Page 820 - ULYSSES

Ulysses

some old comrades in arms up there among you. The R.
D. F., with our own Metropolitan police, guardians of our
homes, the pluckiest lads and the finest body of men, as
physique, in the service of our sovereign.

A VOICE: Turncoat! Up the Boers! Who booed Joe
Chamberlain?
BLOOM: (His hand on the shoulder of the first watch) My
old dad too was a J. P. I’m as staunch a Britisher as you
are, sir. I fought with the colours for king and country in
the absentminded war under general Gough in the park
and was disabled at Spion Kop and Bloemfontein, was
mentioned in dispatches. I did all a white man could.
(With quiet feeling) Jim Bludso. Hold her nozzle again the
bank.
FIRST WATCH: Profession or trade.
BLOOM: Well, I follow a literary occupation, author-
journalist. In fact we are just bringing out a collection of
prize stories of which I am the inventor, something that is
an entirely new departure. I am connected with the British
and Irish press. If you ring up ...
(Myles Crawford strides out jerkily, a quill between his teeth.
His scarlet beak blazes within the aureole of his straw hat. He
dangles a hank of Spanish onions in one hand and holds with the
other hand a telephone receiver nozzle to his ear.)

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