An alarm clock went off at 4 A.M.
I, for one, was disappointed, and so were most of the rest of us. But there were a few who didn’t give themselves a chance to be disappointed. They promptly fainted: not because of the injection but because of the state of their nerves which they all admitted afterward. There were a few things about the examination calculated to scare a man to death such as the question: “In case you are shot and killed to whom do you wish six months’ pay to be sent?” Many of us stammered a bit before answering.
Jabbed at the iodine mark and pulled the trigger
After that we stripped, lined up and started on our way. Then measured, marked and finger-printed, we arrived before a physician who stamped a quarter section under the left shoulder blade with a sponge covered with iodine, while another one scratched the skin on our upper arm to mark the acreage to be covered by a vaccination. We moved on to two more physicians, and while one dug a hunk out of our arm and inserted vaccine in place of the skin removed, the other man, with a villainously long hypodermic, jabbed at the iodine mark and pulled the trigger. And now, by George, if any one else around here tries to kid me into worrying about anything at all, I’m going to talk back proper. They sure had me scared stiff and I’ll admit it. Why, hang it, I would rather have had typhoid than face that “needle” before I really knew what it amounted to. But here I am, with germs variously estimated at from 15,000 to 250,000 circulating around inside of me, due to said “needle,” and aside from a little wooziness in the head, and a sore shoulder, I’m quite contented and ready to turn in. Good-night.