Evening star., 1941-12-16

Henry McLemore. Cr a n q Russell
and John. Dewey, because 1t is
sprinkled with such words and
phrases as Little Joe, boxcars and
snake eyes.
Listen, Mister" the hacker said
to me when the meter hit As cents
as we moved down Fifth avenue the
other day. Listen, the Japs got in
that first punch. We're hit. We
don't look so good right now maybe,
but the way I look at it is this
you've seen guy get red hot in
a crap game, haven't you? He
throws a seven. He comes right
back with eleven. He makes a
tough point. A Little Joe, say. He
makes seven-eight passes in a row.
He looks like gettin' all the dough
in the joint. But don't forget this
its early IN the evenin'. It's
what he's got at in the mornin' 4
when the game busts UP that really !
counts. II
.s*s I
Mister, the way I look at II n
that this war now Is a helluva bisf
crap game, Just gettin' started !
Them buns we're hghtin' have got !
the dice now and maxim a lot Of
passes. But you can't take a good
look at this country and its bank
roll without KNOWN that when the
game breaks up this country's gonna
have the dice, the dough and them
dictators all rolled up in its kick"
That cab driver could have cruised
all over New York without ever
picking up passenger to whom his
crapshooting analogy would have
brought home the lessons Of the
early stages of the war so poign-
antly. At the risk Of being drum
med out of my local Browning
Literary Society I must admit that
the easiest way to make me see
the light on any given subject is
/ to reduce it to the terms Of a dice
game. Like the Japs. have often
been red hot early in the evening
and had o'clock dreams Of limou-
/ sines, town houses and the ability
| to pay my insurance premium all
In one lump But the house always
caught up with me. There always
came a time when the dice cooled
of and that wicked man with the
little rake stopped pushing out
chips and started pulling them away
from me.
In the war right now the Japs
are players and Uncle Sam the
house-he's running the game. The
dastardly, desperate little Nipponese
are in the same spot you or 1 would
be If we were bucking the crap table
at Col. Bradley's Palm Beach casino.
We start with 20 bucks, say. The
colonel starts with millions Sup
pose we nick him for 20 and let the
20 ride. We get to 80. We get to
160. With luck we may get to 800.
But there is never a time in the
game when we can afford to lose.
One missed point, one set of snake
eyes, one big boxcar and we're
through. The game is over for us.
All the time we were running wild
and throwing those hot points, the
colonel was sitting back on his mil
lions and smiling. He not only had
the dough but the house percentage
in his favor.
Our Uncle Samuel is in the same
position. For every one of those
ships that went to the bottom in
Pearl Harbor a hundred will eventu-
ally hit the ways. For every bomber
the Japs turn out we'll turn out 20.
For every pilot they train well train
a thousand.
When the going starts to get
tough for Japan, along toward the
morning of this war, they won't even
be as we'll off as the average crap
shooter usually is. with a friend be-
hind him to put up 20 or so bucks.
Japan's pals" Messrs. Hitler and
Mussolini, aren't going to go for a
touch when the military dice cool
of. -Four o'clock in the morning is
coming all too soon for them.
AS my hackie friend said:
"Al we gotta do is keep 'em
rolling"
Distributed By McNausht Syndicate, Incl