The plebe is not an outcast.
He is merely fifteen months on probation with his upper class
comrades. Unhappy as the lot of the freshman is at some of our
colleges, the plebe at West Point is of far less importance in the
eyes of the upper classes.
Early every morning cadet corporals marched squads of new
plebes out into the open and put them through the mysteries of the
Army "setting-up" drills. These drills are effective in giving the
new man, in an almost marvelously short time, the correct military
carriage and physical deportment. Between these and the squad,
platoon and company drills, it is truly wonderful how rapidly the
new cadet begins to drop his former awkwardness.
The new plebes had now drawn their uniforms and rapidly learned
the care of these parts of the soldier's wardrobe. They were also
taught the proper occasions for wearing each article of uniform.
Academic studies had now begun in earnest too. The idea in requiring
cadets to begin in March instead of in June, as formerly, is that they
may have three months in which to become accustomed to the fearfully
exacting requirements of study and recitation in force at West Point.
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