"The
Unknown Soldier"
by Coningsby Dawson as
retold by Arthur Lobman
In his story, "The Unknown
Soldier", Coningsby Dawson tries to paint the picture of
Jesus Christ returned to earth in the midst of the Armageddon
that was the first Great War. His conception is broad,
there is a Christ fighting and dying in every heathen horde,
the Christ of history, the Jew. Alone amid the shouts of
force and might and hate and greed, one voice cries out for
"peace on earth and good will among men". Perhaps
the Unknown Soldier, at whose shrine the mighty victor nations
worship, should have been, in each instance, a Jew, a
representative of the people which alone has never lost sight
of the goal of human justice.
It is through the particular instance
of the American Unknown Soldier and a young Russian-Jewish émigré,
that the author illustrated his wider conception. The
man is Jake Cohen, and Eastside tailor, whose initials
"J.C." are those of Jesus Christ.
The story is told through the person
of an American Army officer who was supposed to have sent the
manuscript to Dawson because he could no longer resist the
urge to confess.
To give a brief resume: Young
Cohen was drafted into the United States Army for his
pacifistic harangues. Like Christ himself conceivably
would, he determines not to resist, but to make the best of
his situation. This is shown in his interview with the
officer on the occasion of his conscription. Naturally,
he is unpopular with the other soldiers, already drunk with
the fever of war. He is frowned upon for his purity and
gentility. His meek bearing is despised. At last
his regiment embarks for France. After some time has
gone by, it is transferred to a previously quiet sector of
Lorraine where it is quartered in a derelict village, a
village filled with vice of every kind and description. One
night, at one of the village "estaminets", he is
recognized as Christ by Marie, one of the dancing girls.
She is, of course a counterpart of Mary Magdalene.
She is his devoted convert. Cohen is framed as a
German spy by one Corporal Triumph, his Judas, and is executed
by a firing squad in the streets just as the enemy swoops into
the village.
After the war is over, a commission is
deputized to select the body of the Unknown Soldier of
America. The commission, on the last day of its search,
happens to pass through the destroyed village and finds a
grave crowned with a cross and covered with flowers. It
is the grave of Jake Cohen and its keeper is Marie, the
dancing girl of the village estaminet.
To her sorrow, he is taken from this humbler grave to the
national shrine at Arlington. And she faithfully follows
him, her Christ, to America.
The entire story, in which the
suspense is held to the end, is well told. Its truth and
meaning are half guessed, and, bit by bit, more is revealed
until the final word. All in all, it was a remarkable
tale.
Editors Note: The above story was read in the council
ring by Doc "E" out of a book called "Candles
in the Night" and he requested Arthur Lobman, a camper,
to rewrite the story for the Pineneedle. The book is
published by the Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia.
We wish to recommend this volume to young and old. |
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