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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
Charles Yale Harrison: Selections on war
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Charles Yale Harrison
From Generals Die In Bed (1928)
“I should like to go to Whitechapel this evening,” I say.
She looks at me with surprise.
“Why?”
“I’ve heard so much about it. I want to see it.”
“It’s not nice there.”
“I know, but I want to see more of London than just its music halls, Hyde Park, and its very wonderful pubs.”
“But very low people live there, criminals and such things – you will be robbed.”
“Well, I don’t mind. I am a criminal. Did I ever tell you I committed murder?”
She looks up with a jerk. Her eyes look at me with suspicion.
“It was some time ago. I came into a place where an enemy of mine was and I stabbed him and ran off,” I explain.
Her eyes are wide open. She is horrified. She does not speak.
I laugh and relate that the murder took place in a trench and that my enemy wore a pot-shaped helmet.
Her face glows with a smile.
“You silly boy. I thought you had really murdered someone.”
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