of the awful sickness was in the first part of the war and among men utterly unfit for campaign. Among the trained men sickness was so rare that it wasn’t often reported. Besides this mortality, of the many fine souls and bodies of volunteers who with high motives came into the ranks, fought and escaped death, there were thousands who went back home stricken by the effects of the bullet, dysentery and fever for the rest of their lives. _VIII_ MORE SCRAMBLE Over my bed in college hung a drawing made by a member of the Class of 1837. (Not a classmate of mine.) It showed a college youth of the time, quite wabbly from too great association with John Barleycorn. He was pointing his brace of pistols at a monkey perched on the foot of his bed. Underneath the picture were the words: “If you’re a _monkey_, you’re in a devilish fix. If you’re _not_ a monkey, _I’m_ in a devilish fix.” Just whether or not it was a real monkey I never knew, but there was no mistaking the fix. The more closely we study the Civil War, the more we find that we were in a _terrible_ fix. And the more we get away from it, the more we hate to look the fix in the face, especially because the fix was our own fault. Today the World War is so close to us that it screens the errors and calamities of our Civil War. We forget too often that in the early sixties we endured the most awful catastrophe this country has ever seen--a thing far more bloody man for man than what we went through in the World War. But maybe it’s a healthy thing to look at our Civil fix now, as the doctor studies past epidemics in order to prevent future horrors to mankind. A picture of the year before that war is full of so many fixes--so many pieces of indulgence in artificial stimulation and neglect that they’d fill a book. But here are two. In 1860 just before we were rushed into the struggle, a bill was introduced into Congress to abolish the Navy, on the ground that we’d never have any more war. Fortunately it failed of passage. But the only legislation for the army that year was the appointment of a committee to look into West Point and an authorization to increase the sugar and coffee ration of the soldier. And all this, while the tension between the North and South was about to snap. A school and a drink, while blood and flame were in sight. And there was no fire department to quench the raging blaze. A hose in Oregon, a nozzle in Florida, horses in Arizona and an engine nowhere! And suddenly Sumter’s guns cracked out and set the nation on fire. We began to seethe and mill around. The President was caught in the furor and had to exercise his war powers. Later when Congress met, it made the entire set-up for the war in less than four weeks. Less than four weeks! Why you couldn’t do that with a new factory, much less a police department. And here we were with a massive business undertaking that meant life and death to the whole country. Of course, the legislation