The Fenians in America.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 22, 13 April 1870, Page 3

The Fenians in America.

A correspondent describes the Fenians in America as divided into three sections. The first, lie says, is ruled by two tailors, ■who, having failed in their special line of business, have taken to politics. “The second section is headed, led, drilled, organised, and occasionally blackguarded—when he happens to be sober—by Mr John O’Mahony. Mr O’Mahony is a native of Carrick-on-Suir, a small town distant about twelve miles from Clonmel. Of his patriotism no one can, or dare, entertain a doubt. In ’4B he managed to steal a baker’s bag, and, disguised in that congenial apparel, to escape the authorities. Reaching America, he entered the New York police, and did a thriving business with the thieves of that “ abominable city,’’ who offered on his retirement into politics to present him with a testimonial, which, however, he modestly declined. He afterwards fell in with Mr James Stephens, and between them they “ founded the Fenian organisation.” They robbed and plundered right and left.. Mr O’Mahony hired a mansion wherein he smoked his legs daily on the mantelpiece, and grew eloquent over the liberation of Ireland and the Southern blacks. People believed he was sincere, and gave him bushels of dollars, picked up his bonds by the basketful, .and declared him the sublimated essence of a patriot. Yet he came to grief, and was eventually. declared a swindler. At present he edits—and, I believe, owns—a newspaper known as the Irish People. He writes his articles in a military cloak, and honestly divides his attention to literature with blasphemy and Bourbon whisky.”—The third party is rather a dangerous one. Its adherents, the writer under notice asserts, number in America alone between 150,000 to 200,000 fighting men. “They are well trained, intelligent, and doggedly silent.” Their chief is thus described :—“ He is a hardfaced man, with a large nose—the organ upon which Napoleon depended so much, and so wisely, too. Of his capacity there could be no mistake, judging from the keen glances of his eye, his moderate but firm language, his avoidance of all boast, his soldierly abstention from pretension. That man leads the Irish people in America, and they will follow him, whenever he wishes to lead to the bitter death.”

At the recent meeting of the Commercial Bank shareholders in Melbourne, the chairman of the Directors in reply to a question by a shareholder why Mr Draper, who defrauded the bank, wasappointed accountant, replied, “At the time the appointment was made only one other man amongst the applicants was considered suitable for the post. That man was Mr Dickson, subsequently connected with the Oriental Bank, and who robbed that bank of over £SOOO !” —(Great laughter.) Wo wonder that the shareholders who were of such a “ Mark Tapleyan’’ disposition as to indulge in great laughter at- their loss did not sing Macheath’s song in the Beggar's Opera , “ How happy could I be with either,” &c.