e was no inlistin' as there was over here. Shure, in Dublin alone we
have three recruitin' offices, to say nothin' of th' recruitin' thram.
Ah! 'tis a fine sight to see the thram, Mrs. Flanagan, going up and down
the sthreets o' Dublin, with the flags and the fine coloured posthers
plasthered on ut, and divil a wan ever in ut, bekase why? there isn't a
sowl lift in the city, and what is lift is bein' held back by the polis
at the recruitin' office in Brunswick Sthreet. Well, as I was tellin'
yez, in England there was no recruitin' like that. It got so that there
was just wan recruitin' office left, as the other three had to be
closed, bekase no wan came. Ye see, all the young men were down at the
poorts, gettin' their tickets to Ameriky.

"'This,' ses one of the English Lords--a felly be the name o'
Derby--'this,' ses he, 'is tarrible. If the inimy hears o' this, all the
Irish in the worrld and in Ameriky won't save us.'

"So he gets out a scheme--he's a tarrible ould schemer is that
wan--whereby, ye see, ivery man in England was to inlist to sarve when
he was called up, and they were to be made up intil groups, an' the
married men was to be put intil the lasht group. The advantage o' that
was that it intimidated th' inimy, bekase a man looks more whin he is
called a group. Thin the ould schemer arranged that these groups should
get armlets, somethin' like a sling, so, whin a man was called up in a
group, he could show the sling he was wearin' and he'd be put intil a
later group. Ah! 'twas a grand scheme! Ye see, the limit of militry age
bees now forthy-wan, and supposing there was a million men in ivery
group (and I was tould there was more) that was forthy-wan million!"

"Glory be to God, Mrs. Ryan, but that's a tarrible number!"

"Ye say right, Mrs. Flanagan. But look you here, ivery time a group was
called up and the men was put back intil a later group, it made more men
for the later groups, until, ye see, whin they called up the lasht group
there 'd be forthy-wan times as many men at the ind as at the beginnin'.
That was the scheme for puttin' the fear o' God intil thim Germins."

"Thin will ye tell me, Mrs. Ryan, why didn't they shtick till it?"

"'Tis harrd to explain, Mrs. Flanagan, and here we are at me door. I'll
take the porther bottles, thank ye kindly, Ma'am. Well, this was the way
av it. When they shtarted the recruitin' av the groups they found that
'twas too many officers they were afther gettin'. I