Read "Square and Compasses" by Oliver Optic online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"What's the use of wearing a uniform? We are not soldiers, and you are not going to make soldiers of us, Captain Gildrock," said Ben Ludlow, when the principal of the Beech Hill Industrial School announced, at the close of the afternoon session, that the students would be required to wear a peculiar dress. "I don't believe in being dressed up like a monkey on a hand organ."
"You can't always tell the monkey by the dress he wears, and some boys insist upon being monkeys in whatever garb they appear," added the principal; for he encouraged them to express their opinions in a gentlemanly manner on all subjects. "Soldiers are not the only class that wear uniforms. They are worn in the navy as well as in the army. I think I have heard no objection from anyone to the sailor rig worn on board of the Sylph."