Trooper Tales — page 220: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

204 The Fever’s Fifth Man. prone to assume. He learns that it is unprofitable to expatiate upon the rich appointments of his residence far away, and upon the princely salary he threw up. He learns to grin while his trousers are sticking to his legs, because they are chafed and bloody from bareback riding in the bull-ring. He learns that the U. S. commissariat does not supply pie, silken hose or scented pillows. He learns the peculiar devilishness of Southern army camps in sultry weather. He learns to eat flies and other strange things—and to eat them in vicious sunshine. He learns what a terror the rainy season is for one who can’t get out of it for several reasons. He learns to chew holes in his tongue when a superior officer calls him a dis- grace to his country and other expressive things. He learns how insignificant it is possible for a human atom to be. He learns to laugh at the whole business and write home how strong and happy he is. Some recruits never get rational. They take things seriously. They mutter “God help me,” and bad things about wars and armies. I enlisted about the time poems on the Maine became unpopular. Fogarty applied a system of ghoulish torture to make me miserable. I concluded that he was a cun- ningly-constructed object for my hatred, and that his heart was packed in ice. What I concluded about army life in general I kept to myself, thereby scoring a hit. One evening I won a foot-race and found myself a friend of Fogarty’s. Old soldiers are fond of physical demonstrations. He was in my set of fours in troop drill Comicbooks.co