588 
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT. 
tary ” recreation, and play no games except an occasional game of 
bowls in the bowling alley, and a baseball match on Saturday afternoon, 
when they get a half holiday. There is no cricket, football, or rackets. 
They give occasional dances, notably the “ Graduation Hop,” in June, 
to which people come from New York in large numbers. Ladies at 
West Point are at a premium, and one young lady who resides there 
mentioned to the writer that one Sunday she had recently walked with 
five cadets—not all at once, but separately—and that, by a well under¬ 
stood custom, Sunday is divided up into five regular “ walking-out ” 
periods, each known by some distinguishing name, such as the “church 
parade walk,” the “ guard mounting walk,” &c. 
The Cadet Battalion. 
For instruction in infantry drill, military police, and discipline the 
cadets are organised into a battalion of four companies, “A,” “B,” 
a C” and “D,” under the Lieut.-Colonel Commandant, each company 
being commanded by a Lieutenant in the Army, there is also a Captain- 
cadet to each company, but he, of course, takes his orders from the 
Army Lieutenant. There is an Adjutant, Quarter-Master, Sergeant- 
Major, and Quarter-Master-Sergeant to the battalion, all of whom are 
cadets. There are three Lieutenants, one 1st Sergeant, four Sergeants, 
and five Corporals to each company, who are also cadets. All are 
selected for their efficiency and, as a general rule, the Officers are 
taken from the 1st Class, the Staff-Sergeants and Sergeants from the 
2nd Class, and the Corporals from the 3rd Class. 
Interior Economy. 
There is a very nice little Officers’ Mess for the Staff, who sit down to 
dinner about 12; most of the Staff being married, live in their quarters. 
The cadets have all their meals in the Grant Hall, where they are 
divided into a number of messes. Their food is of good quality, well 
cooked, wholesome, and varies according to the season. The cadets 
have to pay for their messing, which costs, on an average, £3 5s. 9d. 
a month. They get medical attendance, medicines, quarters, fuel, and 
lights free, with the exception of a small share of gas burnt, which 
comes to about Is. 3d. a month for each cadet. There is an Academy 
band of 24 performers. A drum and a fife seem to take the place of 
our trumpet and bugle, as the cadets turn out and fall in to the sound 
of them. A cadet must keep up his uniform and clothing at his own 
expense, he has also to pay for his belt and sash—the latter, as worn 
by the Officer-cadets, costs as much as £5, but serves them for use after 
obtaining their commissions. All articles of clothing are of uniform 
pattern, and are sold at the Academy at regulated prices. The pay of 
a cadet is £111 a year, or £9 5s. a month. No cadet is permitted to 
receive money from any other source without the sanction of the 
Superintendent. With proper economy a cadet’s pay is said to be 
sufficient for his support while at the Academy, but it must be a pinch 
to make both ends meet, judging from the number of things he has to 
pay for. To begin with, 16s. 8d. a month is set aside to pay for his 
outfit as an officer on graduation, by which time this stoppage has 
