The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1898-09-15
Backwoods People IN Pennsylvanis
Who Had Their Doubts That
WaR Existed.

was mo war. + read one thing
one day which was contradicted the
next, so I stopped reading any paper
and have been making hay ever since.
No, am not bit interested. know
of no one who has enlisted from our
section, and if the United States is
fighting Spain for Cuba I know nothing
of it. I'll wait awhile and see.'
II told the old man all the latest
news from Santiago de Cuba, but he
simply replied: Well, the next teller
that gets along this way may tell me
something entirely different
At another place asked whether
anyone from their region had en-
listed. The reply was: Bless you, no.
A 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, 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 warp. 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 I 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
cat 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 war? I 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. I 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 90
up ol- ,.:,s .. ~
"Another old mountainside farmer
said: L don't believe there's war
and will not believe it until see uni
| form. L remember when the war OF
81 was first reported. would not be-
lieve it. At last I 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 began to realize
there was war. have not seen any
uniforms for the Spanish war. Yes
l read the papers, but I would like tc
see for myself whether the army is
called out. None of our neighbor boys
have listed yet. There is no draft
and no demand for soldiers about
here.'
in the days of 81 newspapers were
publicly read at the blacksmith shops
shoemaker shops, country stores, etc.
before a whole crowd, and people in
the back country districts were ex.
cited. It is not the case now. It may
become more exciting as time passes
but there is very little said about it
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" Y. Sun.