Then there is the gloomy “O. C.,” the stand-off kind that looks daggers upon the approach of any cadet. He appears to circle over the Corps like some hungry bird ready to pounce any moment upon his prey. When he has occasion to question a cadet, a barrier of ice immediately rises between them and their viewpoints drift miles and miles apart. He seems to them never to have been a young man himself, so little of the power of understanding does he possess. They look him up in the Army Register and discover that he too was a cadet not so many years ago, but to believe it strains their credulity to the breaking point. When things go wrong, instead of pointing out the error in a natural manner, there are anger and resentment in the voice. All of his “skins” seem flavored with malice. Apparently, he goes out of his way to be disagreeable, as if to be so was to be military. His tour is regarded with dread especially by the First Classmen detailed that day for guard. But the influence of either type of Officer in Charge is transient. It passeth from day to day. If the Gloomy One is on duty, there is the consolation that the Cheerful One will succeed him like sunshine after rain. It is the Commandant of Cadets, the chief of all the “Tacs,” who exercises the great permanent influence over the Corps. Ever since the creation of his office in 1825, he has been “the Com” to the embryo officers under him. He prescribes all of their drills and casts the mold for the discipline of their bodies and souls. He is the tribunal that grants or withholds their privileges and that punishes them for their premeditated or thoughtless misdeeds. Whereas a few years ago he exercised his power for the seclusion of his office, at a distance from the cadets, today he meets and talks with them daily, ascertains their viewpoint, giving to his work the new spirit of the personal touch that has crept into the instruction at West Point. To be successful in his important work, he must never look bored. He must take an interest in the cadets rather than in the Regulations. He must be human. To gain the admiration of his men he must be above all efficient, fairly good to look upon, military in appearance, and well dressed, and to gain their liking and respect he must be smart, strict, and impartial. There are two faults in an officer that a cadet finds hard to forgive: lack of neatness and “being wooden.” In his work, the Commandant is assisted by the “Tacs,” Infantry, Cavalry, Field, and Coast Artillery officers. Officers of every branch of the Service are represented because at West Point, the duties of all arms are taught. It is with these officers more than any others that the cadet comes into the most direct contact.