California, Southern -- Fiction; Motion picture industry -- Fiction; Petroleum industry and trade -- Fiction; Political fiction
Bunny sat, taking in every word of this discussion. It was puzzling, and
hard to be sure about, but it seemed to him that Dad was right, what
could a good American do, in war-time like this, but trust his
government? Bunny was a little shocked to hear a man wearing the uniform
of the army sit there and express doubts about his superiors, and he
considered it his duty to get Paul off by himself, and tell him some of
the things the four minute men had said in school, and try to inspire
him with a more intense patriotism. But Paul only laughed, and patted
Bunny on the back, saying that they got any quantity of propaganda here
in the training-camp.
II
One evening they all went to hear Eli; in a great tent such as would
hold a three ring circus, with thousands of cars parked in the fields
about, and sawdust strewn in the aisles, and hundreds of wooden benches,
crowded with soldier boys and ranchers and their wives and children.
There was a platform with the evangelist, wearing a white robe with a
golden star on his bosom, for all the world like some Persian magus; and
there was a “silver band,” with trumpets and bass-tubas gleaming so that
they put your eyes out. When those big blarers started a hymn of glory,
and the audience started to rock and shout, “Praise the Lord!” the top
of that tent would bulge up!
Eli preached against the Hun, telling how the Holy Spirit had revealed
to him that the enemy was to be routed before the year was by, and
promising eternal salvation to all who died in this cause of the
Lord—provided, of course, that they had not rejected their chance to be
saved by Eli. In the middle of the stage was a tank constructed, with
steps descending into it, and the converts sitting in rows on the
platform, garbed in white nighties; when that stage of the ceremonies
arrived, Eli descended into the water himself, and grabbed his victims
one by one by the backs of their necks, and in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Ghost he swung them forward, souse! into the
water. Thereby their sins were washed from the very last hair of their
bodies, and if from the holy water they contracted any of those diseases
which are the penalty of sins, even among military crusaders—well, all
they had to do was to come back again and have themselves “healen” by
the prophet of the Third Revelation.
Next day the family drove home, and how much they had to gossip about on
the way, and for weeks thereafter! Bunny was looking forward to living
this camp-life the coming summer—except that, because of the
preparation he was getting in school, and also because of Dad’s
influence, he was to be in an officer’s training-camp. He was full of
consecration, and working harder than ever at his duties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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