The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-19 00:00:00

THE AAIRICAN FENIANS.

The doings of the Fenians in America occupy some
space in the New York papers received yesterday. The
New York Times of the 6th says :—" There is everyreason
to believe that the Fenians, to use their own expression,
mean business this time. •The utmost activity
prevails among the officials of all grades here and else-
where, although quiet seems to reign in and
around head quarters. Men are being despatched
daily to different points to facilitate the con-
concentration of the " I. K. A." which, it is said, already
numbers 33,000 men, well disciplined, and fully provided
for a long campaign. General O'Neill says that he will
not lack means to aid him in the coming tug of war, as
he daily receives liberal contributions of money from all
parts of the Union. Yesterday one gentleman alone
placed 10,000 dols. at his disposal for the good of the
cause. Men are only too willing to join in any expedition
against England, so that, numerically speaking, his
army is strong. The same paper, m its issue of
the following day, says :—" The Councils of the Fenians
become daily more frequent and secret. Yesterday
pursuant to the call of General O'Neill, the members of
the Executive Council of Nine, appointed by the late
Congress, arrived in this city, to confer with him on the
approaching expedition. During the day nothing was
done at head-quarters, a quorum not having reached the
city until a late hour. At a late hour last night, however,
a secret meeting was held. The business transacted
thereat did not, of ccurse, transpire, but it was ascer-
tained that its object was to decide upon the time when
the movement shall take place. ' The council meets again
to-day.

THE MASSACRES IN GItEECE.-A fresh series of
despatches (the 9th) respecting the tragedy in Greece has
been issued frem the Foreign Office. It principally con-
sists of documents which have been presented to the
Italian Chamber of Deputies relating to the murder of
Count Boyl, the Secretary of the Italian Legation at
Athens. In a despatch dated Florence, April 30, Signor
Visconti Ve:iosta, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
alludes to the want of vigilance on the part of the autho-
rities charged with the maintenance of order in
Greece, and says that it had violently excited public
opinion. " The Greek Government," he adds, " has had
a proof of it in the steps taken by all the diplomatic
representives accredited at Athens. We have had a clear
proof of it also in the haste with which the Austrian
Government has let us know that it is ready to co-operate
with us in any measures we think proper to adopt with
reference to Greece. A similar communication has
also been made by the Cabinet of Vienna in
London." The letters from Mr. Erskine to Lord Cla-
rendon are four in number, and they are all dated May
7. In one of these he encloses a translation of the depo-
sition made by the guide of the military detachment
which fell in with the tourists while they were still on
the plain of Marathon. The guide distinctly de-
clares that he repeatedly warned the party
through the dragoman Alexandros to drive slowly
and keep with the soldiers. " This statement, as
it appears to me," adds Mr. Erskine, is most
conclusive against Alexandros, 'who indignantly denied in
my presence that any such_ warning had been given to
him." In another despitchi Erskine says it would
almost look as if Alexandros was the person who supplied
the information as to the travellers' movements to the
brigands, and as if another person, named Costa, who is
in custody, was the medium of communication with
them. On May 7 all trace of the brigands had been
lost.

