BED & BREAKFAST • IN CHINA- TOWN/NORTH BEACH • BASQUE CUISINE • ROOMS FROM $30 • 1208 STOCKTON ST. • SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94133 • (415)989-3960 • OBRERO HOTEL & RESTAURANT IN THE BASQUE TRADITION - XIII EARLY ON, THE DAILY COST OF THE WAR WAS 1 2 3 MILLION DOLLARS AND BRITISH SOLDIERS WERE REQUIRED TO BE FIVE FOOT EIGHT. BY ARMISTICE, THE COST HAD INCREASED TO 2 2 4 MILLION DOLLARS PER DAY AND RECRUITS WERE REQUIRED TO BE NO LESS THAN FIVE ( FOOT THREE. THE WAR’ S MILITARY CASUALTIES ARE ESTIMATED AT OVER EIGHT AND ONE HALF MILLION MEN. CIVILIAN DEATHS FROM MILITARY ACTION, MASSACRE, STARVATION AND EXPOSURE ARE ESTIMATED AT 1 2 .4 MILLION. AVALON 3 1 8 S .W . 9 TH AV E. NEVER BEFORE HAD THE ATROCITIES OF WAR TAKEN PLACE ON SUCH A HUGE SCALE. NEVER BEFORE HAD SUCH A LITERATE PUBLIC DEMANDED THE DETAILS OF WHAT THEIR FATHERS^ BROTHERS, SONS, HUSBANDS AND LOVERS WERE INVOLVED IN. NEVER BEFORE HAD EUPHEMISM BEEN SO EXPEDIENT. ESPRESSO PASTRIES BEER & WINE Catering services available on or o ff premises — order to go. Call for menu. Picnic & box lunches. 5327 BALLARD AVE. NW 7 8 9 * 8 1 1 7 XVII THE OVERALL LENGTH OF THE TRENCHES, FROM WHICH * MUCH OF THE WAR WAS FOUGHT, IS ESTIMATED AT 2 5 , 0 0 0 MILES—ROUGHLY THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE EARTH. THE DAILY MIRROR REPORTED TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC THAT THEIR DEAD LOOKED “MORE QUIETLY FAITHFUL, MORE SIMPLY STEADFAST THAN OTHERS.” IT WAS “AS IF HE HAD TAKEN CARE WHILE HE DIED THAT THERE SHOULD BE NO PARADE IN HIS BEARING, NO HEROICS IN HIS POSTURE.” XVIII WE DON’T MUCH LIKE THINKING ABOUT THE GREAT WAR. TOO MANY DETAILS. TOO COMPLICATED, WHAT WITH ARCHDUKES AND TRENCHES AND GAS. W ritten after reading The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell, Oxford University Press, 1975. Writer Ross Evan West lives in Eugene. This is his first work in CSQ. Artist Carel Moiseiwitsch lives in Vancouver, B.C. She remembers growing up in Britain among casualties of The Great War. 22 Clinton St. Quarterly—Summer, 1987
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