“Ar-re all th’ people West iv th’ park shootin’ men?” asked Mr. Hennessy timidly.

“I think so,” said Mr. Dooley, “but a man that’s been out there tells me not.  He says annywan but an Englishman cud go fr’m wan end iv th’ West to th’ other without carryin’ a gun, an’ that people that kill each other are not considhered rayspictable in Tucson anny more thin they wud be in Eysther Bay, but that they are mostly dhrunk men an’ th’ like iv that.  Th’ towns, he says, is run be fellows that sell ribbons, milk, yeast, spool thread an’ pills an’ pull teeth an’ argye little foolish law suits, just as th’ towns down here are run, an’ th’ bad men are more afraid iv thim thin they are iv each other.  He says there are things doin’ out West that niver get into th’ dime novels, an’ that whin people lose their lives they do it more often in a saw mill or a smelter thin in a dance hail.  He says so but I don’t believe him.”

“I suppose,” said Mr. Hennessy, “a man iv me peaceable disposition wud niver get a job.”

“Make a repytation,” said Mr. Dooley.  “Buy a gun.”

European Intervention

“Th’ question befure th’ house is,” said Mr. Dooley, “which wan iv th’ Euro-peen powers done mos’ f’r us in th’ Spanish war.”

“I thought they were all again’ us,” said Mr. Hennessy.

“So did I,” said Mr. Dooley, “but I done thim an injustice.  I was crool to thim crowned heads.  If it hadn’t been f’r some wan power, an’ I can’t make out which it was, th’ Cubians to-day wud be opprissed be th’ Casteel instead iv th’ Beet Sugar Thrust an’ th’ Filipinos’d be shot be Mausers instead iv Krag-Jorgensens.  Some wan power sthretched out its hand an’ said, ‘No.  No,’ it said, ’thus far but no farther.  We will not permit this misguided but warrum-hearted little people to be crushed be th’ ruffyan power iv Spain,’ it said.  ‘Niver,’ it said, ’shall histhry record that th’ United States iv America, nestlin’ there in its cosy raypublic fr’m th’ Atlantic to th’Passyfic, was desthroyed an’ th’ hurtage iv liberty that they robbed fr’m us wasted because we did not give thim support,’ it says.  An’ so whin th’ future looked darkest, whin we didn’t know whether th’ war wud last eight or be prolonged f’r tin weary, thragic minyits, whin it seemed as though th’ Spanish fleet wud not sink unless shot at, some kindly power was silently comfortin’ us an’ sayin’ to itsilf:  ’I do so hope they’ll win, if they can.’  But I don’t know which wan it was.

“At first I thought it was England.  Whiniver ye hear iv anny counthry helpin’ us, ye think it is England.  That’s because England has helped us so much in th’ past.  Says Lord Cranburne in reply to a question in th’ House iv Commons:  ’I am reluctantly foorced be mesilf to blushin’ly admit that but f’r us, people on their way to China to-day wud be gettin’ up an’ lookin’ over th’ side iv th’ ship an’ sayin’, “This