About the time that Jean began to worry concerning population, Marvin
was preparing to reduce the population of Germany. He handed in his
notes on lead, sold his car, went home, enlisted in the National Guard,
broke the news to his mother, and was called by his father a lucky dog.
His regiment pulled out for the border, and there he sweated with the
rest throughout July. Near the end of the month the death of Ramsay, the
glorious discoverer of helium and neon, reminded him that he was only
common clay, and in August he took his examination along with the rest
of the common clay.
By Thanksgiving, 1916, he was home again, and next day received his
commission. In January of 1917 he was sent to Fort Leavenworth to be
trained. In April, when war was declared, he found himself once more en
route for the border. But that summer he was transferred to the
mobilization camp at Syracuse and made a first lieutenant. After some
weeks on the drill ground he was taken off and attached to headquarters.
Once a month he was receiving a nice letter signed “Yours truly.
Gratia.” He always answered it promptly, and felt very much like a
married man. Gratia was his treasure, his sapphire. If she aroused but
little passion within him, that was proper. Marriage, whatever else it
is, should be a polite business.
As assistant adjutant, he had opened a telegram from which he inferred
that he was to be given a captaincy. He knew what he would do when the
regimental adjutant should grant him the choice of rifle or machine gun.
He would choose the latter and learn how to deal death by the swath. He
desired to send the Germans plenty of lead, as a reminder of what their
allies had done to Moseley.
And speaking of lead, he had received a journal containing an article
signed by his own name. The busy Grein had printed the notes which
announced the new lead. Grein’s footnote gave him full credit for
independent work, but made it clear that his discovery was a needed
corroboration rather than a signal new event, for Richards of Harvard
had briefly anticipated him. But Marvin was proud even to be mentioned
on the same day with Richards, whose manipulatory skill and immense
knowledge of chemical reactions were well known to him, and who was
reinforced by such men as Baxter and Fajans.