Mike Dillon, Doughboy
LIEUT. JOHN PIERRE ROCHE
From Lieutenant Roche's hook of poems, 'times in Olive Drab," Robert M. McBride & Company, Publishers, New York. Copyright, 1515. Special permission to insert in this book.
"Doughboy" is an old nickname for a United States infantryman. When our army went into what is now New Mexico, Arizona and California to quiet the Mexicans hostilities that preceded the war of 1846, the infantry fell into a way of camping in houses built by the natives with sun--dried bricks of adobe mud. The cavalry, having to lie in the open with the horses, were joked thereat and came back by calling the infantry dobie boys. The name stuck and by an easy slide arrived at the present form.
MIKE DILLON was a doughboy
And wore the issue stuff;
He wasn't much to look at--
In fact, was rather rough;
He served his time as rookie
At drilling in the sun,
And cleared a lot of timber
And polished up his gun.
Mike Dillon was a private
With all the word entails;
He cussed and chewed tobacco
And overlooked his nails.
You never saw Mike Dillon
At dances ultra nice;
In fact, inspection found him
Enjoying body lice.
If Mike had married money
Or had a little drag,
He might have got a brevet
And missed a little "fag"
But as a social figure
He simply wasn't there--
So Mike continued drilling
And knifing up his fare.
In course of time they shipped 'em
And shipped 'em over where
A man like Mike can sidestep
The frigid social stare,
And do the job of soldier
Without the fancy frills,
And keep a steady footing
In the pace that really kills.
Now Mike did nothing special;
He only did his best:
He stuck and "went on over"--
And got it in the chest;
He played it fair and squarely
Without a social air,
And Mike is now in heaven
And at least a corporal there!
