ee the shells of the
cottages to-morrow," he said, "and you will judge for yourself what they
were worth." But the sympathy excited by the illustrations of the cruel
conflagration and the heartrending descriptions of the reporters,
resulted in a very handsome subscription for the benefit of the tenants
of Glenbehy. General Sir William Butler, whose name came so prominently
before the public in connection with his failure to appear and give
evidence in a recent _cause celebre_, and whose brother is a Resident
Magistrate in Kerry, was one of the subscribers. The fund thus raised
has been since administered by two trustees, Father Quilter, P.P., and
Mr. Shee, a son of our brisk little landlady here, who maintain out of
it very comfortably the evicted tenants. Not long ago a man in Tralee
tried to bribe the agent into having him evicted, that he might make a
claim on this fund! At Killorglin the Post-Office Savings Bank deposits,
which stood at L282, 15s. 9d. in 1880, rose in 1887 to L1299, 2s. 6d.
James Griffin, despite, or because, of the two evictions through which
he has passed, is very well off. He owns a very good horse and cart, and
seven or eight head of cattle. His arrears now amount to about L240, and
on being urged yesterday to make a proposition which might avoid an
eviction, he gravely offered to pay L8 of the current half-year's rent
in cash, and the remaining L5 in June, the landlord taking on himself
all the costs and giving him a clean receipt! This liberal proposition
was declined. The zeal of her son in behalf of the evicted tenants does
not seem to affect the amiable anxiety of our trim and energetic hostess
to make things agreeable here to the minions of the alien despotism. The
officers both of the police and of the military appear to be on the best
of terms with the whole household, and everything is going as merrily as
marriage bells on this eve of an eviction.

TRALEE, _Wednesday evening, Feb. 22._--We rose early at Mrs. Shee's,
made a good breakfast, and set out for the scene of the day's work. It
was a glorious morning for Washington's birthday, and I could not help
imagining the amazement with which that stern old Virginian landlord
would have regarded the elaborate preparations thought necessary here in
Ireland in the year of our Lord 1888, to eject a tenant who owes two
hundred and forty pounds of arrears on a holding at twenty-six pounds a
year, and offers to settle the little unpleasantness by