badly with the great amount of study and recitation required of
him, was likely to spend most of his afternoon leisure in "boning"
the studies in which he was deficient or which he found difficult to
master.

At 6.25 came the call for supper formation. That meal was through
at about seven in the evening. Then came study time, lasting until
9.30 in the evening. At 9.30 the plebe was at liberty to turn down
his mattress and go to bed, if he felt tired enough; if not, he was at
liberty to study a little longer.

At 10.30, however, taps sounded on a drum just inside the north
sally port. Now Mr. Plebe was obliged to turn out his light,
instanter, and be in bed against the visit of the subdivision
inspector, an upper class cadet, immediately afterward. If Mr.
Plebe failed to be in bed he was reported--"skinned"--and punished
accordingly.

In between there were always the drills, the gymnasium work,
inspections, guard mount for each plebe about once a week after
he had been admitted to the ranks of the battalion.

To the boy fresh from home it is a fearfully hard lot at first. That
it can be lived through and endured, however, is proved by the fact
that about six out of ten of the cadets who enter at West Point
manage to graduate, and go forth into the Army, splendid
specimens of physical and mental manhood. Very few of the
cadets who fail at West Point and are dropped go away from the
Military Academy without a mist before their eyes.