Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1895 — Her Subscription. [ARTICLE]

Her Subscription.

At the time of a passing rebellion in Ireland, known as Smith O’Brien’s, the region where Frances Power Cobbe lived and worked among the poor was tiansformed, as she says, into a small Hecla; not under snow but mud. Clubs were used for the purpose of buying pikes, to be used whenever the leaders at Dublin should call for an insurrection. The result was as harmless as the bursting of a bubble, but meantime there had been real danger for all landed proprietors, whose downfall had been determined upon. One incident related by Miss Cobbe showed her innocent participation in the rebellion. She says: I was visiting the fever patients at Balisk, and w’as detained in the village quite late qne summer evening. So many were ill that it took a long time to supply them with food and all things necessary. At one house, where three persons were ill, I lingered, questioning and prescribing, until about nine o’clock. When I went away I left money to purchase the articles I had prescribed. Next morning my father said to me: “So you were in Balisk last night?” “Yes, I was kept there.” “You stayed in Tyrell’s house until nine o’clock?” “Yes; how do you know?” “You gave six and sixpence to the mother to get provisions?” “Yes; how do you know?” “Well, very simply. The police were watching the door, and saw you through it. As soon as you were gone the club assembled there. They were waiting for your departure. The money ypu gave was subscribed to buy pikes; of course to pike me!”