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.
When one is busy and happy the time flies by rapidly so that before the cadet is aware of its flight, the summer camp is brought to a close with a Color Line entertainment. The spare moments of the Corps are for days beforehand spent in preparation for this event that marks the end of a happy summer. The Practical Military Engineering squad now comes into its own. They build roller coasters, triumphal arches, small theaters with cabarets, Japanese gardens, with the greatest ingenuity and skill. The company streets are transformed into bits of New York, Tokio, and Chinatown. Upon the parade is erected a large open-air dancing platform smothered in the flags of all nations, where the cadets and their guests dance away the last evening in camp. They make the most of their opportunity, for the next day they must return to the barracks and commence the Academic term.
Once the studies have been resumed, the time for diversion of any sort is limited. The entire day from 6:00 until 10:00 P.M. is employed with studies, drills, and necessary personal duties, so that there is nothing for the cadet but work, work, work. There are, however, two weekly breaks in the severe routine. One of these lulls is on Wednesday afternoon when there are no drills, an arrangement that gives two hours of leisure to the cadets.
There are many ways of driving away dull care during these two hours. The Second and Third Classmen, who have riding privileges, ride on the roads around West Point where they enjoy, in the autumn, a variety of scenes of surpassing beauty. Clad in their riding clothes, they impatiently await in the barracks, usually in the lower hall, the first note of “release from quarters” that is blown at 3:50 P.M. The moment the bugler raises his instrument to his lips and sends forth the first sound of release from quarters the “ridoids,” except First Classmen, burst from the hall and race to the stables in order to secure their favorite mount. Each First Classman has his mount assigned to him, so that he can be more leisurely in his movements.
Other men who prefer the society of books spend all of their leisure at the library where they seek out a quiet corner and a big leather arm chair and lose themselves in their surroundings. They enjoy the atmosphere of calm dignity and peace that pervades the reading rooms in refreshing contrast to the noise of barracks where the men are constantly running in and out, calling to one another.
The noise in barracks, however, makes no impression on the men who spend their leisure catching up with sleep. An inspection of the rooms on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons would disclose many a cadet “pounding joyously his ear.” Grown weary by the routine, he does not resist the overpowering feeling of fatigue, but abandons himself to a delicious slumber.
Meanwhile, numbers of his comrades are out on the athletic field engaged in tennis, golf, or if not playing, encouraging by their presence the work of the football team. The leisure moments of a large percentage of the cadets are given over in the fall to practicing football songs and yells. Usually, some cadet who lacks self-consciousness and who is popular with his fellows, is selected as cheer leader. Under his direction the cadets practice their songs and yells, while the team perfects its play in front of them on the gridiron. At no institution of learning does there exist among the students a greater esprit de corps than among the cadets. In the fall, all sorts of personal wishes and inclinations are stifled in order to attend the cheering practice, and bring it to a high degree of perfection for the Saturday afternoon games on the home grounds, and chiefly for the contest with the Navy. Few of the cadets fail to turn out for the cheering, because these are accused of lacking in spirit, and thereby lose prestige with their comrades.
Cadets who elect to devote their time to other forms of athletics, however, are regarded with no reproach, but men who absent themselves in order to attend teas or to go “spooning” are looked upon with some disfavor. Corps spirit ranks everything in the eyes of the cadet, and he justly demands that it come first.
Such is the way that cadets spend their two hours of leisure on Wednesday afternoons. After the 1:30 P.M. inspection on Saturday the cadets are also at liberty for the remainder of the day. They spend their time as described above, the various diversions changing slightly with the seasons. Saturday is anticipated with the greatest pleasure, for in addition to the afternoon leisure, the evening is free to do as one pleases. How welcome is the relaxation from incessant study! There are so many things to do. Some men attend the hops that are held twice a month; others dine out at the officers’ quarters; still others go to the “Movies” which have become a stock entertainment every Saturday evening in the gymnasium. Advantage is taken of the freedom to visit one another’s rooms in the barracks, to laugh, to talk, to “knock,” possibly to make some “fudge” on the electric stove that spends the week days hidden in the recesses of some mattress. Perhaps one of the men has received some money from home, unknown to the authorities, and has treated his comrades to unlimited quantities of Huyler’s from the Boodlers, or maybe an invitation has been received to a real “party” after taps where cold turkey, jams, nuts, sandwiches, smuggled into quarters, are eaten by an eternally hungry crowd. After such a feast the condition of the room can better be imagined than described. The next morning the occupants make the most frantic efforts to remove the grease spots from the floor and table before the Sunday morning inspection. All of the previous night’s feasters lend a hand in the 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.