spray-paint and acrylics on canvas

78.7 x 57.1 inches

The means of conscription was the lottery in the recruiting offices. Names of those eligible for conscription were drawn from the "Wheel of Misfortune," and the tickets were read aloud. The first rumors that the names of wealthy New Yorkers had been invalidated on the spot made the rounds. Conscription was a gun pressed to citizens' chests, a "money or life" proposition. For with 300 dollars, the annual salary of a working man, one could comfortably stay at home, quite free of troublesome wartime nuisance. It was literally "A Rich Man's War and a Poor Man's Fight“.

The initial enthusiasm for war was long gone anyway two years after the war began.

All too present to the conscripts were the war cripples who had returned to the cities, casting the promises of great military triumphs in a very different light. 

From factories, stores, and docks, some 15,000 protesters poured into 36th Street. It wasn't long before a unit of volunteer firefighters, the battle-hardened men of the Black Joke, stormed the recruiting office there, and smashed the jinx wheels and torching the office. Fifty policemen and soldiers present could not prevent this. Shortly thereafter, the entire block was in flames.  Es dauerte nicht lang, bis eine Einheit der Freiwilligen Feuerwehr, die kampferprobten Männer des Black Joke, das dortige Rekrutierungsgsbüro stürmte, die Unglücksräder zertrümmerte und das Büro abfackelte. 50 anwesende Polizisten und Soldaten konnten dies nicht verhindern. Kurz danach stand der gesamte Block in Flammen.