U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [161]
They went and sat on Doc's bunk and Doc broke out a bottle of Bacardi and they had some drinks and Charley told about how he'd been flat broke; if it wasn't for that fifty bucks he'd stil be sitting on the levee and Doc said that if it wasn't for that fifty bucks he'd be riding first-class. Doc said he was going up to New York to sail for
-404-France in a volunteer ambulance corps; wasn't ever'day you got a chance to see a big war like that and he wanted to get in on it before the whole thing went bel yup; stil he didn't like the idea of shooting a lot of whitemen he didn't have no quarrel with and reckoned this was the best way; if the Huns was niggers he'd feel different about it. Charley said he was going to New York because he
thought there were good chances of schooling in a big city like that and how he was an automobile mechanic and wanted to get to be a C.E. or something like that because there was no future for a working stiff without schooling. Doc said that was al mahoula and what a boy like him ought to do was go and sign up as a mechanic in this here ambulance and they'd pay fifty dol ars a month an' maybe more and that was a lot of seeds on the other side and he'd ought to see the goddam war before the whole thing went bel yup.
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