thurber serveed in world war i and was a code clerk in paris during the peace talks. s he was supposed to go to switzerland. you ll discover why in this abridged reading from the beast in me and other animals from 1948. he department go to switzerland. in a story about 1918 tham as ever with his extraordinary humorist speaks to us as if it had been written yesterday. exhibit x by james thurber. i had been a code clerk in the state department in washington for four months during the first world war before my loyalty was investigated. if you could call my small pleasant interview with mr. shand an investigation. he had no dossier on thurber james grover except a birth certificate and a draft board deferment paper. in 1918 people naively feared the enemy more than they feared one another. there was no fbi to speak of, and i had neither been followed nor secretly photographed. the snooping photographer could have caught me taking a code book home to study one night and bringing it back the