The Charlotte News
Friday, November 21, 1941
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: Hugh Johnson informs today that he is in Walter Reed Army Hospital, albeit not seriously ill, as reported by his friend in the press, but just in for a routine check-up. His staff and friends, however, he further informs, are keeping him plentifully stocked with dope.
Within the year, the General would pass away.
Moral appears to be: Beware staff and friends bearing gifts while in hospital.
No offense meant to the general, his family or friends. We couldn't resist.
And, we are also informed by the column that, as the United States, unbeknownst consciously to itself, was preparing to enter the war full force, an encouraging report surfaced from Fort Bragg that 1,328 men were found thus far during 1941 to be suffering from venereal disease, 191 of whom had contracted same in the previous five weeks during maneuvers, 13 of those while on maneuvers in Charlotte.
Brings to mind the familiar chant: Well, come on all of you big, strong men, Hirohito needs your help again. Got himself down 'ere in Indochina, then had to try get into our, etc.
Second verse, almost like the first: Well, come on all of you big, strong men, General Tojo needs your help again. Found himself settin' with a Burma girl, so he sailed down yonder to, etc.
Third verse, a whirly in reverse: Well, come on all of you big, strong men, Uncle Sam needs your help again. Got himself up with a runed short nag, way down yonder at, etc.
Fourth verse though comes heroically: Well, come on all of you big, strong men, the Moul-Mein-Pagoda needs your help again. No more lies, no Pinocchio, we're flying off this carrier to Tokio. Give up your pass, put on your mask, this time tomorrow you may give up your, etc.
Well, such is war in the various combat zones--the theater of war.
Incidentally, the little piece next to the column from Louis Graves of the Chapel Hill Weekly mentions Davie Hall, diagonally across the street from Coker Arboretum there on the campus. We ourselves never knew that Davie had been the botany building. That had changed by our tenure. It had become the home of the philosophy department and so was a building wherein we studied the philosophy of law, the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato, the philosophy of Leibniz, Descartes, Spinoza, and a few others, as well as a full semester spent on Professor Gilbert Harman's book, Thought, of which we have made previous mention. Its companion across the street, New Davie, was the psychology building. We took a course or two there, too. Botany, psychology: Old, new; something blue: Must equate to a marriage made in heaven somewhere.
Okay, so there may have been some poppies in Coker, too, that we heard about.
But we never took a botany course, ourselves. Just zoology. That may explain why we remember some of this stuff.
Framed Edition
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