Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-01-08

mortal memory of the Dutchman
whose equestrian statue does not grace
the stately space in front Of Trinity,
and that old house of commons which
lends a classic beauty to the capitol
When one Of our circle was graduated
we entertained him and the invited
guests with THE British Grenadiers, =
or "CroppIes Lie Down. and the
walls of our rooms were, when decor
ated at all, hung with some picture or
device that appealed 20 the visitors
enthusiasm.
We were never suspected We car
ried rifles in our hands in and out Of
the college, and the porters who open
cd the ponderous gates for us must
have naturally presumed that the
rifles were intended for sporting, and
not for Fenian purposes. We even
introduced confidential and irsst-
worthy outsiders to our rooms, and
allowed them to join our class. and
still kept on learning the mysteries Of
scarp aud counterscarp, jscnes aud
gaoions, readu2g Naubon aud Todle
ben, studying lines, redouots, in.
trenched camps, bridge heads, and
directing pontoneers. The danger Of
what we were doing of course gave
spice to the undertaking and the
greater the risk the more audacious we
became
The "slavey" of the dent in
whose room we met foupd the cap.
board u which tie rifles We're kept
open one day When told that they
were "relics Of barbarism kept for
scientific purposes the poor old
woman was satisfied, but the rifles
were removed next day Opsnness
was our best safeguard. Even il
caught drilling we would have said
black and blue that we were proper
ing to fight the Fenians. and not 60
support them. There would not have
beeu aGother word about it, We
would have been believed without
doubling. Trinity men had done
good service for the crown in many ..
stormy period of Irish history. and
why not theg2 a few OF its students
had indeed, from time to time been
known to entertain views not IN har-
mony with their historic surround
ings. "Who Fears to Speak OF '96P'
Was written by a Trinity man, and
chat rebel air is now sung, with
patriotic notes, wherever Irishmen
have found a home. But be was the
swallow in the summer, and nowadays
Trinity is, as it always has been,
against the national cause No one
knew it better than we did, and the
more anti-national the rest Of the stu
dents were, the more we enjoyed the
dangere we ran.
/ can not give the location Of our
meeting place. Il may have been IN
a dungeon in "Bottony bay or it may
have been near the great lecture-hall,
on ia the park, bat it was snug and
safe. For months we carried on our
lessons with little danger and no inter
rupti0n But il was known to some
Of our friends outside that there was
Benian circle in Trinity college, anc
il was there the danger lay. We never
harbored outlaws in our rooms, and g
man not unknown in New York found
shelter in a students quarters while
the police were securing the country
hoping for his arrest and thnsung for
the rest on his capture.
can not mention names II
could | might tell of TIE incidents in
which prominent Irishmen we'll
known here took part in old Trinity,
and how warrior bold hid in bed
while some noisy visitors, and his
host as well, vowed vengeance on the
American adventmerers who were
driving the Irish people 10 folly and
revolt. I could tell hew a certain
major who had served in the northern
army during the war was sick for two
weeks inside the classic college, while
the police were following his trail over
the wilds of the Galtees.
There is a moral to the tale The
majority Of the men who formed the
Fenian circle IN Trinity college nave
become loyal subjects of the queen /
do notinclude myself in this category,
/ will not say what my views are, but
the majority of the medical men, the
law students, the men intended for
the army and the church, they have,
with very few exceptions, abandoned
the old way Of the rebel and have
taken 10 the new one Of loyalty TO
the crown. ] could name many Of
chem, and know that they look back
10 their doIngs in Trinity as some
thing to be sorry Tor, if not to blush
at. / met some of them menY years
afterward, and our doings in Trinity
was a tabooed subject Of which not
one Of them cared to speak They
looked at what they dtd at that time
as though they had been sowing very
wild oats indeed and impressed me
with the belief that they never wished
to hear the subject mentioned again.
There was one exception, and that one
is now ia New York, but even he will
admit that it was something AKIN to
folly to risk our liberties IN the hope
OF being able TO revolutionIze the Brit
ish empire with blackboard and u
piece Of chalk
Francis 4. Willard on High Living.