West Point: An Intimate Picture of the National Military Academy and of the Life of the CadetRichardson, Robert C. (Robert Charlwood)
History
West Point: An Intimate Picture of the National Military Academy and of the Life of the Cadet
Richardson, Robert C. (Robert Charlwood)
United States Military Academy
As soon as the concert is over the crowd quickly disperses, the girls
going to the hotel or wherever they happen to be stopping, and the
cadets to their company streets. The quiet of Sunday evening is then
for half an hour broken by the shouts of the men as they litter up the
company streets trying to assort their clothing for the Monday wash.
“Turn out a wash list, you plebes!” “Step out, Mr. Ducrot!” are heard
on all sides.
There grows thereupon before one’s eyes small piles of drawers,
undershirts, socks, towels, and white duck uniforms. Each article is
carefully counted and listed because if the laundry discover an error
on the slip, or find the garment of some other cadet in the bag,
a report is entered against the offender for which he receives a
demerit. Furthermore, the name of each cadet must be distinctly marked
upon each article of clothing.
It is not to be supposed that any such fortunate set of circumstances
would escape the attention of the practical jokers among the cadets.
Often the surnames of certain men are identical with the given names
of girls, as for example, Grace, or Bell(e) or Nelly. Naturally, their
garments are all marked in this way. The jokers surreptitiously steal
an article or two from each of the above and slip it in the bag of
the most Y. M. C. A. man in the company. The following day when the
delinquency list is read out the Corps is thrown into gales of laughter
by the following reports:
“Cadet Prude: one pair of drawers in wash marked ‘Grace’”; or “Cadet
Helldodger: one undershirt in bag marked ‘Nelly.’”
The legitimate amusements of the day are at an end. Taps comes and
plunges the camp into darkness and all turn in for their much needed
rest. It is then that the practical jokers begin to think of their
nefarious plots. They remain quiet for some time until the inspections
are made and the company commander has retired after his half-hour
solitary patrol of the company street. When all the camp is apparently
asleep, dark forms steal forth to their rendezvous and proceed in a
body to the tent of some classmate to “drag” his cot. Cautiously they
approach the tent, grab the ends of the cot with the sleeping form,
and quickly drag it to the center of the street. Just as the occupant
of the cot is rudely awakened, and tries to arise bewildering to defend
his rights, some one of the gang treats him to a cold bath from a
bucket of water provided beforehand. In the days of hazing this form of
amusement was practiced almost exclusively upon the plebes, but today
the men leave the plebes alone and devote their attention to their
classmates and friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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