Yank

“ Finally Yank approached one of the busy miners.
“Stranger,” said he, “we’re new to this. Maybe you can tell us where we can dig a little of this gold ourselves.”
157The man straightened his back, to exhibit a roving humorous blue eye, with which he examined Yank from top to toe.
“If,” said he, “it wasn’t for that eighteen-foot cannon you carry over your left arm, and a cold gray pair of eyes you carry in your head, I’d direct you up the sidehill yonder, and watch you sweat. As it is, you can work anywhere anybody else isn’t working. Start in!” ”

“ If Yank had been killed by the boulder, the miners would have buried him respectfully, and have forgotten him at once; but living, he could not be forgotten, and to have a leg cut off was worse, in a way, than death.
Moreover the camp felt the depression that comes over decent men after they have been on a debauch, and Yank's leg gave them an increased sense of guiltiness. Those that felt the most self-reproach most strongly put the blame on Fred's House rather than on themselves. ”

“ We were flushed, and eying each other malevolently.
“That’ll do!” said Yank, with an unexpected tone of authority. “Nobody will go back, and nobody will go ahead. We’ll just sit down on this log, yere, while we smoke one pipe apiece. I’ve got something to say.”
Johnny and I turned on him with a certain belligerency mingled with surprise. Yank had so habitually acted the part of taciturnity that his decided air of authority confused us. His slouch had straightened, his head was up, his mild eye sparkled. Suddenly I felt like a bad small boy; and I believe Johnny was the same. ”

“ She's the only hope you've got. Now, you, being a Yank, have got to go through with some preliminary obsequies before you can get official aid. You've got to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate Government. Then I'll guarantee she does all she can for you. What do you say, Yank?—it's your last chance.'
"'If you're fooling with me, Doc,' I answers, 'you're no better than the United States. But as you say it's the last chance, hurry up and swear me. I always did like corn whisky and 'possum anyhow. I believe I'm half Southerner by nature. ”

“ Finally snow fell in the mountains. Jim said. "Now you can let Yank have a saddle; he will go with the rest on a hunt, and not go to Coalville." About this time the greater number of the Utes were starting on their fall hunt. Yank came in offering me some buckskins for a saddle. I told him I was going home; that I was afraid when Tabby and the good Indians went away that he would kill me. He said I was a fool to think so; that I was a good man and all the Indians liked me and none of them would kill me. I then sold him a saddle I had ready. ”

“ The cordial relations existing on picket are well illustrated by an incident related of the period where a Union soldier, crawling out carefully to reach his station, was more than surprised to hear in unmistakable Southern speech, the words, "Say, you Yank don't belong thar'; that's we uns place; you uns place's over thar," a bit of information that the Yank did not hesitate to avail himself of. Deserters are in constant evidence, all coming in ragged and hungry.
It was at Fort Davis that Corporal Dow of Company C got one of his first experiences on horseback. ”

“ Joe roughly pushed through the circle, swore at Black Perry, said:
"We want this here lantern for Yank. Doc Perle's goin' cut off his leg. What you mean——"
The miners were not much given to thinking of any man as a hero, but Yank was as nearly one as any man among them could be. He had tried to stop a boulder that would have squashed his pard, and they had seen him suffer, silently. Voices stormed at Black Perry, fists swayed in menace. Interfere with Yank's operation, would he? ”

“ Hail, hail, de gang's all here! [At the sound of his voice the chattering dies away into an attentive silence. YANK walks up to the gorilla's cage and, leaning over the railing, stares in at its occupant, who stares back at him, silent and motionless. There is a pause of dead stillness. Then YANK begins to talk in a friendly confidential tone, half-mockingly, but with a deep undercurrent of sympathy.] Say, yuh're some hard-lookin' guy, ain't yuh? I seen lots of tough nuts dat de gang called gorillas, but yuh're de foist real one I ever seen. ”

“ Hullo, Yank! hailed one of a number of Confederate soldiers lolling about on the grass in front of a tent, that’s a right smart horse you all got there.
Think so? returned the Yank.
Yes; what’ll you take for him?
Oh, I don’t know.
Well, I’ll give you $7,000 for him, bantered the Confederate.
You go to blazes! indignantly returned the Yank; I’ve just paid $10,000 of your money to have him curried.
[20]
Two brothers were discussing which smelled the strongest, a goat or a tramp. ”

