Word: plebe
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...time of the Plebe year is Christmas. While the other classes are on their ten day leave, the Plebe is "at ease." His class runs the Academy during that time. They furnish the acting cadet officers, have hops of their own and are free to wander around the Post. The Plebe always meets young ladies at the Christmas hops, and the social activities of the week are always looked forward...
Here, the instructors hand out a long lesson and the Plebe must teach himself, for when he gets to class he is expected more to recite and less to be instructed. More than three-fourths of classroom work is recitation. This requires a new method of study. That is what makes Plebe year so hard, not the number of subjects but the acquiring of the new way of learning. The main cause of men failing in a course is because they have not learned how to study...
However, that is the hard side of Plebe life. There are many diversions open to the Plebe. He can find time to read, to visit the library. There are always athletic event to see and there is a plebe team in every sport. He is not allowed to go to the Saturday evening hops, but there are always moving pictures on these nights. And over the week end, he can escort his visitors around the Post, and dine with them at the Hotel. There are many pleasant things to do during his spare time. And the Plebe has more time...
Those five months go more rapidly than would seem. The Plebe has new things to do and learn, and by this time he has his individual method of doing the old thing, and a good system of study. And so, the year moves on until that grand time, June Week, comes. This means practically confinement to the Plebe. He is to be seen and heard at meals and formations only. But he knows that when Graduation Parade comes at the end of the week he has passed successfully through a year, meant to test the best and worst...
...graduated from the Academy, many of whom rendered conspicuous services to their country. Lee, Bragg, Sherman, Hooker, Grant, and McCellan are but a few of the West Point names distinguish-in the war. Winnfield Scott, who captured Mexico City, wrote in 1860 this famous statement, which every Plebe knows by heart: "I give it as fixed opinion, that but for our graduated cadets, the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would have lasted some four or five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than victories falling to our share; whereas, in less than...