a ditty to pass away the idle time. It was thus that he wrote the celebrated song ‘Benny Havens, Oh!’” It is not what would be called good poetry. Some of it is crude. Today there are about 50 verses, almost all of which were composed before Benny’s deuth in 1877. Class after class added a verse. In the waning years of Benny’s life almost every night the cadets sang them through, crowding round Benny, with glasses full, while their host led them with his fiddle and-his low clear baryione. This fiddle, by the way, is still in possession of an old citizen of Highland Falls. Come, fill your glasses, fellows, and stand up In a r£W, To singing sentimentally we’re going for to go. In the army there’s sobriety, promotion’s very slow. So we’ll sing our reminiscertces of Benny Havens, Oh! Soon came along the Mexican war to furnish Inspiration to the cadet poets. Several verses were added to the poem in commemoration of the deeds of those whose gallantry carried the American flag from Vera Cruz to the heights of Chapultepec, overlooking Montezuma’s ancient capital. Two of these are: „ Here’s a health to General Taylor, whose rough and reddv blow * -Struck terror to the rancheros of braggart Mexico May his country ne’er forget his deeds and ne’er forget to show . She holds him worthy of a place at Benny Havens, Oh! To the “venl, vldl, vlcl!” man to Scott, Jthe greatest hero. Fill the goblet to the brim, let no one shrinking go. May life’s cares on his honored head fall light as flakes of snow ~ And his i!ilr fame be ever great at Benny Havens, Oh! The civil war saw stressful tfiiies at the Point and the cadets turned their attention to sterngfc things than poetry. The ranks of the corps were thinned by the loss of the Southerner’s, who went home to take up the cause of their respective states. Many of those from the North and South, who had been friends of Benny, fell on the field of glory—Manassas, Antietain, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and a hundred other places were stained with the blood of West Pointers. There was little gayety at Benny’s during the stern four years, for Benny was getting old and the almost daily news of <he loss of his' former friends on the battlefield robbed him of his oldtime lightheartedness. Some of the verses of the poem which were written just after the war are lost, There seems to be qnly the following intact: To the army’s brave commanders let now our glasses fIOW.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, INP.

We’ll drink to Grant and Sherman and to the subs also, To Thomas, Meade and Sheridan (these come In apropos), We’ll toast them all with goblets full at Benny Havens, Oh! Early in 1860 Gen. Winfield Scott died. For him this verse appeared: Another star has faded, we miss Its brilliant glow. For the veteran Scott has ceased to be a soldier here below; And the country which he honored now feelß a heartfelt woe As we toast his name In reverence at Benny Havens, Oh! During the last year of Benny’s life came the stunning news that Custer and his men had fought their last fight James E. Porter, Harrington and others, lieutenants and West Pointers all, perished with that gallant band. Not until Benny had died did these verses appear In memory of Custer and his command: In silence lift your glasses: a meteor flashes out So swift to death brave Custer; amid the battle s shout Death called—and, crowned, he went to Join the friends of long ago. To the land of Peace, where now he dwells with Benny Havens, Oh! > —_ We’ll drop a tear for Harrington and his comrades, Custer's braves Who fell with none to see the deeds that glorified their graves; May their memory live forever with their glories present glow. They've nobly earned the right to dwell with Benny Havens, Oh! Some of the other verses are fraught with the magic spirit of West Point —that spirit that Is best summed up in the words. “Duty, Honor, Country, West Point,” which are part of the motto of the academy. Nowadays at West Point every cadet memorizes the first three verses of “Benny Havens, Oh !” The first has already been given; the other two are as follows: To our kind old Alma Mater, our rock-bound Highland home. May we cast back many a fond regret as o’er life s sea we roam; Until on our last battlefield the lights of heaven shall glow We’ll never fall to drink to her and Benny Havens; Oh! f May the army be augmented, promotion be less slow. May our country In the hour of need be ready for the foe; May we find a soldier’s resting place beneath a soldier’s blow. With room enough beside our graves for Benny Havens. Oh! - - Wherever duty has led them West Polpters have sung “Benny Havens, Oh!” Since Benny’s death these verses-have appeared in commemoration of the deeds of West Pointers in all parts of this country: Their blood has watered Western plains and Northern winds of snow; Has stained Sierra’s highest peaks, where piercing winds e’er blow; Has dyed deep red the Everglades, and deeper still you know. The sacred Montezuma shades and walls of Mexico, From Nevada’s hoary ridges, from stormy coast ot Maine. From lava beds and . Yellowstone—the story never WBfl6^l" Wherever duty called they went—their steps wers never alow— With Alma Mater on their lips and “Benny Havens. Oh! . It is the old, old story of West Point and they who know it well love best to.tell it It will never die; it is as firmly fixed in the highlands of the Hudson as the academy itself.

