[Ads-l] antedating "dogface"

[Jonathan Lighter]

1919 _Chanute [Kans.] Daily Tribune_ (Feb. 3) 6: SOLDIERS' LETTERS  From
Serght. Lee F. Tully of Company C in the 315th field signal battalion. ...
Dec. 18 [1918]: ....We crossed the Moselle river into Germany. ...A motion
picture man was perched on the bridge taking a shot at all the "dog-faces"
as they pegged along. ...

All you could see in front of you were soldiers, tired, muddy, heavily
laden, perpetually hungry dog-faces, whose constant battle cry was "when do
we eat?"

                                                      ****

_Ibid._ (March 8) 6: ...   From Sergt. Lee F. Tully.... Company C of the
315th field signal battalion in the Ninetieth division:

Berncastel, Germany, December 24 [1918].-- ...It is a real treat to be in a
good town where you can go into a cafe or a store and not have a million
"dog faces" sticking around. Each "dog face" has a nice room with a
bed....Can you beat it?

                                                       ****
_Ibid._ (March 11) 6: January 26.--... I am having quite a time trying to
write this letter.  One "dog face" is pressing a few cooties out of his
trousers with a hot iron, and the other is trying to speak German with a
petite squarehead, so if I get off my subject, don't worry -- I'm not drunk.

                                                       ****

These exx. are *uniquely* early. Perhaps the term arose in the 90th Div. in
1918 and spread slowly in the peacetime army thereafter.

The following (second-hand) reminiscence of 1879 does not demand acceptance
(despite the appearance of the phrase in John Ford's _She Wore a Yellow
Ribbon_ [1949]):

1935 _Great Falls Tribune_ (Apr. 7) 8: "We must kill these soldiers." "This
our country. We will not leave it." "Hurry, get your guns, we will kill
these dog-face soldiers."

JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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