(A World War 1 spy vs spy novel. Oh! And perhaps I should also mention, a bit of romance?
"I am sorry,” he said coolly, "awfully sorry. As you know, I would have had things different. You may still doubt me when I say that what I have done is the hardest task that I ever undertook in my life. But that is true. You were the only person in England who jeopardized my existence there. I had to take you away. I regret the necessity of having to use force. I shall do what I can here upon the _Sylph_ to counteract the unpleasant impression of my brutality. I am not a bully and a woman-baiter. I am a spoke in the wheel of destiny which you had clogged. By all the rules of the game you should have died. Reasons which I need not mention made your death at my hands an impossibility. So I merely removed you to a place of safety. No harm shall come to you, I pledge my honor." Excerpt from Chapter 13.)
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“There goes ‘Johnny look in the air.’ Cawn’t get ’im, though. ’Strewth! ’E’s a cool one--_’e_ is!”
The Story of Johnny Head-in-the-Air, by Heinrich Hoffman -- from storyit.com:
As he trudged along to school,
It was always Johnny's rule
To be looking at the sky
And the clouds that floated by;
But what just before him lay,
In his way,
Johnny never thought about;
So that everyone cried out,
"Look at little Johnny there,
Little Johnny Head-in-Air!" .....
“The larst time ’e kyme--down Wipers-way...."
From theguardian.com -- "Trench humour: First editorial column of the Wipers Times, 1916
The Wipers Times is the best known of the many trench magazines published by soldiers in the first world war. It was first produced by members of the 12th Battalion Sherwood Foresters based at Ypres (the name "Wipers" reflects the difficulty British soldiers had with the pronunciation), who had stumbled upon an abandoned printing press....
"But to marry! I’d as soon take the automatic chess player...."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk
The Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. The device was later purchased in 1804 and exhibited by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel. The chess masters who secretly operated it included Johann Allgaier, Boncourt, Aaron Alexandre, William Lewis, Jacques Mouret, and William Schlumberger, but the operators within the mechanism during Kempelen's original tour remain a mystery.
“Don’t be too hard on the chap,” Rizzio was saying in an undertone to Kipshaven. “You’re singing the ‘Hassgesang.’ He’s harmless--I tell you--positively harmless.”
Ernst Lissauer (16 December 1882 in Berlin – 10 December 1937 in Vienna) was a German-Jewish poet and dramatist remembered for the phrase Gott strafe England ("May God punish England"). He also created the Hassgesang gegen England, or "Song of Hate against England".
I don't know if Rizzio is referring to that "Hassgesang" in particular or just indicating that Kipshaven is getting overly worked up about Germany. I believe I got the reference from Wikipedia, but I forgot to write it down.
“The City of Dreadful Night,” she murmured at last. “I can’t ever seem to get used to it.”
She heard his light laugh and the sound of it comforted her.
“Jolly murky, isn’t it? I miss that fireworks Johnny pourin’ whiskey over by Waterloo Bridge--and Big Ben. Doesn’t seem like London. All rot anyway.”
According to Wikipedia: "The City of Dreadful Night is a long poem by the Scottish poet James "B.V." Thomson, written between 1870 and 1873, and published in the National Reformer in 1874,[1] then in 1880 in a book entitled The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems."
This poem referred to London, and I'm assuming that is what Doris is referring to regarding London's WWI blackout. I couldn't shed anymore light on the "fireworks Johnny," but I did find interesting stuff on the dirigible attacks on London and the blackouts. Evidently, people were crashing into things and people because of the blackout rules, and white markers became the solution of the time. People and pets wore white. Storefronts were marked, and roads became outlined with white to cut down on accidents.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to delay recording here for awhile; not quite sure how long.
I've taken on another recording project that requires my full attention right now. I'll keep you all posted in a week or so as to when I can get back to work here.
Thanks, and I hope to be able to get back to recording soon, though my progress may be slower than I anticipated.
