Dick Prescotts First Year at West Point | Page 9

cadet corps wheeled to
the right and marched off in column of fours, quite a splendid model of
military precision.
Somehow the un-uniformed greenhorns managed to turn into column
of fours, though some of the bewildered boys forgot to which four they
belonged and there was some confusion.
Behind the superb cadet corps, toiled along these all but hopeless
candidates and alternates, scores and scores of them-every fellow of
them feeling more awkward than his nearest neighbors in the line.
Badly out of step was this green material. Some of the boys slouched as
they walked along; others shuffled. Their appearance was enough to
dishearten a trained soldier.
But at last all these green ones were marshaled to seats in the great
dining hall at cadet mess. There, in a fine dinner, they forgot,
momentarily, many of the discouragements of the forenoon.
In the afternoon came a lot more of drilling of awkward squads by
other cadet corporals. Greg soon found, under the tender mercies of
another corporal, why Brayton was considered "easy."
These cadet corporals are all members of the yearling class, the class
directly above the plebes. As corporals these members of the yearling
class get their first direct experience in military command.
Later in the afternoon all candidates were notified that academic
examinations would begin at eight o'clock the next morning in the
Academic Building.

And now the candidates began to shiver! "Bad" as the start had been,
they hoped, to a man, that they would pass these academic
examinations. To fail meant to return home, the dream of being a cadet
shattered!
"Ugh!" muttered Greg, rubbing his hands in quarters. "Br-r-r! Dick, I'm
afraid I'm scared cold!"
Prescott smiled, but he, too, was worried over the coming mysteries of
the academic examinations, which he had heard were uncommonly.
CHAPTER III
THE "LUCKY" ONES TAKE UP THE NEW LIFE
CANDIDATE PRESCOTT did not take the best examination by any
means, but he got through without discredit in any branch.
A number of these candidates had spent the last year or so at some
"prep." school that made a specialty of preparing young men for West
Point and Annapolis.
Greg did fairly in English, quite well in history, geography and
arithmetic; in algebra, through sheer nervousness, young Holmes barely
escaped going short.
Nearly twoscore of the candidates failed utterly. These went sorrowing
home, giving their alternates a chance to enter the corps in their places.
Soon after the results had been declared, the young men who had
passed went over to headquarters. There they signed a statement to the
effect that they entered the Military Academy with the consent of their
parents or guardians, and bound themselves to serve in the Army at
least eight years, unless sooner discharged. These new young men were
then formally and impressively sworn into the service of their country.
They were now cadets, even if only new plebes.
Why "new" plebes! Because, under the new system, with candidates

admitted in March, there is still a "plebe" class above them who remain
plebes until commencement in June. Hence the distinction between old
and new "plebes."
In the presence of all plebes the yearlings and other upper class men
keep themselves loftily apart, except when compelled to drill the plebes
or perform other military or other official duties with plebes.
The plebe, old or new, is still but a "beast"-a being unfitted for intimate
contact with upper class men. 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.
It was a proud day for all these new plebes when they "drew" their
rifles and bayonets and began the laborious study of the manual of