4° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fact of even enlightened systematic utility. Such flagrant solecisms 

 of economy as that the post quartermaster's offices, the post office and 

 the meat market should be huddled together in the same vicinity, will 

 now be completely remedied. Hitherto appropriations have been too 

 limited in amount and too rigidly doled out in detail by civilian 

 'watch dogs' of trivial parsimonies. Now at last the way seems toler- 

 ably clear by which the several functions of the post shall be grouped 

 in order of the importance : first, that which is military, afterwards, 

 and adjoining, that which is scholarly, and then, separate and apart, 

 all other and subsidiary functions — supplying and purveying of goods, 

 reception and entertaining of guests ; all will be no longer scattered or 

 occupying the most eligible positions, but grouped together and in 

 exactlv their right localitv. 



The plans as already outlined are in scope and arrangement as 

 nearly perfect as practical ingenuity could devise. It is greatly to be 

 hoped that in carrying out so thorough a reformation, they who are 

 charged with the duty may remain unhampered by an authority su- 

 preme in the state, but which has in manifold instances in the past 

 proved its woeful incapacity to deal with technical needs or more 

 deplorably yet, with the demands of art. The mistake at Annapolis 

 will probably not be here repeated; but the New West Point will be 

 made to burgeon out of the old ; the revolutionary relics retained with 

 all their hallowed associations unimpaired, and the sacred traditions of 

 the academy held inviolate. 