“ There's a butcher in camp. Use his saw."
"My God!" said Dr. Perle weakly.
"Why not talk it over with Joe and Yank?"
"Oh, Yank's willing enough. And I would—would, but I am afraid."
"Do you think, Dr. Perle, that that brother of yours, the lieutenant, would have hesitated at anything that seemed his duty?"
"No, no. No! But——"
"But what?"
"With the blood spurting from an artery, I know I couldn't tie a ligature. Look at my hands, rough as a miner's! I would have to cauterize!"
"Then cauterize," said Hales. "Yank's too good a man not to have his chance."
The young doctor was deeply moved. ”

“ Air—“Root Hog or Die.”
By J. S. Prevatt, Company E, 6th Ga. Regiment.
Now listen to a story that I’m going to relate,
It happened near by Richmond in the Old Dominion State;
’Twas a stampede of the Yankees down the Chickahomi-ny,
Big Yank, little Yank, root Yank or die.
Chorus.
McClellan, Seward and Greeley with all their Yankee cunning,
Will never live to wipe us out, we’re not the stock for running,
And I’ll tell you the reason why,
Dixie will be Dixie, root hog or die. ”

“ In fact, if the New York Duds worn by the Yank had been less of a Fit, and he could have schooled himself to look at a Herring without shuddering, he might have rung in as a Resident of the tight little Isle, for he was often Tight. ”

“ No Yank ain't never took no dust from aft a Englisher, whether it were war, walkin'-matches, or women.'
"'But they's a Englisher,' sings out Strokher, 'not forty miles from here as can nick the nose o' a freckled Yank if so be occasion require.'
"Now ain't that plum foolish-like," observed Bunt, philosophically. "Ain't it plum foolish-like o' them two gesabes to go flyin' up in the air like two he-hens on a hot plate—for nothin' in the world but because a neat lookin' feemale woman has looked at 'em some soft? ”

“ Crossing the river on log bridges Missouri Bar. Smith's a sunny camp, unlike Indian. Frenchman's Bar, another sunny spot. "Yank," the owner of a log-cabin store. Shrewdness and simplicity. Hopeless ambition to be "cute and smart". The "Indiana girl" impossible to Yank. "A superior and splendid woman, but no polish". Yank's "olla podrida of heterogeneous merchandise". The author meets the banished gold-dust thief. Subscription by the miners on his banishment. A fool's errand to establish his innocence. An oyster-supper bet. The thief's statements totally incompatible with innocence. ”

“ We were all quarrelsome and disinclined to take much nonsense either from the natives or from each other. Also we needed and wanted food; and we had difficulty in getting it. A dozen incipient quarrels were extinguished because the majority of the crowd would not stand for being bothered by the row. Finally the whole hutful became involved, and it really looked for a moment like a riot. A good deal of bad language flew about, and men seized their weapons. Yank rose to the occasion by appealing to them not “to kick up a muss,” because there was “a lady of our own colour in the next room.” ”

“ It's half way between water and red wine, with the kick mostly in the taste. It is served as an army ration. The poilu's canteen is always full of it.
"We ain't no thin red 'eroes, Nor we aren't no blackguards too."
One of the Agent-de-ville = M.P. teams of Paris patrolling the boulevard. They have authority over both Yank and poilu. ”

“ Yank continued by asking if any of them remembered the chap they called “Razor Bill.”
“Oh, yis,” Mike answered, “indade I remimber him well whin he wurruked down near Angel’s camp, an’ whin he wurruked up at Poverty Point, near Hangtown, an’ he made a good dale ov money too, but, begorra, he wasn’t the b’y to save it. I see him play cards with that same chap they called ‘Lucky Bill,’ an’ he lost more than $800 at the game.”
“Well,” said Yank, “I saw him at the Bay. He is driving an express wagon, and says that he is doing a very good business. He is married now, and has five or six children.” ”

“ Loading a wagon with a plough, a bed, a barrel of salt meat, the indispensable supply of tea and molasses, a Bible and a wife, and with his axe on his shoulder, the Yankee sets out for the West, without a servant, without an assistant, often without a companion, to build himself a log hut, six hundred miles from his father's roof, and clear away a spot for a farm in the midst of the boundless forest.... He is incomparable as a pioneer, unequalled as a settler of the wilderness. ”

