Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1876 — AN IRISH GIRE’S ADVENTURES. [ARTICLE]

AN IRISH GIRE’S ADVENTURES.

The following story is contributed to the Chicago Tribune, with the assurance by the writer that it is true in every particular : Her name was Mary Tobin. As there is nothing in this history of which she or her children should ever be ashamed, the facts are given precisely as they occurred. The wnter does not know what was Mary’s birthplace in Ireland, nor the year*when she waa born,- It must have been a year or two previous to 1830. When twelve or thirteen years old, she came to this country with an older sister, who married a man that had the position of chief teamster of a detachment of soldiers then stationed at Brooklyn, N. Y. After remaining with her sister, the only relative she had in this country, for some months, Mary accepted service with a gentleman by the name of Clowes, then living a few miles west of Cuddebackville, in Sullivan County, N. Y. He was a widower, and his aged mother kept house for him. The young and ignorant Irish girl did not perform at all to her liking; and yet, as it would cost considerable to §et her back to her sister in Brooklyn, le venerable matron did not know exactly what to do with the girl. At this time, a gentleman from Orange County, on his way in a buggy to visit friends in Lumberland, having a slight acquaintance with Mr. Clowes, stopped for a few moments to have a chat. When about to start, remembering the injunction of the madame to bring back a housemaid if he -could find one on his Journey, he asked Mr. Clowes if there was anyone in the neighborhood that could be had for that service. Mr. Clowes referred the gentleman to his mother, who at once agreed that Mary should return with him. The good dame, however, could only recommend Mary as bright and honest; but she was almost totally ignorant of our American way of doing things. In the course of a week the gentleman returned, and Mary found herself installed as the maid-of-all-work in the family of the Principal of one of the academies in Orange County. She was then scarcely sixteen, but rather large of her age, with light hair, rosy cheeks, bright, sparkling blue eyes, graceful for one so utterly uncultivated; and every feature, and her sweet, cheery voice, all told at once that she was one of the very best specimens of an Irish lass that the “ Gem of the Bea” could possibly send us. She was, in fact, a very promising, pretty girl. But Esther, the old-maid cook to whose care Mary was committed for some needed instruction in that department, had no patience with her ignorance; and the disgust of the ancient dame knew no bounds when, having given her pupil some potatoes to wash, she saw Mary, with her bare feet, treading them in the Jloor-pail half full of water. Esther’s ridicule made the poor cnild sad enough; but it broke no bones, and her buoyant, cheerful nature soon recovered its wonted vivacity. It was vacation; the family numbered but four; Esther became sick, and the madame was forced, with the assistance of Mary, to prepare meals, and to get along as best she could. Bhe soon found that her new girl needed showing but once, that she was active, anxious and quick to learn, and, when Esther returned to duty, Mary was nearly as well qualified for the duties of queen of the kitchen as the more aged and pretentious dame, who had shown so little good sense and patience in instructing her. In a month or two, Esther’s health again failed, and Mary was duly installed as cook in her place. In this position she did faithful and excellent service for a year or more, when she petitioned her friends for the privilege of going to school —acting as assistant housemaid morning and evening, to pay for her board. She had already learned to read and wrjte, and now commenced with the elementary branches in good earnest. She made rapid progress for a year, when the Principal of the Academy changed his location, and Mary spent a year with his sister at Barryville, in Sullivan County. She then became a member of the family with whom she first lived, and entered Chester Academy, earning her board, as before, by service in the family. Her classmates were the daughters of the leading citizens of Orange County, by whom she was always treated with the greatest respect. Her beauty, her cheerful, merry heart, het wit, and genuine lady-like bearing, and withal, her rapid progress in her studies, shielded her perfectly from any slights on account of her humble position. Indeed, she was a general favorite in the school. In her examination in all her studies no one accquitted herself better than Mary Tobin; and, at the closing exercises, when compositions were in order, for purity and simplicity of style, beauty of thought and expression, Mary’s was received with marked applause, and, in fact, was far bettor than the performance of any of her associates. A mosUimportant change occurred in Mary's personal,history. Bhe had re-

