The vacation ends on December 31st when the men on leave return to the Post. That night is held the New Year’s hop for which the girls in shoals come to West Point. It has always remained a mystery to me where these girls come from. All of a sudden they descend upon the Post like a swarm of locusts, and the next day as quickly disappear. The characteristic feature of the New Year’s hop occurs at midnight. A few seconds before twelve o’clock, a musician in the orchestra sounds the “attention.” An impressive stillness falls over the ball room, while the trumpeter blows “Taps” just as the old year dies. Not a person in the whole room stirs. At the first stroke of twelve, the trumpeter blows the “Reveille,” a signal that another year has awakened. The cadets of the upper classes then rush to the center of the ball room, form into class groups, and give their class yell. The under classes yell for the First Class which politely responds with a class yell for each. The First Classmen then end the incident by a yell, adding three prolonged and joyous cries: “Never again! Never again! Never again!” They mean that never again as cadets at West Point will they attend a New Year’s dance. They are announcing to all present the completion of a definite period, the closing of one chapter of their lives that can never again be relived. The music starts up, the dancers float off, and the incident is soon forgotten, but to one standing by who takes the trouble to reflect a little there is an element of sadness in the almost debonair manner that these young men renounce a portion of their lives that has not been lacking in benefits and in happy associations. After the mid-winter break nothing interrupts the routine of the cadets’ ordinary diversions until the annual play on the 20th of February. The upper-classmen give the _Hundredth Night Play_. It is ordinarily a satire upon conditions at the Academy. The setting is invariably West Point, and the principal characters are the officers on duty. The other characters satirize the type with which West Point abounds: the cadet girl, her friend, the chaperone, the cadet “spoonoid,” the professors and instructors. Shouts of laughter greet the appearance of the impersonations of the officers, and rounds of applause follow jokes gotten off at their expense. There is nothing assumed or counterfeit about the genuineness of the cadets’ enjoyment. There is, of course, an officer who censors the play before its production, for although there is no more polite body of men in the world than the Corps of Cadets, yet their enthusiasm and eagerness might lead them to indulge in personalities that would offend. The Tactical officers who are immediately over the cadets are most generally impersonated; the exaggeration of their little weaknesses is not more enjoyed by the cadets than by the officers themselves. In fact, whenever any one of them is left out he rather regrets it.