U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [382]
charged the coiled brain with hurt sweet warm cold
mine must dont sayings print headlines:
Thou shalt not the multiplication table long di-vision, Now is the time for al good men knocks but once at a young man's door, It's a great life if Ish gebibbel, The first five years'l be the Safety First, Suppose a hun tried to rape your my country right or wrong, Catch 'em young, What he dont know wont
treat 'em rough, Tel 'em nothin, He got what was
coming to him he got his, This is a white man's coun-try, Kick the bucket, Gone west, If you dont like it you can croaked him
Say buddy cant you tell me how I can get back to my outfit?
Cant help jumpin when them things go off, give
me the trots them things do. I lost my identification tag swimmin in the Marne, roughhousin with a guy while
we was waitin to be deloused, in bed with a girl named Jeanne (Love moving picture wet French postcard
dream began with saltpeter in the coffee and ended at the propho station); -- Say soldier for chrissake cant you tell me how I can get back to my outfit?
-471-John Doe's
heart pumped blood:
alive thudding silence of blood in your ears
down in the clearing in the. Oregon forest where the punkins were punkincolor pouring into the blood
through the eyes and the fal colored trees and the
bronze hoopers were hopping through the dry grass,
where tiny striped snails hung on the underside of the blades and the flies hummed, wasps droned, bumblebees buzzed, and the woods smelt of wine and mushrooms and apples, homey smel of fal pouring into the blood, and I dropped the tin hat and the sweaty pack and
lay flat with the dogday sun licking my throat and
adamsapple and the tight skin over the breastbone.
The shel had his number on it.
The blood ran into the ground.
The service record dropped out of the filing cab-inet when the quartermaster sergeant got blotto that time they had to pack up and leave the bil ets in a hurry. The identification tag was in the bottom of the
Marne.
The blood ran into the ground, the brains oozed
out of the cracked skul and were licked up by the
trenchrats, the bel y swel ed and raised a generation of bluebottle flies, and the incorruptible skeleton,
and the scraps of dried viscera and skin bundled
in khaki
they took to Chalons-sur-Marne
and laid it out neat in a pine coffin
-472-and took it home to God's Country on a battleship and buried it in a sarcophagus in the Memorial
Amphitheatre in the Arlington National Cemetery
and draped the Old Glory over it
And the bugler played taps
and Mr. Harding prayed to God and the diplo-mats and the generals and the admirals and the brass-hats and the politicians and the handsomely dressed ladies out of the society column of the Washington
Post stood up solemn
and thought how beautiful sad Old Glory God's
Country it was to have the bugler play taps and the three vol eys made their ears ring. Where his chest ought to have been they pinned
the Congressional Medal, the D.S.C., the Me-dail e Militaire, the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Ital-ian gold medal, the Vitutea Militara sent by Queen Marie of Rumania, the Czechoslovak war cross, the
Virtuti Militari of the Poles, a wreath sent by Hamilton Fish, Jr., of New York, and a little wampum presented by a deputation of Arizona redskins in warpaint and feathers. Al the Washingtonians brought flowers.
Woodrow Wilson brought a bouquet of poppies.
-473-THE BIG MONEY
CONTENTS
CHARLEY ANDERSON
3
NEWSREEL XLIV Yankee Doodle that melodee
10
CHARLEY ANDERSON
11
NEWSREEL XLV 'Twarn't for powder and for
storebought hair
18
THE AMERICAN PLAN
19
NEWSREEL XLVI these are the men for whom
the rabid
25
NEWSREEL XLVII boy seeking future offered
28
The Camera Eye (44) the unnamed arrival
29
CHARLEY ANDERSON
32
NEWSREEL XLVIII truly the Steel Corporation
46
TIN LIZZIE
47
NEWSREEL XLIX Jack o' Diamonds Jack o' Dia-
monds
57
CHARLEY ANDERSON
58
NEWSREEL L Don't blame it all on Broadway
91
THE BITTER DRINK
93
NEWSREEL LI The sunshine drifted from our
alley
105
MARY