jected several offers of marriage, as, with true, loyal Irjsh affection, she intended to ein her sister, then in the Far West. uring the time Mary was in school, the troops with whom her brother-in-law was connected had been ordered to Fort Towson, situated in or near the Red River, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory; and he, with his family, had gone with them. It was very lonesome for Mary’s sister, and several letters had passed between them —Mary’s sister urging her with all her eloquence to come ana join her fortunes with hers. Mary wrote she would come as soon as her term in school closed, if she had the money; but, in pursuing her education, she had been unable to save anything. It should be said that she had a full share of pride—not any too much, to be sure—that always led her to adopt the best wardrobe her limited means would permit. Bhe always looked neat, and, with her fine form 7 and beautiful, intelligent face, could not help knowing that she had her full share of admiration from all by whom she was surrounded. In due time Mary was all excitement on receiving a letter from her sister, that she had found a Mr. Clarke who was about to visit his friends in Pennsylvania, and who, at her request, would come on to Chester for Mary, and come back with her to Fort Towson; also, that she would send money to get her a good wardrobe, and to pay her expenses to her new home A short time afterward v Mr. Clarke arrived, presented his letters, and handed Mary sixty dollars in gold to purchase her outfit for the journey. Mary’s Chester friends did not like the looks of Mr. Clarke; but, as he was accredited by her sister, they could make no objections to her leaving with him. But they were careful to advise her specifically and fully in regal’d to her long journey of some 1,500 miles among entire strangers, In less than a week she was ready, and, with a kind letter from her pastor—she had joined the Presbyterian Church—and the blessings and the prayers of those with whom she had lived virtually from childhood, she hade them good-by, who, like those to whom Paul preached, expected to see her face no more.” What follows is gathered from the letters Mary wrote back to the lady who had so kindly matronized her from the time she first came to Orange County till she left for her distant home in the West.

Mary found Mr. Clarke’s friends in Pennsylvania very fine, excellent people, In good circumstances. They treated her very kindly for two or three weeks, when she left with Mr. C. for Pittsburgh, where they took a New Orleans steamer for the mouth of the Arkansas. For several days Mary’s escort treated her with great deference and respect, as, in fact, he had always done. But his attentions became more marked, and by the time the steamer had reached the Mississippi, he was pertinaciously urging Mary to marry him. This she respectfully, but firmly, refused to do; and at length bis conduct became so outrageous that Mary was obliged to appeal to the Captain for protection. This he promptly afforded, and she was safe from further molestation. Clarke kept himself steeped in liquor, and his conduct at last became so bad that somewhere below Cairo the Captain put him ashore—not, however, till he had made him give up the money he had in his possession to pay Mary’s expenses to Fort Towson. Ana now here was this lone Irish girl, a thousand miles from her friends in Orange County, and nearly as far by the rivers and stage she had to travel before reaching her new home, with no protection except that which a brave, noble and cultivated woman can command from the roughest, and even from the basest, of men. They were ample in her case, for she was treated by the Captain and his officers, and by her fellow-passengers, with every attention and the greatest courtesy. The Captain of the Mississippi steamer introduced Mary to the officers of the boat that was to take her up the Arkansas to Van Buren, on the west line of the State, where she was to take the stage for some 100 miles or more to Fort Towson. Traveling on the frontiers and on Western river steamers thirty years ago was a very different thing from what it is now. Yet, in all that tedious, weary journey, Mary was happy, and by her cheerful conversation, ana those delicate attentions which a woman knows so well how to show, she was ever ready to contribute to the happiness of others. But at last the stage stops at the door of the hotel, and the lonely traveler is at Fort Towson. Visions of her sister—her own dear sister—rushing to embrace her, and of the children dancing around Aunt Mary, had cheered her for many a lonely hour. She was now at home; and all her joyous nature overflowed with the brightest hopes. Alas! what language can paint the gloom that shrouded her soul when she found that her sister was hundreds of miles away; that she was alone, way out in the Indian Territory, among perfect strangers. The regiment with which her brother-in-law was associated had been ordered to Texas, and her sister was at Baton Rouge, La. In a few hours she sought out her sister’s friends, who knew all about her coming. They received her most kindly and cordially, and did all they could to cheer and comfort her. Her pride would not permit her to be dependent. She soon found that her services were in great request as a dressmaker; and her letters to her Orange County friends were full of expressions showing how happy’ and prosperous she wus in her new home. It could not be otherwise. Her culture and her superior accomplishments would lead all to concede to her a leading position in society. So it proved; for, in a few months, she became the happy wifo of Mr. Henry B. Hadden, a leading citizen in Fort Towson, and, as she proudly expressed it in a letter to the matron under whose care she developed into the splendid woman she was, “a Presbyterian Elder.” In another year a letter told that she had the dearest little baby in the world, and, of course, her happiness was complete. Domestic cares made the letters from Mary fewer, and, since the War, nothing has been heard from her. The temptation to moralize on facts like the above is almost irresistible. But the story caries its moral all along with it. It shows that duty, faithfolly performed each day as it passes along, is sura to reap its reward. Mary’s history, from the time she left her sister in: Brooklyn to accept service among strangers, amid the lonely wilds of Sullivan County, might be woven into a most beautiful romance; but the facta, Just as they occurred, are to her friends more interesting than they could be were they embellished by the most vivid colors in which any writer, however gifted, could narrate them. Her adherence to duty, and her active, virtuous life can be imitated by all; but few will ever be able to furnish a brighter example, er one more worthy to be emulated.