Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-09-29
WAR HADN'T TOUCHED THEM.
Dnekwoods People in PennsylvanhR
Who Had Their Dou--Z-aat
War Existed.

A travelling man who visits many OF
the out-of-the-way mountainous dis
trIcts of east Pennsylvania says:
II was surprised TO meet so many
people who are absolutely indifferent
about the war. They know very little,
If anything, about the trouble with
Spain. Some doubt whether there is
really 4 war at all. Ispoke to a farmer
who has a good estate under high
cultivation. He had just finished put
ting away about thirty tons of good
hay. Said he: 1 stopped read
ing war news some time ago.
l made up my mind there
was no war. l read one thing
one day which was contradicted the
next, so 1 stopped reading any paper
and have been making hay ever since.
No, l am not n bit interested. l know
of no one who has enlisted from our
section, and if the United States is
fighting Spain for Cuba l know nothing
OF II. I'll wait awhile and see
Il told the old man all the latest
news from Santiago de Cuba, but he
simply replied: Well, the next feller
that gets along this way may tell me
something entirely different
AT another place l asked whether
anyone from their region had en-
listed. The reply was: Bless you, no.
\ few of the young fellows went to
town to enlist. But they had to wait
so long and almost beg to be taken
that they came home saying they'd be
hanged if they'd be listed like that.
So they didn't go. Maybe nobody
went. People take very little interest
In the war. They did at first, but not
now. It's too far away. We have to
wait too long and then we amt sure
AT another crossroad, where sew
eral farmers were talking about a new
harvester, l asked whether they had
heard anything new from the seat of
war. They looked in doubt and an
swered they had not. One of them
asked, What war?' Finally the oldest
of the trio said: We can't talk much
about war with strangers. Them
names down in Cuba are stickers. The
other day l talked to an agent about
Commodore Shelly and he told me it
was Sly, not Shelly, and he showed me
the name was spelled Schley. We
can't remember them Cuban names at
all, and them Spanish ships that
Dewey sunk, and that Cervera has,
and that Camara took to Suez; they
are deliberations. No, no one listed
from this district
"At carpet weaver's humble dwell
ing on the outskirts of a mountain
village, the housewife at the fence
hailed me, asking, Say, is it true that
there's WARP l said yes. Look, she
answered. Henry Boyer's boy was
along here yesterday and he allowed
he had heard that the war had broke
out again l explained to the woman
what this war was, when she answered: /:
We are getting a paper, but, indeed,
we have been so very busy the past
few months that we haven't had time
to take the wrappers off yet. Flour
has gone up some, but they say wheat
has gone down. Flour is always last
TO fall when anything goes on. My
father sold his mules at good price.
They said the war caused mules to go
up
another old mountainside farmer
said: L don't believe there's a war
and will not believe it until see uni
form. l remember when the war of
'61 was first reported. would not be-
lieve it. At last / saw Jimmy Becker,
who used to go on sprees very much.
coming down the road in blue uni
form. He was rolling drunk, and said
he had listed. Well, he went off, and
stayed off, and then l began to realize
there was q war. / have not seen any
uniforms for the Spanish war. Yes,
I read the papers, but 1 would like to
see for myself whether the army Is
called out. None of our neighbor boyl
have listed yet. There is no draft,
and no demand for soldiers about
here
SIN the days of '61 newspapers were
publicly read at the blacksmith shops,
shoemaker shops, country stores, etc,
before q whole crowd, and people in
the back country districts were ex-
cited 1t is not the case now. 1t may
become more exciting as time passes,
but there is very little said about 1t
thus far among the back country
farmers. Not that they are not
shrewd and intelligent and Of good
common sense. Only the first ripples
of the war wave had hardly awakened
them to the full realization that the
United States was really at war with
Spain."-N. Y. Sun.