John Passos - 1919

Joe nodded and leaned over and spat carefully between his feet.

“What do you think of that for a model battleship, pretty nifty, ain’t it? Jez, us guys is lucky not to be overseas fightin’ the fritzes in the trenches.”

“Oh, I’d just as soon,” growled Joe. “I wouldn’t give a damn.”

“Say, Joe, I got a job lined up. Guess I oughtn’t to blab around about it, but you’re regular. I know you won’t say nothin’. I been on the bum for two weeks, somethin’ wrong with my stomach. Man, I’m sick, I’m tellin’ you. I can’t do no heavy work no more. A punk I know works in a whitefront been slippin’ me my grub, see. Well, I was sittin’ on a bench right here on the square, a feller kinda well dressed sits down an’ starts to chum up. Looked to me like one of these here sissies lookin’ for rough trade, see, thought I’d roll him for some jack, what the hell, what can you do if you’re sick an’ can’t work?”

Joe sat leaning back with his legs stuck out, his hands in his pockets staring hard at the outline of the battleship against the buildings. Tex was talking fast, poking his face into Joe’s: “Turns out the sonofabitch was a dick. S — t I was scared pissless. A secret service agent. Burns is his big boss… but what he’s lookin’ for’s reds, slackers, German spies, guys that can’t keep their traps shut… an’ he turns around and hands me out a job, twentyfive smackers a week if little Willy makes good. All I got to do’s bum around and listen to guys talk, see? If I hears anything that ain’t 100 per cent I slips the word to the boss and he investigates. Twentyfive a week and servin’ my country besides, and if I gets in any kind of jam, Burns gets me out…. What do you think of that for the gravy, Joe?”

Joe got to his feet. “Guess I’ll go back to Brooklyn.” “Stick around… look here, you’ve always treated me white… you belong, I know that Joe… I’ll put you next to this guy if you want. He’s a good scout, educated feller an’ all that and he knows where you can get plenty liquor an’ women if you want ’em.” “Hell, I’m goin” to sea and get out of all this’s — t,” said Joe, turning his back and walking towards the subway station.

his voice was three thousand miles away all the time he kept wanting to get up outa bed his cheeks were bright pink and the choky breathing No kid you better lay there quiet we dont want you catching more cold that’s why they sent me down to stay with you to keep you from getting up outa bed

the barrelvaulted room all smells fever and whitewash carbolic sick wops outside the airraid siren’s got a nightmare

(Mestre’s a railhead and its moonlight over the Brenta and the basehospital and the ammunition dump

carbolic blue moonlight)

all the time he kept trying to get up outa bed Kiddo you better lay there quiet his voice was in Minnesota but dontjaunerstandafellersgottogetup I got a date animportantengagementtoseeabout those lots ought nevertohavestayedinbedsolate I’ll lose my deposit For chrissake dont you think I’m broke enough as it is?

Kiddo you gotto lay there quiet we’re in the hospital in Mestre you got a little fever makes things seem funny

Cant you letafellerbe? You’re in cahoots withem thaswhassematteris I know theyreouttorookme they think Imagoddamsucker tomadethatdeposit I’ll showem Illknockyergoddamblockoff

my shadow on the vault bulkyclumsily staggering and swaying from the one candle spluttering red in the raw winterhospital carbolic night above the shadow on the cot gotto keep his shoulders down to the cot Curley’s husky inspite of

(you can hear their motors now the antiaircraft batteries are letting loose must be great up there in the moonlight out of the smell of carbolic and latrines and sick wops)

sit back and light a macedonia by the candle he seems to be asleep his breathing’s so tough pneumonia breathing can hear myself breathe and the water tick in the faucet doctors and orderlies all down in the bombproof cant even hear a sick wop groan

Jesus is the guy dying?

they’ve cut off their motors the little drums in my ears sure that’s why they call em drums (up there in the blue moonlight the Austrian observer’s reaching for the string that dumps the applecart) the candleflame stands up still

not that time but wham in the side of the head woke Curley and the glass tinkling in the upstairs windows the candle staggered but didnt go out the vault sways with my shadow and Curley’s shadow dammit he’s strong head’s full of the fever reek Kiddo you gotto stay in bed (they dumped the applecart allright) shellfragments hailing around outside Kiddo you gotto get back to bed

But I gotadate oh christohsweetjesus cant you tell me how to get back to the outfit haveaheart dad I didntmeannoharm itsonlyaboutthose lots

the voice dwindles into a whine I’m pulling the covers up to his chin again light the candle again smoke a macedonia again look at my watch again must be near day ten o’clock they dont relieve me till eight

way off a voice goes up and up and swoops like the airraid siren ayayoooTO

General Pershing’s forces today occupied Belle Joyeuse Farm and the southern edges of the Bois des Loges. The Americans encountered but little machinegun opposition. The advance was in the nature of a linestraightening operation. Otherwise the activity along the front today consisted principally of artillery firing and bombing. Patrols are operating around Belluno having preceded the flood of allies pouring through the Quero pass in the Grappa region

REBEL SAILORS DEFY ALLIES

Bonjour ma cherie

Comment allez vous?

Bonjour ma cherie

how do you do?

after a long conference with a secretary of war and the secretary of state President Wilson returned to the White House this afternoon apparently highly pleased that events are steadily pursuing the course which he had felt they would take

Avez vous fiancé? cela ne fait rien

Voulez vous couchez avec moi ce soir?

Wee, wee, combien?

HELP THE FOOD ADMINISTRATION BY REPORTING

WAR PROFITEERS

Lord Robert, who is foreign minister Balfour’s right hand man added, “When victory comes the responsibility for America and Great Britain will rest not on statesmen but on the people.” The display of the red flag in our thoroughfares seems to be emblematic of unbridled license and an insignia for lawhating and anarchy, like the black flag it represents everything that is repulsive

LENINE FLEES TO ENGLAND

here I am snug as a bug in a rug on this third day of October. It was Sunday I went over and got hit in the left leg with a machinegun bullet above the knee. I am in a base hospital and very comfortable. I am writing with my left hand as my right one is under my head

STOCK MARKET STRONG BUT NARROW

Some day I’m going to murder the bugler

Some day they’re going to find him dead

I’ll dislocate his reveille

And step upon it heavily

And spend

the rest of my life in bed

Hibben, Paxton, journalist, Indianapolis, Ind., Dec. 5, 1880, s. Thomas Entrekin and Jeannie Merrill (Ketcham) H.; A.B. Princeton 1903, A.M. Harvard 1904

Thinking men were worried in the middle west in the years Hibben was growing up there, something was wrong with the American Republic, was it the Gold Standard, Privilege, The Interests, Wall Street?

The rich were getting richer, the poor were getting poorer, small farmers were being squeezed out, workingmen were working twelve hours a day for a bare living; profits were for the rich, the law was for the rich, the cops were for the rich;