Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-01-08
was not likely to haunt other minds

" hOA NISItOTS Interrupted us We ulu
our material away, sang loyal songs,
and even toasted the ''pious and i'm
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.
| w hen 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 to the visitors
enthusiasm.
We were never suspected. We car
RED rifles in our hands in and out Of
the college, and the porters who open
ed the ponderou5 gates for us must
have naturally presumed that the
rifles We're intended for sporting, and
not for Fenian purposes. We even
introduced confidential and trast-
worthy outsiders to our rooms, and
allowed them to join our class. and
still kept on learning the mysteries of
scarp ard ceunterscarp, jacines and
gapions, reading Naubon and Todle
ben, studying lines, redouots, in
trenched camps, bridge heads, and
directing pcntoneers. The danger of
what we were doing of course gave
spice 10 the undertaking. and the
greater the risk the more audacious we
became.
The "slavey" of the student in
whose room we met found The cup
board ia which the rifles were 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 if
caught drilling we would have said
black and blue that we were prepar-
ing to fight the Fenians, and not to
support them. There would not have
been another word about it. We
would have been believed without
Doubling. Trinity men had done
good service for the crown in many a
stormy period Of Irish history, and
why not thea? A few of It's 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 '98?'
was written by Trinity man, and
that rebel air is now sung, with
patriotic notes, wherever Irishmen
have found a home. But he was the
swallow in the summer, and nowadays
Trinity is, as it always has been.
against the national cause. No one
tor
more anti-national the rest Of the stu
dents were, the more we enjoyed the
dangere we ran.
I can not give the location of our
meeting place. 1t may have been IN
dungeon in "Bottony bay" or it may
have been near the great lecture-hall,
or in the park. bat it was snug and
Isafe. For months we carried on our
lessons with little danger and no inter
Eruption. But it was known to some
of our friends outside that there was
a Eenian circle in Trinity college, and
it was there the danger lay. We never
harbored outlaws In our rooms, and g,
man not unknown in New York found
shelter ia q students quarters while
the police were securing the country
hoping for bis arrest and thlrsting for
the rest on his capture.
I can not mention names. If l
could I might tell of tie incidents in
which prominent Irisbmen well
known here took part in old Trinity,
and how a warrior bold hid in bed
while some noisy visitors, and his
host as well, vowed vengeance on the
American adventurerers who were
driving the Irish people to folly and
revolt I could tell how 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 9 moral to the tale. The
majority Of the men who formed the
Fenian circle IN Trinity college have
become loyal subjects of the queen. I
10 not include myself in this category.
will not say what my views are, but
the majority of the medical men, the
law students, the nen 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. I could name many Of
them, and [ know that they looksback
to their dolngs in Trinity as some
thing to be sorry for, if not to blush
al I met some of them many years
atterward, and our doings in Trinity
was s. tabooed subject of which not
one of them cared to speak, They
Locked at what they did 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 in New York, but even he will
admit that it was something akin to
folly to risk our liberties IN the hope
O. being able to revolutionize the Brit
ish empire with blackboard and
uece of chalk
francis E. Willard ON High Living.
IT