Evening journal., 1898-10-03
WAR HADN'T TOUCHED THEM
BnclSwOods People In Pennsylvania
who Had Their Doubts That
War Existed.

A travelling man who visits many OF
the out-of-the-way mountainous dis
tricts of east Pennsylvania says:
Il 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 a war at all. Ispoke to farmer
vino has n good estate under high
cultivation. He had just finished put
ting away about thirty tons of good
hay. Said he: 4 stopped read
Ing war news some time ago.
1 made up my mind there
was no war. l read one thing
one day which was contradicted the
next, so I stopped reading any paper
and have been making hay ever since.
No, 1 am not bit interested. l know
of no one who has enlisted from our
section, and if the United States is
fighting Spain for Cuba know nothing
of II. I'll wait awhile and see.'
81 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.
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, I 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
slked 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 l 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
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
rorrnt oworfc ht4f,,1,io fl4srp1I III
ing on the outskirts Of n mountain
village, the housewife at the fenc,
hailed me, asking. Say, is it true thai
there's WARP said yes. Look she
answered. Henry Boyer's boy wal
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 pas
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 Oh. NJ.
father sold his mules at a good price
They said the war caused mules TO g
up
Another old mountainside farme'
said: 1 don't believe there's a wa
and will not believe it until see q uni
form. l remember when the war o
81 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 a blue uni
form. He was rolling drunk. and sal
he had listed. Well, he went off, an
stayed off, and then began to realiz
there was a war. l have not seen an
uniforms for the Spanish war. Yes
I read the papers, but would like t
see for myself whether the army
called out. None of our neighbor boy
have listed yet. There is no draf
and no demand for soldiers abou
here
5 ''In the days of 81 newspapers wer
. publicly read at the blacksmith shops
p shoemaker shops, country stores, etc
p before whole crowd, and people {
the back country districts were e2
cited. It is not the case now. II ma
; become more exciting as time passei
( but there is very little said about
thus far among the back countr
farmers. Not that they are no
= shrewd and intelligent and of goo
r common sense. Only the first ripple
Of the war wave had hardly awakene
them to the full realization that tn
= United States was really at war wit
D Spain. IN. Y. Sun.