have taken the two plebes long to have found out for themselves.

They were initiated into much of the slang language that the older
midshipmen use when conversing together. Many somewhat obscure
points in the regulations were made clear to them.

Lest the reader may wonder why new fourth class men should tamely
submit to hazing or "running," when the regulations of the Naval
Academy expressly prohibit these upper class sports, it may be
explained that the midshipmen of the brigade have their own internal
discipline.

A new man may very easily evade being hazed, if he insists upon it.

His first refusals will be met with challenges to fight. If he
continues to refuse to be "hazed" or "run," he will soon find
himself ostracized by all of the upper class men. Then his own
classmates will have to "cut" him, or they, too, will be "cut."
The man who is "cut" may usually as well resign from the Naval
Academy at once. His continued stay there will become impossible
when no other midshipman will recognize him except in discharge
of official duties.

The new man at Annapolis, if he has any sense at all, will quietly
and cheerfully submit to being "run." This fate falls upon every
new fourth class man, or nearly so. The only fourth class man
who escapes bring "run" is the one who is considered as being
beneath notice. Unhappy, indeed, is the plebe whom none of the
youngsters above him will consent to haze. And frequent it happens
that the most popular man in an upper class is one who, while