Stephen Crane

“ There would have been godless quarrelling over fragments if it were not that with these fevers came a great listlessness, so that men were almost content to die, if death required no exertion.
It was an occasion which distinctly separated the sheep from the goats. The goats were few enough, but their qualities glared out like crimson spots.
One morning Jamson and Ripley, two captains in the 44th Foot, lay under a flimsy shelter of sticks and palm branches. Their dreamy dull eyes contemplated the men in the trench which went to left and right. To them came Casper Cadogan, moaning. ”

“ In a few days Reilly's brigade discovered that by their successful charge they had gained the inestimable privilege of sitting in a wet trench and slowly but surely starving to death. Men's tempers crumbled like dry bread. ”

“ The intentions of the three venerable colonels were the same. They stood behind their lines, quiet, stern, courteous, old fellows, admonishing their regiments to be very pretty in the face of such a hail of magazine-rifle and machine-gun fire as has never in this world been fronted, save by the beardless savages when the white man has found occasion to take his burden to some new place. ”

“ Long ago, the senator had decided that, when his boy returned, the greeting should have something Spartan in it. He would make a welcome such as most soldiers get. There would be no flowers and carriages when the other poor fellows got none. He should consider Casper as a soldier. That was the way to treat a man. But, in the end, a sharp acid of anxiety had worked upon the iron old man, until he had ordered the yacht to take him out and make a fool of him. ”

“ I'm going to get him an appointment and if you can do anything to help it along, I wish you would.' Then he betook himself to the White House and the War Department and made a stir. People think that administrations are always slavishly, abominably anxious to please the machine. They are not; they wish the machine sunk in red fire, for by the power of ten thousand past words, looks, gestures, writings, the machine comes along and takes the administration by the nose and twists it, and the administration does not even yell. ”

“ But Casper had pulled a long face. 'The army?' he said, 'stay in the army?'
The senator continued to outline quite rapturously his idea of the future. 'The army, evidently, is just the place for you. You know as well as I do that you have not been a howling success, exactly, in anything else which you have tried. But, now, the army just suits you. It is the kind of career which specially suits you. ”

“ It seemed as if men took the fever through sheer lack of another occupation. During the days of battle none had had time to get even a tropic headache, but no sooner was that brisk period over than men began to shiver and shudder by squads and platoons. ”

“ The senator drank a neat whisky and lit a cigar. He assumed an attitude of ponderous reflection. 'Y-yes; but this country is full of young men who are not fools. Full of 'em.'
Casper fidgeted in the desire to answer that while he admitted the profusion of young men who were not fools, he felt that he himself possessed interesting and peculiar qualifications which would allow him to make his mark in any field of effort which he seriously challenged. ”

“ I'll have you made a major next week. You've found your proper field at last. You stick to the army, Casper, and I'll back you up. That's the thing. In a few years it will be a great career. The United States is pretty sure to have an army of about a hundred and fifty thousand men. And, starting in when you did, and with me to back you up -- why, we'll make you a general in seven or eight years. That's the ticket. You stay in the army.' The senator's face was flushed with enthusiasm, and he looked eagerly and confidently at his son. ”

“ And the regiments were pretty. The men lay on their little stomachs and got peppered according to the law, and said nothing as the good blood pumped out into the grass; and even if a solitary rookie tried to get a decent reason to move to some haven of rational men, the cold voice of an officer made him look criminal with a shame that was a credit to his regimental education. Behind Reilly's command was a bullet-torn jungle, through which it could not move as a brigade ”

“ The huge force which carries an election to success looks reproachfully at the administration, and says, 'Give me a penny!' That is a very small amount with which to reward a colossus.
The Skowmulligan war-horse got his penny and took it to his hotel, where Casper was moodily reading war-rumours. 'Well, my boy, here you are.' Casper was a captain and commissary on the staff of Brigade-General Reilly, Commander of the Second Brigade of the First Division of the Thirtieth Army Corps. 'I had to work for it,' said the senator grimly. ”

“ I don't know how much of a shindy this thing is goin' to be, but any shindy is enough to show how much there is in a man. You've got your appointment, and that's all I can do for you; but I'll thrash you with my own hands, if, when the army gets back, the other fellows say my son is nothin' but a good-lookin' dude.'
He ceased, breathing heavily. Casper looked bravely and frankly at his father and answered, in a voice which was not very tremulous, 'I'll do my best. This is my chance; I'll do my best with it.'
The senator had a marvellous ability of transition from one manner to another. ”

“ And now about this commissary business. As I understand it, a commissary is a sort of caterer in a big way. That is, he looks out for a good many more things than a caterer has to bother his head about. Reilly's brigade has probably from two to three thousand men in it, and in regard to certain things you've got to look out for every man of 'em every day. I know perfectly well you couldn't successfully run a boarding-house in Ocean Grove. How you goin' to manage for all these soldiers, hey? Thought about it?'
'No,' said Casper, injured. 'I didn't want to be a commissary. ”

“ We are actually expecting -- no, I won't say expecting -- but we would not be surprised -- nobody in the department would be surprised if, before daybreak, we were compelled to give to the country the news of a disaster, which would be the worst blow the national pride has ever suffered. ”

“ Reilly's brigade is up there.'
'And when do you suppose the War Department can tell me if he is all right? I want to know.'
'My dear senator -- frankly, I don't know. Again I beg you to think of our position -- the army in a muddle; its General thinking that he must fall back; and yet not sure that he can fall back without losing the army. Why, we're worrying about the lives of sixteen thousand men and the self-respect of the nation, senator.'
'I see,' observed the senator, nodding his head slowly. 'And naturally the welfare of one man's son doesn't -- how do they say it? ”

“ At times his manner to me is little short of being offensive; but, of course, I understand that it is only the way of a crusty old soldier who has been made boorish and bearish by a long life among the Indians. ”

“ They were fine men. Individual to individual, American manhood overmatches the best in Europe; but manhood is only an essential part of a lieutenant, a captain, or a major. But at any rate it had all the logic of going to sea in a bathing-machine.
The senator found himself reasoning that Casper was as good as any of them, and better than many. ”

“ Baker watched the tall heavy figure of the senator moving out to intercept a cable train. 'Great Scot!' cried the private secretary to himself, 'there'll be three distinct kinds of grand, plain, practical fireworks. The old man is going for 'em. I wouldn't be in Lascum's boots. Ye gods, what a row there'll be!'
In due time the senator was closeted with some kind of deputy third-assistant battery-horse in the offices of the War Department. The official obviously had been told off to make a supreme effort to pacify Cadogan, and he certainly was acting according to his instructions. ”

“ The mind of the war-horse was decided far sooner than Casper expected. In Washington a large number of well-bred handsome young men were receiving appointments as lieutenants, as captains, and occasionally as majors. ”