TRAINING TODAY'S BOYS AND GIRLS

Their Misdeeds Seldom Evidence of Wickedness. PLAYING HOOKY WONT HURT Parent Who Remember* How Thing* Used to Feel I* One Who Knows How to Manage His Boy. By BIDONIE M. GRUENBERQ. »T THE club Jones was reading the /V paper to himself and making com* inents to all within hearing. Suddenly he sat up and put down the paper. “Was that Waite’s boy,” he asked, “that was mixed up in that affair down at the lake?” No one seemed to know. Didn’t even know there had been an affair. In that case Jones had to read to them. It was the story of a boy who had gone over the edge of a pier and was pulled out by another boy who happened to be passing. The boy who happened to be passing was young Bob, and he happened along at a time when he was supposed to be in school. That was the point. Although no one denied that It was eminently proper for him to jump Into the water and save the ragged stranger, all were agreed that he had no business there. He was obviously playing truant. “If a boy of mine did that,” scald Saffron, “I’d let him take all the medals and fine speeches that were coming to him, and after the celebration was all over I would take him into the woodshed and give him the worst licking of his young life.” That sounded very heroic and very reasonable. After all, it’s wicked to play truant. It was only a lucky chance that the boy came along in time to save the other child —perhaps this one had been a truant also. The chances were even that another time, he’d got run over by a fire engine. The boy’s place is in the school, and he had no business along the lake front. He needed a lesson that would teach him his place. It made Saffron real angry to think of a son of his committing an outrage upon law and morals. And the things he had in mind to do were —well, they were just the expressions of his anger. They were not thought out policies of applying force where it would do the most good. They were the Instinctive appeals to violence, and had just about as much moral value as Bob’s own dereliction. And Brown, who bad not been saying anything, could see that. And so he joined the conversation. He would not approve of truancy. He knew it was a bad thing and liable to lead to worse things. But there’s no use get-

Remember That Boys Will Be Boys.

ting excited over it. Didn’t we all do the same thing when we were young? Or at least we were all tempted to, and If we did not yield it was just our good fortune and not our superior virtue. Besides, its the sort of thing a chjld will do just because he is a cMld.' WBen he gets to be as old as we are he won't be tempted to go down to the lake. Remember that boys will be boys. Give him a chance to grow up and he’ll be ail right. This did not sound so heroic, but it did seem reasonable. After all, a day out of school breathing the fresh air and taking good exercise won’t hurt any boy. He could make up his school work just as easily as though he hud been absent oy account of sickness, and this was better than sickness. Thousands of boys play “hooky” and then grow uj/ to be decent citizens — gome of them even become teachers or ministers. Let him alone, and he’ll grow up all right Young B‘ank, whose children had not yet reached the age of truancy, was interested, but bewildered He tad expect* d to lay, up a supply of practical wisdom to use In possible emergencies In the future. But he djd not find the conflicting counsel very helpful. Evildoers ought to be punished, of course; otherwise there would be no premium on doing the right thing. But If a child does what we consider “evil” without malice, should he still be made to suffer —especially when he is very likely to outgrow the instincts that lead to such acts? s The trouble with Saffron was that lie had not taken the pains to think out the right and wrong of playing truant, nor Mte right aw* wrong of

