Hence the distinction between old and new "plebes." In the presence of all plebes the yearlings and other upper class men keep themselves loftily apart, except when compelled to drill the plebes or perform other military or other official duties with plebes.
The plebe, old or new, is still but a "beast"-- a being unfitted for intimate contact with upper class men.

The plebe is not an outcast.
He is merely fifteen months on probation with his upper class comrades.

Unhappy as the lot of the freshman is at some of our colleges, the plebe at West Point is of far less importance in the eyes of the upper classes.
Early every morning cadet corporals marched squads of new plebes out into the open and put them through the mysteries of the Army "setting-up" drills.

These drills are effective in giving the new man, in an almost marvelously short time, the correct military carriage and physical deportment.

Between these and the squad, platoon and company drills, it is truly wonderful how rapidly the new cadet begins to drop his former awkwardness.
The new plebes had now drawn their uniforms and rapidly learned the care of these parts of the soldier's wardrobe.