“ Dey'll have to make de cages stronger after we're trou! [The gorilla is straining at his bars, growling, hopping from one foot to the other. YANK takes a jimmy from under his coat and forces the lock on the cage door. He throws this open.] Pardon from de governor! Step out and shake hands! I'll take yuh for a walk down Fif' Avenoo. We'll knock 'em offen de oith and croak wit de band playin'. Come on, Brother. [The gorilla scrambles gingerly out of his cage. Goes to YANK and stands looking at him. YANK keeps his mocking tone—holds out his hand.] Shake—de secret grip of our order. ”

“ The Yankee instantly let the front legs of his chair come to the ground with a bang, and gazed right before him with that intensely-grave, cataleptic stare that is wont to overspread the countenances of men when they are being photographed. ”

“ We were more and more amazed at the ignorance in the South concerning the North. A young girl, otherwise intelligent, thawed out enough to confess to me that she had really no idea that Yankee soldiers were like their own physically. She imagined they would be as widely different as black from white, and a sort of combination of gorilla and chimpanzee. Gunboats had but a short time before moored at the levee that bounded her grandmother's plantation, and the negroes ran into the house crying the terrible news of the approach of the enemy. The very thought of a Yankee was abhorrent ”

“ The Yankee is the laborious ant; he is industrious and sober and, on the sterile soil of New England, niggardly; transplanted to the promised land in the west he continues moderate in his habits, but less inclined to count the cents. ”

“ The Yankee temperament is occasionally depressing! I went outdoors again, eating my doughnuts as I walked, and strolled into the vegetable garden to survey the staked rows which denoted beets and peas. Then I went down the slope into my little stand of pines, into the cool hush of them, and unconsciously my brain relaxed in the bath of their peace, and for ten minutes I lay on the needles, neither asleep nor awake, just blissfully vacant. ”

“ The Yankee—there could be no mistake as to his nationality—turned the head of the log toward the shore, and as it struck the land, began to rise slowly from the water. The sentry kept up his attitude of command so long as his Yankee friend showed only the ordinary amount of bone and muscle, but his eyes opened as foot after foot rose from the water, and the Yankee stood six feet seven in his stockings! A queer looking specimen of the genus homo he was, such as, for the good of the race, nature rarely framed. ”

“ Hey, I didn't say, kiss me. [The gorilla lets the crushed body slip to the floor; stands over it uncertainly, considering; then picks it up, throws it in the cage, shuts the door, and shuffles off menacingly into the darkness at left. A great uproar of frightened chattering and whimpering comes from the other cages. Then YANK moves, groaning, opening his eyes, and there is silence. He mutters painfully.] Say—dey oughter match him—wit Zybszko. He got me, aw right. I'm trou. ”

“ About the time that Yankees began to emigrate to Wisconsin a talented French writer, Michel Chevalier, gave the world a brilliant and on the whole favorable characterization of them. "The Yankee," he says, "is reserved, cautious, distrustful; he is thoughtful and pensive, but equable; his manners are without grace, modest but dignified, cold, and often unprepossessing; he is narrow in his ideas, but practical, and possessing the idea of the proper, he never rises to the grand. He has nothing chivalric about him and yet he is adventurous, and he loves a roving life. ”

“ Yankee Love is fitful, uncertain, changeful, passional, moody, seldom more than superficial, because the Yankee faculties are all engrossed in the one grand object of American life—dollars and dimes, dash and display. ”

“ Cleaning up old quarry used by Fritz as a barracks—Chemin-des-Dames
"Wagon Soldiers" (nickname for artillerymen)
Made in America—France Aug. 1918
"Marraines" (Godmothers) who kept their poilu godsons at the front in good cheer with letters and packages from home, and who took their Yank cousins to their hearts in the same kindly spirit
Sophie—Marie—Madeleine
in Paris and the provinces—
A type to match the ideal of every man who looks
"Papa Perrin"
Soissons
1917
No one knows where the poilu slang word "Pinard" came from, but everyone knows what it means. ”

“ As the Cavalier of the Cromwellian era was a horror to the pharisaical Puritan, and the Puritan in his turn a contempt and an abomination to the reckless, pleasure-hunting Cavalier, so to-day is the 'psalm-singing, clock-peddling Yankee' a foul odor to the fastidious nostrils of the lordly Southerner, and the reckless prodigal, dissipated and soul-selling planter a thorn in the flesh of Puritan morality. The Yankee is to the Southerner a synonym for all that is low and base and cunning, and the Southerner is to the Yankee the embodiment of all worthlessness and crime. ”