ponlahing children. He was Just as Impulsive as the truant himself, with this difference. Whereas the boy had an uncomfortable feeling that he wa# doing something that was wrong—because it was disapproved—the man had the assurance that he was in the right, for in the punishment of children he was countenanced by generations of parents and most of his contemporaries. The trouble with Brown was that, whereas he had learned enough to know that the misdeeds of children are id most cases the outward expressions of perfectly healthy Instinct*, and not evidences of “wickedness,” and whereas he knew that most children will outgrow these misdeeds, he had nt) Jdea that there was anything to be done about It except to permit the fates to finish the story. It is well for all of us to know what Brown knew. But that Is not enough. Children will outgrow their childish Impulses, but what will take their place? One of the ways In which the grown-ups acquired that feeling of righteousness In the presence of childish misdeeds was through the Impressive indignation of their parents on the occasions of their own childish errors. It may be- wrong for Saffron to put so much stress upon the wickedness of truancy, but It is just as wrong to evade the issue and

He Was Supposed Be in School.

treat it like teething, as something that will pass away was something else to do besides whipping ’thildren; Brown needed to learn that there was something to do. As we become more and more familiar with the development of the child’s mind we realize that many of the symptoms that are so alarming to others are in no way indications of depravity. But there is the danger that In learning this We may become indifferent to all symptoms. A child is to be watched and understood; this will avoid frequently the resort to violence. But he is to be understood and helped; this will save us frequently from the sin of omission. We must know not merely enough to improve ou the methods of revengs and penalty; we must krtow enough to evolve a positive program of constructive assistance to the child at every point at which his instincts conflict with the requiremento of the world to which he must adjust himself.

Something to Regret.

In a Washington hotel lobby the other night reference was made to ths wonderful thoughts of the little folk, when this incident was recalled by Congressman J. Edward Bussell of Ohio: t)ne afternoon little Bessie sat la the kitchen watching her mother weave a hot iron the dainty frills of some white frocks. The day was warm, and mother looked somewhat weary. “Mamma,” finally remarked the little girl in a sympathetic voice, “Isn’t it very hard work to iron?” “Yes, dear,” answered mother, with a soft sigh, “sometimes it is very hard.” For a moment the little girl thoughtfully communed with herself, and then her face became brightly illuminated. “Oh, mamma!” she enthusiastically exclaimed. “Wouldn't it have been great if you had married a Chinaman?” —Philadelphia Telegraph.

Cheap Japanese Prints.

If you cannot *afford expensive pictures, do not therefore put up with ugly ones. There are lovely prints that can be bought for a song, and If you do not wish to spend money on framing them, by all means mount them on gray, brown or black mats and tack them unframed on the wall. Japanese prints can be bought. In a size a little bigger than postcards, for 10 cents each. There are many lovely designs. One, In black, gray-browns and yellow, is a rainy scene at night. A Japanese woman with a servant, bearing a lantern, is silhouetted against a background of lighted houses, moving rickshas and other pedestrians. Everybody carries a flat Japanese parasol, and long slanting lines of rain cut across the whole print. Others of these 10-cent prints show water scenes, garden scenes and Japanese children and babies in charming attitudes of play.

Peanut's Many Uses.

The peanut is a much more useful product than most people, think. Besides its use in the roasted form, there are other innumerable uses. The nuts contain from 42 to 50 per cent of a nearly colorless, bland, fixed oil, resembling that of the olive and used for similar purpose*. More than 25 years ago there was begun in Virginia the manufacture of peanut flour, of which a particularly palatable biscuit is made. North Caro* lina has long made pastry of pounded peanuts. It is also eaten for dessert, and is roasted as a substitute fcf fee.