U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [174]
Doc's name was Wil iam H. Rogers and he'd come
from Michigan original y and his old man had been a grapefruit grower down at Frostproof and Doc had cashed in on a couple of good crops of vegetables off the Ever-glades muck and was going over to see the mademosels before the whole thing went bel yup.
They were pretty drunk by the time night fel and
were sitting in the stern with a seedylooking man in a derby hat who said he was an Est from the Baltic. The Est and Doc and Charley got up on the little bridge above the afterhouse after supper; the wind had gone down and it was a starlight night with a slight rol and Doc said,
"By God, there's somethin' funny about this here boat
. . . Befoa we went down to supper the Big Dipper was in the north, and now it's gone right around to the south-west."
"It is vat you vould expect of a kapitalistichesky so-ciety," said the Est. When he found that Charley had a
-405-red card and that Doc didn't believe in shooting anything but niggers he made a big speech about how revolution had broken out in Russia and the Czar was being forced to abdicate and that was the beginning of the regeneration of mankind from the East. He said the Ests would get their independence and that soon al Europe would be the free sozialistitchesky United States of Europe under the Red flag and Doc said, "What did I tel yez, Charley?
The friggin' business'l go bel yup soon . . . What you want to do is come with me an' see the war while it lasts." And Charley said Doc was right and Doc said, "I'l take you round with me, boy, an' al you need do's show your driver's license an' tel 'em you're a col ege student." The Est got sore at that and said that it was the duty of every classconscious worker to refuse to fight in this war and Doc said, "We ain't goin' to fight, Esty, old man. What we'l do is carry the boys out before they count out on 'em, see? I'd be a disappointed sonofabitch if the whole business had gone bel yup befoa we git there, wouldn't you, Charley?"
Then they argued some more about where the Dipper
was and Doc kept saying it had moved to the south and when they'd finished the second quart, Doc was saying he didn't believe in white men shootin' each other up, only niggers, and started going round the boat lookin' for that damn shine steward to kil him just to prove it and the Est was singing The Marseillaise and Charley was tel ing everybody that what he wanted to do was to get in on the big war before it went bel yup. The Est and Charley had a hard time holding Doc down in his bunk when they put him to bed. He kept jumping out shout-ing he wanted to kil a couple of niggers. They got into New York in a snowstorm. Doc said the Statue of Liberty looked like she had a white nightgown. on. The Est looked around and hummed The Marseillaise and said American cities were not artistical because they
-406-did not have gables on the houses like in Baltic Europe. When they got ashore Charley and Doc went to the
Broadway Central Hotel together. Charley had never
been in a big hotel like that and wanted to find a cheaper flop but Doc insisted that he come along with him and said he had plenty of jack for both of them and that it was no use saving money because things would go bel yup soon. New York was ful of grinding gears and clanging cars and the roar of the "L" and newsboys crying extras. Doc lent Charley a good suit and took him down to the enlistment office of the ambulance corps that was in an important lawyer's office in a big shiny officebuilding down in the financial district. The gentleman who signed the boys up was a New York lawyer and he talked about their being gentleman volunteers and behaving like gen-tlemen and being a credit to the cause of the Al ies and the American flag and civilization that the brave French soldiers had been fighting for so many years in the trenches. When he found out Charley was a mechanic
he signed him up without waiting to write to the principal of the highschool and the pastor of the Lutheran church home in Fargo whose names he had