War.

The nation... changed its songs. At first we sang of how we would knock the hell out of Helgoland and hang the Kaiser and march over there and clean up the mess them damn foreigners had made. And then suddenly we sang, "In the war's red curse stands the Red Cross nurse. She's the rose of No Man's Land," and we sang, "Just a baby's prayer at twilight, when lights are low. She climbs upstairs and says her prayers---Oh, God! please tell my daddy thaddy must take care---" I guess we were like a tough but inexperienced little boy who gets punched in the nose in the first flurry and it hurts and we wished it was over.

- John Steinbeck, East of Eden, 1952