A DAY IN HAPPY IRELAND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14572, 6 April 1918, Page 7

A DAY IN HAPPY IRELAND.

m*. . CHEERFUL CROWDS. PACKED CINEMAS, AND LADEN TABLES. In Loudon a man cannot proceed ten yards without the war touching, his field of vision in the sight of a man in khaki. In Dublin a pedestrian can go some distance and not see an army uniform (writes L. J. McQuilland). That is the most obvious thought that occurs •to ohe who goes from the British capital to the Irish. In a variety of less apparent ways, however., the differences between the two capitals manifest themselves. In Dublin you feel in your i;ase for a cigarette, and you knoAv yby have - a match to apply to it. Later yoii desire a small whisky, and you get quite a generous allowance of an alcohol which can bear dilution with water to tame its strength. Tliis acts as* an aperitif, aiid you feel the 'need of a meal. You go into- an hotel, hoping that the fairy tale will continue ; and you get as substantial a meal as the heart und other internal arrangement of man could desire. You are served with a strong soup, of which nieat or kidney has been the basis. The fish course is eitlre* a nice portion of salmon or a fine herring grilled to a turn — and thei'e is no tastier fish. For the third c»urse you have a choice of roast ribs of beef, or fowl and bacon (large portions), with three vegetables. Next comes a sweet pudding which is really sweet. After this follows cheese, biscuits, and gutter in profusion, and then coffee with rich milk. You can eat bread with *tery course as y«w like. There are ft>od regulations in Dublin, but no hotalfceeper or proprietor of a well-to-do restaurant dreams of Viking them seriously. SIHN FEIN OR-SPCteT. y After dinner you staidl through brilliantly ligkied streets, thronged with gay crowds. If you listen, to the wayfarers they are not talking about the war. The women-folk are discussing the "pictures" (the cmema «raze is rampant there, too); the m»»i are discussing Sinn Fein or sport. If you buy an evening paper you are oppressed by no gravity of war news, but ! find . many columns in it of matters sheerly local and topical, such as the doings of the effervescent Dublin Corporation. Everyone looks happy and careless, and the great fine Dublin Metropolitan Police languidly and benevolently stroll I along with npthing to do and plenty ofi time to do it in. You drop into the Abbey Theatre and hear, the house roar-i ing with laughter at a wild farce of Lady Gregory's, The audience has no fear of danger signals, and . for them it is . continually "all clear." Decidedly "the car-drivingest city in tho'. .world" has not had any spoke stuck in its wheels by the big stick of war. In plenteousness of food and absence c;f the terror by day and. by night Ireland to-day certainly conies under the "most favored nation" 'scale. .'.