Mt. Pleasant Pyramid | 1915-11-12 | Page 7 | Vague as to Causes of War

VAGUE AS JO CAUSES OF WAR Anecdotes Would Seem to Reveal Confusion of the Average Irish Mind. In many districts "of Ireland there are practically no books and almost nobody reads newspapers. For months there were people in Ireland who thought England was fighting on th , same side as Germany. Here Is an Illustration of popular I Ignorance of which I have personal knowledge. A group of villagers were In a blacksmith black-smith shop, discussing the news. Finally Fi-nally one asked: "And how did this blondv war begin?" The blacksmith was the scholar of the gathering. "You see," said ho, 'it was like this. The kingof the Servitudes Servi-tudes took a woman of the Morgans to wife, and so the Servitudes killed 4hem both and that is the way the thing began." Which, after all, is much after the manner of Herodotus. Still confining myself to Incidents that I know to be true I will add another anecdote to Illustrate the way the Irish mind takes hold of an International Inter-national situation. A man was defending defend-ing himself for having fought with the British troops against the Boers. He explained that he started to join the Boers, but that he could not gei through the lines, so he Joined the British. "You should not have done that," said one. "Ah," said the narrator, "I would have given me soul for a fight." Norman Hapgood in Harper's Weekly.