THE BATTALION.
15
The “Gim flunter.”
The above may be unintelligible to many, for whose bene
fit we will say that the “gim hunter” is the one who is always
after an excuse from duty by being placed on the sick report.
I will not vouch for the origin of the term though it is said
'that it came from the name of an old horse that West Point
cadets used to ride to the hospital.
We have had a class of boys, small in number I am glad
to say, whose daily business has been to repair to the hos
pital immediately after sick call and there work all sorts of
schemes, put up all sorts of pitiful talks in order to get an
excuse from duty, all duty if they can, one class or period if
no more. Sometimes they are “fired out,” sometimes they
succeed in deceiving the physician and again are giv
en an excuse through mere pity.
A few excuses sometimes bring on disease with the boy ;
he becomes a chronic “gim hunter.” If he does not succeed
with the doctors, he hunts the president ; he hunts excuses
from every score. He spends more energy in hunting ex
cuses than he would in studying his lesson. After awhile he
is found out, he gets no more excuses, is behind in his classes
and soon has to leave school. No doubt all through life he
goes on hunting “gims” until at last he becomes a pauper or
dies a dissipated wretch. Boys, be men, come out of the old
rut. Never shirk duty. Life may be summed up in one
word “work.” Everything at which we turn our hands is
work and it is useless for men to shirk.
Boys, let me not have a “gim” crowd this year: If you are
sick do not hesitate to get an excuse but if you are able to do
duty, manly go about it.
By the way we were amused at the way some of the “fish”
take the word “gim.” W« asked one the other day if he
“got a gim?” “Eh! yes” said he, holding up two or
three capsules filled with quinine. Another one said that he
took one (a “gim”) but it did not have any effect.