"But let not Flipper wring his flippers in despair,
notwithstanding. Let him think of Smith, and take
heart of hope. Smith was another colored cadet who
was sent to West Point from South Carolina. Smith
mastered readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic, but
chemistry mastered Smith.* They gave him three trials,
but it was to no purpose ; so they had to change his
base and send him back to South Carolina. But what
of that? They've just made him inspector of militia
in South Carolina, with the rank of brigadier-general.
How long might he have remained in the army before
he would have become 'General Smith?' Why, even Fred
Grant's only a lieutenant-colonel. Smith evidently
has reason to congratulate himself upon being
'plucked;' and so the young gentleman from Georgia,
with the 'light, coffee-colored complexion,' if he
meets with a similar misfortune, may console himself
with the hope that to him also in his extremity will
be extended from some source a helping flipper."

*Cadet Smith failed in Natural and Experimental
Philosophy. In Chemistry he was up to the average.
He was never appointed Inspector-General of South
Carolina. He was Commandant of Cadets in the South
Carolina Agricultural Institute at Orangeburg, S. C.,
Which position he held till his death November 29th,
1876.