<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Man Behind</h1><p class="byline"> DOUGLAS MALLOCH <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps">IN The American Lumberman</span><br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/>Permission to reproduce in this book</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">THE band is on the quarter-deck, the starry flag unfurled;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The air is mad with music and with cheers.</p><p class="line">The ship is bringing home to us the homage of the world</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And writing new our name upon the years.</p><p class="line">Her officer is on the bridge; we greet him with hurrahs;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But some one says, "Not he the glory won;</p><p class="line">Not he alone who wears the braid, deserves the loud applause,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Oh, don't forget the man behind the gun!"</p><p class="line">'Tis said that to embattled seas our ship sailed forth at dawn,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Unheeding shot, unheeding hidden mine;</p><p class="line">And through the thunders of the fight went steaming bravely on,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The nation's floating fortress on the brine.</p><p class="line">And never throbbing engine stopped, nor parted plate or seam</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In all that bloody day from sun to sun;</p><p class="line">The good ship sang her battle cry in hissing clouds of steam</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To cheer anew the man behind the gun.</p><p class="line">I look upon her shining bore, her engine's pulsing heart,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I look upon her bulwarks shaped of steel;</p><p class="line">I know there is another art, as great as gunner's art,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That makes the world at arms in homage kneel.</p><p class="line">This ship, defying shot and shell, defying winds and seas,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Is fruit of honest labor, rightly done;</p><p class="line">The man who built the ship, my lads, remember him, for he's</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The man behind the man behind the gun! </p></div></body></html> · Great War