Medicine, Military; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
"Oh, yis, Oi'll admit there's a bit o' truth
in that, but at bottom it's mostly commerce
that causes war. Yis, Oi shouldn't loike to have
the Prushin military heel on moy neck. God
knows the Englishman in his toime has left
a heel mark or two on the Oirishman's neck,
but at that Oi'd rather have him, especially of
late years, than that cursed Hun, fer he wears
nails in his boots. An' Oi've hated the
Englishman all me loife----"
"What the devil did you come out here for
anyway, Kelly?"
"Ye're the first person that's ever hinted t'me
that there's anythin' proivate about this f oight.
Ain't the Russhin, an' the Prushin, an' the
Frinch, an' the Eyetalian, an' aven the Turk
in this foight? Is there any just raisin whoy
an Oirishman shouldn't butt in, too?" he asked
in an injured tone. "But ye've intherrupted
me strain of thought."
"Beg pardon."
"Don't mintion it. Oi was goin' to say that,
though Oi've hated the Englishman all me loife,
Oi'd be afeard to live in his counthry, fer Oi'd
get to love him. He's got such a dape sinse
of humor. Whoy he praises ye Canadians till
he actially makes ye belaive ye're winnin' the
war, wid yer two or three hundred thousand
min, whoile he's got a couple of million in the
field."
"Who took Vimy Ridge, Kelly?"
"We did, sor, we Canadians, wid fifty to
sixty percint of British born loike mesilf. An'
a damn foine bit o' fightin' it was, too. Sure,
truly, sor, Oi wouldn't belittle it fer anythin'.
But Vimy Ridge is on'y a couple o' miles long,
an' British troops are defindin' somethin' loike
a hundred and fifty moiles, an' most o' that
is held boy English troops, wid a scatthering
of the hated Oirish and Scotch. Look at the
casialty lists over a period an' ye'll foind who
it is that's doyin' fer liberty. It's mostly the
English and the Frinch as fer as Oi kin see.
The Canadians have done nobly, sor, no one
could denoy it, but they mustn't think they're
winnin' the war all boy thimselves.
"The las' toime Oi was in Lon'on, the
funniest comedy Oi seen was a couple of young
Canadian officers on a bus tellin' an edicated
Englishman how the Empire should be run.
An' the Englishman listened without aven
crackin' a smoile, whoile they criticoized
Lon'on fer not havin' a straight street, an' fer
havin' old-fashioned busses; an' Lide George
fer his lack of firmness wid Oireland; an' so
on, an' so on. An' the Englishman listened
as if they were the woise min o' the aist, bowin'
his assint to all their talk; an' at last he said,
wid a long face:
"'There's no doubt you young gintlemen
are roight. If we had a few more min loike
the Hon, Mr. Hughes of Australia an' Sir
Sam Hughes of Canada, we'd be in better
shape now. Oi'm very happy to have met yez'.
"An' he shook their hands an' left, whoile
they swallied what he said, bait, hook, loine,
an' all. So Oi slips up to thim, an' salutin', Oi
says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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