14 DECEMBER 1912, Page 17

POOR MEN'S PATRIOTISM.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

Sri,—Mr. Philip Snowden has given us (errors excepted) the workman's views on patriotism. Now hear Edie Ochiltree, the Blue Gown (licensed beggar) :-

"Me no muckle to fight for, sir ? Isna -there the country to fight for, and the burnsides that I gang daundering beside, and the hearths o' the gudewivea that gie me my bit bread, and the bits o' weans that corns toddling to play wi' me when I come about a landward town ? Den," he continued, grasping his pike- staff with great emphasis, "an' I had as gude pith as I has gude. will, and a gude cause, I should gie some o' them a day's kemping."

Eversley, Poole.