Item 01: G. O. Hawkins articles and notes ca. 1916-1919 - Page 104
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[Page 104]
2
There is no interchange of thought between human beings to convey from one to another the peculiar effervescing elation of those brief periods of existence
They are the outcome of the fateful knowledge possessed by man that he lives in a house of perishable stuff and of knowledge also that his duty has placed him where he is exposed to the murderous and overmastering forces that may, in the twinkling of an eye annihilate that house.
Such forces are the terrific explosions of shells and of bombs, the rain of shrapnel, the deadly stream of machine gun bullets, and the bursting of secret delayed action mines, to say but little of the sudden approach of overwhelming fumes from poison gas.
To face such as these with the mind terrified yet sane, and