Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)
STUDIES - M. Thomas Inge: Sam Watkins and the Fictionality of Fact
indifferent to your notions of things, but to her, her butter is always good, superior, excellent. I did not know this characteristic of the human female at the time, or I would have taken a delicate slice of butter. Here is a sample of the colloquy that followed: "Mister, have some butter?" "Not any at present, thank you, madam." "Well, I insist upon it; our butter is nice." "0, I know ifs nice, but my plate is full, thank you." "Well, take some anyhow." One of the girls spoke up and said: "Mother, the gentleman don't wish butter." 'Well, I want him to know that our butter is clean, anyhow." "Well, madam, if you insist upon it, there is nothing that I love so well as warm biscuit and butter. I'll thank you for the butter." I dive in. I go in a little too heavy. The old lady hints in a delicate way that they sold butter. I dive in heavier. That cake of butter was melting like snow in a red hot furnace. The old lady says, 'We sell butter to the soldiers at a mighty good price." I dive in afresh. She says, "I get a dollar a pound for that butter," and I remark with a good deal of nonchalance, "Well, madam, it is worth it," and I dive in again. I did not marry one of the girls (W, 87—88). Such a passage is an excellent example of how effectively Watkins handles dialogue, characterization, and humor to dramatic effect. Watkins repeats over and over again in the course of his book, "Please remember, patient reader, that I write entirely from memory. I have no data or diary or anything to go by, and memory is a peculiar faculty" (W, 50). Readers who want descriptions of the battles from the larger perspective of leaders and officers should look elsewhere: "I know nothing of history. See the histories for grand movements and military maneuvers. I can only tell what I saw and how I felt" (W, 201), and he adds, "I only write of the under strata of history; in other words, the privates' history —as I saw things then, and remember them now" (W, 229). But as Roy P. Basler has observed, whatever his failures to remember names and dates, "his historical perspective was sounder 57
