The Project Gutenberg EBook of One Man's Initiation--1917, by John Dos Passos

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Title: One Man's Initiation--1917

Author: John Dos Passos

Release Date: January 7, 2008 [EBook #24202]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ONE MAN'S INITIATION--1917

BY

JOHN DOS PASSOS

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
1922

TO THOSE
WITH WHOM I SAW ROCKETS IN THE SKY A
CERTAIN EVENING AT SUNSET ON THE ROAD
FROM ERIZE-LA-PETITE TO ERIZE-LA-GRANDE.

Table of Contents

Chapter I 9
Chapter II 17
Chapter III 22
Chapter IV 31
Chapter V 49
Chapter VI 64
Chapter VII 85
Chapter VIII 107
Chapter IX 109
Chapter X 125
Chapter XI 127

One Man's Initiation--1917

CHAPTER I

In the huge shed of the wharf, piled with crates and baggage, broken by
gang-planks leading up to ships on either side, a band plays a tinselly
Hawaiian tune; people are dancing in and out among the piles of trunks
and boxes. There is a scattering of khaki uniforms, and many young men
stand in groups laughing and talking in voices pitched shrill with crates
excitement. In the brown light of the wharf, full of rows of yellow
and barrels and sacks, full of racket of cranes, among which winds
in and out the trivial lilt of the Hawaiian tune, there is a flutter
of gay dresses and coloured hats of women, and white handkerchiefs.

The booming reverberation of the ship's whistle drowns all other sound.

After it the noise of farewells rises shrill. White handkerchiefs are
agitated in the brown light of the shed.