Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1882 — A West Point Deficiency. [ARTICLE]

A West Point Deficiency.

West Point cadets are said to be lamentably deficient in the use of the sword, and there is talk of having more attention given to practice with it in that institution of warlike learning. This is as it should be, for it is well known that nothing so thoroughly intimidates a foeman, and especially a wild Indian on the plains, wo shoots with a Winchester rifle at a distance of half a mile or so, than to see his opponent wildly flourishing h s sal er ou horizon, and going vio’ently through the different maneuvers of cut and thrust. It is also a standing di grace to our young army officers that not one in five of them can waltz with the sword on without getting that s rviceable weap on so tangled up w th his legs that he is constantly in mortal peril. It is certainly high time that our eadets were

better familiarized with the relations they should sustain to their trenchant blades. Journal.