The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-07-23
LIFE AT WEST POINT.
WHAT THE COMING OFFICERS
HAZE TO GO 1HROUGH.

Hard Work and Plenty of t-"Omcer
and Gentleman" Means n Great Deai
-Hazing Has Been Stamped Out.
In the introduction of any statement
about the work a the United States
Military academy at West Point it is
unfortunately necessary to controvert
the notion that the cadets who are be-
Ing prepared for commissions in the
army have light work cut out for them,
mat takes up little of their time, and
that they have abundant leisure left
them for the perfection of mischief that
is popularity supposed to be within the
province of young men who enter insti-
sAtutions of learning between the ages of
seventeen and twenty-five.
In no institution in the world are the
requirements greater and the disci-
pine more exacting. though the en-
Iorcement of penalties is innexible
rather than severe. From the establish
ment of the academy. in 1902 to 1911,
the percentage of cadets admitted who
n graduated was sos per cent. During
the next ten years the percentage fell
10 2s.9. In the following decade it rose
TO 5I7. From 1882 to 1871, 42.7 out of
every 100 graduates who entered Sc
cured commissions in the army. Dur
Ing the subsequent ten years up to 1851,
81 per cent graduated During the de-
cade just before the troublous days of
81 the percentage increased to 52,S In
These Iatter 6auc IN, of ;ytu
six years, the average percentage Of
! cadets entered at the academy who
graduated was 594.
During the academic reason of the
year, which extends from September to-
June, the cadet is allowed to sleep I'M
til 6:15 a. m. At sound of the first call
to reveille the cadet must spring out of
bed and his days work begins at once,
lasting, with time for meals and a few
short periods of relaxation, until ten at
night. Ills time is taken up with the
most arduous mental work, with drills
and gymnastic training at such hours
that the physical work gives the most
relief possible from the fatigue inciden-
tai to study and recitation.
On arising, the young man must
dress quickly and with absolute neat
ness. Exactly fifteen minutes after re-
veille, police CALI is heard, and now
the cadet must make up his room with
thoroughneatness, every step being ac-
scOrding to regulation. There is an ex-
act way of rolling the mattress at the
head of the bed and of placing the pill
low over it and of folding the covering
over the pillow Every garment not in
itc ho |
found nowhere else. Books and papers
are placed according to rule on the |
study table. The floor must be swept |
to condition of absolute spotlessness. |
AS neatness and system are indispensa-
BILE to an army officer all violations of |
them bring warning, reprimand or de-
merit
Very little time is allowed for the
s'police work" Then a bugle call sum-
mons the battalion to form outside of
the quadrangle. The formation and
marching must be carried out with as
go <ss-~ssT ecision as in any drill or pa
rade After marching into the mess
hall the cadets file to their seats, to
which they are regularly assigned ac-
cording to another rule. At each table
there is one cadet in charge, who is held
strictly accountable for the preserva-
tion of order at that table.
" Breakfast is served about 710
o'clock, or fifty-fve minutes after the
young man was called from his nights
rest. Now "sick CALI is sounded by a
bugier, and all cadets who feel them
selves in need of medical advice or
treatment report at the sosptal to the
IN, ohoTrn Tn Of n all
ment that does not interfere with the
days work, the cadet is supplied with
medicine. Should he be found to be
bodily unfit for recitations and drills,
he is ordered to his quarters. In this
Case he may study if he feels able to,
or may rest until he is in condition to
resume work. But if at 'sick CALI the
cadets condition is found serious, he is
ordered into the hospital and treated
there. If there be no necessity to go on
sick report, the cadet has forty min
utes for recreation" This consists
generally of strolling about and chat
ting with especial chums,
Principally at eight o'clock there is
another bugie CALL which summons the
entire battalion to the most serious
work of the day. Each class is divided
Into sections for purposes of recitation,
and each section forms and marches to
The proper classroom. Each instruc-
tor lis an army officer and graduate of
West Point, who has shown especial
aptitude for the branches in which he
nstructs. The instruction is as nearly
Individual as possible. There are new
n more than dozen cadets in one Sec
tion while some contain as few as sew
IN. Each military student is thus able ..
10 secure large share of his teachers
attention, which tends, of course, to !.
bring out each special aptitude of !.
nan.
As to the routine In the first year 6
he cadet takes up algebra, geometry, g
comic sections, surveying s
IND the English and French languages.
N the second year he resumes comic
sections and goes into solid geometry, .
descriptive geometry, differential cal :
,ulus, least squares, French and Span
sh. mathema tical drawing and photo :,
,raphy. The third year brings the ca
let to analytical mechanics, astronomy
wave motion, chemistry, mineralogy :
Ind geology, and more drawing, in ,
,luding mechanical and architectural
york, military landscape, building :.
Il 0t,I |