GRAPES OF WRATH
GRAPES OF
WRATH
BY
BOYD CABLE
AUTHOR OF
“BETWEEN THE LINES,” “ACTION FRONT,”
AND “DOING THEIR BIT”
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & CO.
681 FIFTH AVENUE
Copyright, 1917,
BY
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
TO
ALL RANKS OF THE NEW ARMIES
Men of the Old Country, Men of the Overseas,and those good men among theNeutrals who put all else aside to join upand help us to Victory, this book is dedicatedwith pride and admiration by
THE AUTHOR
In the Field,
20th January, 1917
THE AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Acknowledgments are due to the Editors of The CornhillMagazine, Land and Water, and Pearson’s Magazinefor permission to reprint such portions of this book ashave appeared in their pages.
BOYD CABLE—A PREFATORY NOTE
The readers of Boyd Cable’s “Between theLines,” “Action Front,” and “Doing Their Bit,”have very naturally had their curiosity excited asto an author who, previously unheard of, has suddenlybecome the foremost word-painter of activefighting at the present day, and the greatest “literarydiscovery” of the War.
Boyd Cable is primarily a man of action; andfor half of his not very long life he has beendoing things instead of writing them. At the ageof twenty he joined a corps of Scouts in the BoerWar, and saw plenty of fighting in South Africa.After the close of that war, his life consistedlargely of traveling in Great Britain and the principalcountries of Europe and the Mediterranean,his choice always leading him from the beatentrack. He also spent some time in Australia andin New Zealand, not only in the cities, but in theoutposts of civilization, on the edge of the wilderness,both there and in the Philippines, Java, andother islands of the Pacific.
When he travels, Mr. Cable does not merelytake a steamer-berth or a railway-ticket and writeup his notes from an observation car or a saloondeck. He looks out after a job, and puts plentyof energy into it while he is at it; in fact, so manydifferent things has he done, that he says himselfthat it is easier to mention the things he has notdone than the ones he has. He has been an ordinaryseaman, typewriter agent, a steamer-fireman,office-manager, hobo, farmhand, gold prospector,coach-driver, navvy, engine-driver, and manyother things. And strangely enough, though heknows so much from practical experience, he has,until recently, never thought of writing downwhat he has seen.
Before this present War, he was on the staffof a London advertisin