The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1898-11-16
WAR HADN'T TOUCHED THEM.
Backwoods People In Pennsyivania
VINO Had Their Doubts That
War Iskisted.

i A travelling man VINO Vlsits many u
the out-of-the-way mountainous dis
tricts Of east Pennsylvania says:
81 was surprised to meet so many
people who are absolutely Indifferent
about the war. They know very little,
il anything, about the trouble with
Spain. Some doubt whether there Is
really war at all. Ispoke to farmer
who has good estate under high
cultivation. He had just finished put
ting away about thirty tons of good
hay. Said he: I stopped read
Ing war news aome time ago,
liz made up my mind there
! was no war. A 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 l 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 feller
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.
50 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 sev-
eral farmers were talking about q 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 II
was Sly, not Shelly, and he showed me
the name was spelled Schley. We
can't remember them Cuban names at
I all, and them Spanish ships that
. Dewey sunk, and that Cervera has
and that Camars took to Suez; they
are deliberations. No, no one LISTED
! from this district
"At carpet weaver's humble dwell
ing on the outskirts Of mountain
village, the housewife at the fence
hailed me, asking, Say, is 1t true thai
, there's WARP said yes. Look she
) answered. Henry Boyer's boy wa'
along here yesterday and he allowed
: he had heard that the war had brok'
0 out again l explained to the woman
what this war was, when she answered
we are getting paper, but, indeed
i we have been SO very busy the pas
v few months that we haven't had tim
to take the wrappers off yet. Flou
has gone up some, but they say whea
has gone down. Flour is always las
= to fall when anything goes on. NJ
!, father sold his mules at good price
u They said the war caused mules to 6
u up
4 Another old mountainside farme
u said: i don't believe there's wa
y and will not believe it until see un
o form. I remember when the war @
\ 'e1 was first reported. ] would not bt
Iieve it. At last I saw Jimmy Beckei
= who used to go on sprees very mucl
! coming down the road in blue un
q form. He was rolling drunk, and sal
he had listed. Well, he went off, an
y stayed off, and then I began to realia
g there was war. have not seen an
: uniforms for the Spanish war. Ye
il / read the papers, but / would like
= see for myself whether the army
% called out. None of our neighbor bo,
10 have listed yet. There is no draf
and no demand for soldiers abo'
here
10 In the days of 81 newspapers wei
publicly read at the blacksmith bishop
shoemaker shops, country stores, ct'
:, before a whole crowd, and people
ID the back country districts were e
cited. 1t is not the case now. 1t ms
= become more exciting as time passe
Q. but there is very little said about
O. thus far among the back count
farmers. Not that they are n
shrewd and intelligent and of go'
o. common sense. Only the first rippl
I. Of the war wave had hardly awaken
~ them to the full realization that {
/.