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JOHN DOE # 24
By
Mary Chapin Carpenter
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“I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945”
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“In Jacksonville, Illinois”
http://postcards.bidstart.com/Dunlap-Hotel-Jacksonville-Illinois-Map-1940-postcard-/25390512/a.html
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“When asked what my name was there came no reply”
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http://www.eyesonbullying.org/images/boy7.jpg
“They said I was a deaf and sightless half-wit boy”
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“But Lewis was my name, though I could not say it”
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“I was born and raised in New Orleans”
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_R6o7ZhiSaqI/S-MgTTKi69I/AAAAAAAAALg/rLxhzUgI56c/s320/john24.jpg
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“My spirit was wild, so I let the river take it”
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“On a barge and a prayer upstream”
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“Well they searched for a mother and they searched for a father”
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“And they searched till they searched no more”
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“The doctors put to rest…”
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“…their scientific tests”
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“And they named me…”
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“… John Doe # 24”
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“And they all shook their heads in pity”
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“For a world so silent and dark”
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/moning/103816523/
“well there’s no doubt that life’s a mystery”
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“But so too is the human heart”
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“And it was my heart’s own perfume when the crepe jasmine bloomed”
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“On St. Charles Avenue”
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/28918113@N07/3493321126/
“Though I couldn’t hear the bells of the streetcars coming”
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“By toeing the track I knew”
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“And if I were an old man returning with my satchel and Porkpie hat”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48814374@N00/5243704448/
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“I’d hit every jazz joint on Bourbon”
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“And I’d hit everyone on Basin after that”
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“The years kept passing…”
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“…as they…”
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0w5sqsEfk1qiunkeo1_1280.jpg
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“… passed me around”
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“From one state ward…”
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“Like I was an orphan shoe from the lost and found”
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“Always missing the other”
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“And they gave me a harp last Christmas”
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“And all the nurses took a dance”
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“But lately I’ve been growing listless”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maheshguild/6620602691/in/photostream/
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“I’ve been dreaming again of the past”
New Orleans& Crepe Jasmine
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“I’ve been wandering down to the banks of the great Big Muddy”
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“Where the shotgun houses stand”
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“I am seven years old…”
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“…and I feel my Dad reach out for my hand”
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“While I drew breath no one missed me”
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“So they won’t on the day that I cease”
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“Put a sprig of crepe jasmine with me”
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“To remind me of New Orleans”
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“I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945 in Jacksonville, Illinois
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http://www.getjazzgigs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/jazzfestband.jpg
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John Doe No. 24 Takes His Secret to the Grave
Published: December 05, 1993
The mystery of John Doe No. 24 outlived him.
There were few clues when he was found wandering the streets of Jacksonville in 1945, a deaf, blind teen-ager. There were no answers when he died last week.