U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [381]
into the shuddering soar of a man and a woman alone indeed together lurching into and ninemonths sick drowse waking into scared
agony and the pain and blood and mess of birth). John Doe was born
and raised in Brooklyn, in Memphis, near the lake-front in Cleveland, Ohio, in the stench of the stock-yards in Chi, on Beacon Hil , in an old brick house in Alexandria Virginia, on Telegraph Hil , in a halftim-bered Tudor cottage in Portland the city of roses,
-468-in the Lying-In Hospital old Morgan endowed on Stuyvesant Square, across the railroad tracks, out near the country
club, in a shack cabin tenement apartmenthouse ex-clusive residential suburb; scion of one of the best families in the social reg-ister, won first prize in the baby parade at Coronado Beach, was marbles champion of the Little Rock gram-marschools, crack basketbal player at the Boonevil e High, quarterback at the State Reformatory, having saved the sheriff's kid from drowning in the Little Missouri River was invited to Washington to be photo-graphed shaking hands with the President on the White House steps; --though this was a time of mourning, such an assemblage necessarily has about it a touch of color. In the boxes are seen the court uniforms of foreign diplomats, the gold braid of our own and foreign fleets and armies, the black of the con-ventional morning dress of American statesmen, the varicol-ored furs and outdoor wrapping garments of mothers and. sisters come to mourn, the drab and blue of soldiers and sailors, the glitter of musical instruments and the white and black of a vested choir
--busboy harveststiff hogcal er boyscout champeen
cornshucker of Western Kansas bel hop at the United States Hotel at Saratoga Springs office boy cal boy fruiter telephone lineman longshoreman lumberjack
plumber's helper,
worked for an exterminating company in Union
City, fil ed pipes in an opium joint in Trenton, N. J. Y.M.C.A. secretary, express agent, truckdriver,
fordmechanic, sold books in Denver Colorado: Madam
would you be wil ing to help a young man work his way through col ege?
-469-President Harding, with a reverence seemingly more sig-nificant because of his high temporal station, concluded his. speech:
We are met today to pay the impersonal tribute;
the name of him whose body lies before us took flight with his imperishable soul. . . as a typical soldier of this representative democracy he fought and died believing in the, indisputable justice of his country's cause. . .
by raising his right hand and asking the thousands within the sound of his voice to join in the prayer:
Our Father which art in heaven hal owed be thy
name. . .
Naked he went into the army;
they weighed you, measured you, looked for flat
feet, squeezed your penis to see if you had clap, looked up your anus to see if you had piles, counted your teeth, made you cough, listened to your heart and lungs, made you read the letters on the card, charted your urine and your intel igence, gave you a service record for a future (imperish-able soul) and an identification tag stamped with your serial
number to hang around your neck, issued O D regula-tion equipment, a condiment can and a copy of the articles of war.
Atten'SHUN suck in your gut you c -----r wipe
that smile off your face eyes right wattja tink dis is a choirch-social? For-war-D'ARCH. Jolhn Doe
and Richard Roe and other person or persons un-known dril ed hiked, manual of arms, ate slum, learned
-470-to salute, to soldier, to loaf in the latrines, forbidden to smoke on deck, overseas guard duty, forty men and
eight horses, shortarm inspection and the ping of shrap-nel and the shril bul ets combing the air and the sore-head woodpeckers the machineguns mud cooties gas-masks and the itch. Say feller tell me how I can get back to my outfit. John Doe had a head for twentyodd years intensely the nerves of the
eyes the ears the palate the tongue the fingers the toes the armpits, the