ssing questions. The
Judge-Advocate announced that "the case was closed, and the court would
be cleared for deliberation.

"Before you open, Judge-Advocate," said Maj. Truax significantly, "I
want to say something, not as a member of this court, but something
between gentlemen, and I want to say it before we begin our
deliberations, in order that it shall not be considered as part of them,
or influencing them. The lecture by that self-sufficient fellow on our
duties makes me tired. I remember his father--he sold the meanest whisky
to be found in Milwaukee. I want to say right here that no man who sells
lager beer can sell whisky fit for gentlemen to drink. Beer corrupts his
taste, mind and judgment. Old Steigermeyer had a good deal of political
influence of a certain kind, and he bulldozed the Representative from
his District into giving his son an appointment to West Point. Now this
young upstart comes around and absolutely lectures us who have always
been gentlemen, and our fathers before us, on gentlemanliness. It was
hard for me to keep from saying something right before him about the
quality of whisky his father used to sell. I can stand a good deal,
but the idea of a ginmill keeper's son lording it over others and over
enlisted men who came of much better stock than he does sticks in my
craw. Now, whenever I find one of these whose father got his appointment
as Steigermeyer's father did (and the old Major's eye wandered down
to where Lieut. McJimsey's air of sternness had given way to visible
unrest) I'm tempted to say unpleasant things. Now, Judge-Advocate,
proceed."

"The evidence in this case," said Lieut. Bowersox, with the severity
proper to a vindicator of justice, "shows that it was a very flagrant
breach of the essentials of discipline, and deserves stern treatment. A
man wearing the chevrons of a Corporal, has, in the presence of a number
of enlisted men, behaved in the most unseemly manner, showed gross
disobedience to his superior officer, reviled him with opprobrious
epithets, threatened to strike him, and actually did strike him. On the
other hand (and the Lieutenant's tone changed to that of counsel for the
defense), we all of us know that the prisoner is an excellent soldier of
long service, that his influence has always been for the best, and that
he was promoted to Corporal as an exceptional compliment for his part in
capturing a rebel flag at Chickamauga, where he was wounded and left
for dead