scrubbing and polishing; the plebes are called in to wave towels in the air, or anoint the furniture with bay rum to drive out all odors of food that hung over the room from the previous evening. The two weekly breaks of Wednesday and Saturday are increased, however, when the snows come in November. Drilling out of doors then becomes impossible so that from 4:00 until 6:00 P.M. daily, the cadets are at liberty. Most of the men spend these gray afternoon hours in the gymnasium, or in reading. The Second Class has its riding class during this period. After the football season, the diversions of the winter months are few. The “spoonoids” whose acquaintance we made in camp recommence their activities, chiefly visiting the quarters of officers. The most pernicious ones are called by their comrades “Tea Hounds” or “Parlor Snakes,” in a good-natured spirit, of course. The percentage of cadets who meet the officers’ families socially is small. The men who do most of the visiting upon the Post are army officers’ sons who have known some of the instructors at other Posts. It is regrettable that so many men go through West Point without having known any of the officers or their families socially. They meet the officers only in an official way where the demands of discipline require formal relations. This has a tendency to remove the officer too much from this large number of cadets who lack the opportunity of knowing informally men with whom they will later serve. Many cadets in consequence form altogether erroneous impressions of their instructors that they carry with them through their entire service, unless they are fortunate enough to meet these gentlemen later on. While at West Point had they conversed informally for a few minutes only over the dinner table, or at a dance, this impression would have been eradicated. The great gulf that has always separated the cadet from the officer is, however, yearly becoming narrower. I have observed lately a different attitude of the officers toward the cadets. Their manners are more cordial, more sympathetic, and more informal. They treat the cadets more like men instead of schoolboys; their manner is more that of a superior officer toward a junior. The result is that the old defensive attitude of the cadet toward his instructors is gradually disappearing, and he now regards his officers as instructor coadjutors instead of instructor tyrants. This spirit is highly beneficial to both officer and cadet, because the latter, feeling that his instructor is ready to aid him, becomes very receptive and consequently calls forth from the former a natural response unhampered by self-consciousness.