MINNESOTA AND ITS LOCAL PRESS.
(From the Anglo-American Times )
We have before asserted our belief in the value
to the emigrant of local papers from the most out-
of-the-way pacts of the district where he proposes
to settle; for the information which can be extracted
by those who know how, is little less than from an
ac ual visit, though the general features of the coun-
tryshould first be known. The local journal does not
write articles expressly to convey information, and
if it did it would fail in ding that to which we
desire to direct the attention of emigrants. It is
the multitude of little facts unconsciously commu-
nicated, prejudicial to the growing district front one
point; or from another telling, without being sen-
sible of the fact, of its rapid rise in material pros-
perity. Better still, it gives truthful little glimpses
of the state of society, whether hat mony or dissension
prevails, if the people are church-going, law-abiding,
trading and enterprising ; whether the children go
to school, the men to business, and the women to
the it household work ; what they buy, eat, drink,
and do ; whether their streets are paved, lighted by
gas; their fields fenced, their cattle abundant,
carriage cheap, and population increasing ;—infor-
mation on all such points can bast be gathered from
the local papers, where they least intend to convey it.
We have before us two cf a late date, the St. Cloud
Journal, from St. Cloud, Minnesota, and the Alex-
andria Post, from Alexandria, in the same State.
St. Cloud is a town in Stearns County, on the Mis-
sissippi, some distance above St. Paul, and Alex-
andria is away west, in Douglas County, almost as
near to:Fort„Garry and " President" Riell, as to St.
Paul. The first item the St. Cloud Journal gives tells
of the departure of a surveying party to run three
lines from the city for fifty miles west; the best to
be selected, and continued to Georgetown oa the
Red River, connecting with the first division of the
St. Paul and Pacific, the work being really on behalf
of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The .Journal con-
demns " the contemptible spirit of narrow mean-
ness " which had just induced the Minnesota
House to defeat the bill for the erection of a Nor-
mal school at St. Cloud, and, as " the stupidity of
the action is its own severest comment," the editor,
who was at a loss for woi ds, was happily relieved.
News, as might be expected, is neither plentiful nor,
when not local, is it fresh. It is not, however,
the little items of intelligence which interest us,
but the spirit of the press. The people evidently
take an interest in the leading magazines of the
States, for there are short reviews of the Atlantic,
the Galaxy, the River Side, Our Young Folks, and
others, each succeeding notice being more compli-
mentaiy than the last, and as be carries us along
we wonder to what climax the'editor will attain, or
when the poverty of language will bring him to a stop.
Intermixed with the local news are what printers
call "puff pars," and they fall like snowflakes on
our path as we run down the columns. At St.
Cloud what is termed " Personal " has a strong
smack of the personal; for instance, we are told
that " Captain W. H. Hall and Mr. 0. H. Camp-
bell, two jolly boys froin Kingston, rendered their
phizes visible in our office on Friday." This is
followed by the intelligence that groceries continue
at panic prices at Boyd's. It is natural for us to con-
clude that Boyd's is the place to buy sugar, coffee,
and tea • but a little further on crops up a para-
graph which raises a doubt :—" Huber gives from
5 to 7 pounds of sugar for $l.OO ; 4 pounds of good
Rio coffee for $l.OO ; 5 pounds of nicest dried
peaches for $l.OO ; lard, 22i cents per pound, and
everything'else in proportion. Give Huber a trial."
The reader could scarcely have made up his mind
to -accept that invitation when he hears of a "re-
volution in the prices of groceries and provisions.
Down to the bottom they go. At Limperich's." In
large letters, Pickit and Abbott attract us thus—
THE " REGULATOR," and our readers must remem-
ber that all this is in what are called the editorial
columns. " A short time since people could only
get five pounds of sugar for one dollar. Pickit
and Abbott put in a stock of groceries, and imme-
diately six pounds for one dollar became the stand-
ard price. This house is not only the Regulator'
in dry goods and clothing, but in groceries as well.
It always keeps goods down to low prices, and is
just the place for people to buy." Well, we must have
got to the end of the groceries at any rate ! Not
a bit of it. " Take Notice—Fresh groceries at J.
B. Mills', cheap as the cheapest. Goods delivered,
free of cost, in any part of the city." • Up crops
Limperich again and' Huber, and others, one
coupling drugs with his groceries, Edelbrock add-
ing, " Anything you want." Such items would be-
come dry reading to those who did not want any-
thing, but these paragraphs are interlardedwith per-
sonal notices such for instance as this : O. G. Wall,
Esq ,the quill of the Caledonia Journal, has gone and
got married. Good boy." Looking over the adver-
.tisernents we see the competition in St. Cloud it-
self, the competition between St. Cloud and St.
Paul, and the competition of the State generally
against tale eastern and foreign markets. Tne
journal begins by declaring that at its office job
printing can be done as well and as cheaply as at
St. Paul, and it begs its advertisers to remember
that its circulation is double that of any other
paper in Northern Minnesota. But several busi-
ness men of St. Paul, New York,• Boston, and
Philadelphia advertise, and goods of every descrip-
tion are evidently on salein the stores of St. Cloud.
Winslow and Co. offer $lOO to any one who will
produce a better axe made in the Union than their's,
and as the American axe is the best, they must
claim for their's the highest place. Sleds, waggons,
bateaux are also manufactured. Bonham is re tdy
for any tin, sheet iron, or copper work ; the St.
Cloud waggon factory turns out every variety of
vehicle. Owen, dresses lumber into doors, window
frames, cornices, &c. Spicer and Carlisle, as fur-
niture manufacturers, ask the, patronage of their
townsmen ; bankers, lawyers, doctors offer their
services, and we may couple with the last under-
takers and monument makers. The restaurants
prominently announce their ability to supply fresh
oysters, which they offer to cook in any style ; and
among the hotels the Fountain House gives a
glowing description of the scenery around, the
White Bear Lake being one of the most beautiful
in the State, well stocked with fish and game, both
row and sail boats are there, and the Hotel, for in-
door recreation, provides a billiard table The St.
Paul and Pacific Railroad give their time-table for
trains to St. Anthony Junction, Manotnin, Anoka,
Itasca, Dayton, Elk River, Big Lake, Clear Lake,
St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids, and Forts Ripley and
Abercrombie, stopping for dinner, 20 minutes at
Crow River. The Milwaukee and St. Paul add
to their time-table the intelligence that a full
night's rest can be obtained in the Palace
sleeping Cars. An estate agent offers for sale
amongst others—" A good 1i story frame house
with an L; a good well, and four acres of land, in
the city limits. Price $1,200. Long time given if
desired.-160 acres of land near the city with good
building, suitable for hotel. Price $4,000." A con-
siderable number of announcements are advertised
of complaint against citizens who had abandoned
their homesteads, with notice of the cancelment of
the entry unless the complaint be answered. One
entire sheet of the paper is taken up with a Post-
office advertisement for contracts to carry the
mails in all directions through Minnesota. Settlers
were beginning to wove into the Otter-Tail county,
and Mon goli a county is highly praised by the editor in
an article. He states there are 15,000 acres there of
Government land still vacant, -but the railroads
have a great deal more, which can be had on
favourable terms. A correspondent gives some
items about Litchfield, where he says a beautiful
park has been planted and laid out by the railroad
company; and he takes the houses of one street,
and thus gives a list of all the shops. This town
evidently is so new that even the people of St.
Cloud did not know where it was, and the writer
desires to inform them how much it has grown in
seven months. "Deputy" supplies a long account of
the pineries on the Upper Mississippi, their extent
and character; full of interesting information. He
takes camp by camp, and firm by firm, and arrives
at his estimate of the logs likely to be carried to
market during the coming season, as 83,000,000
feet.
The Alexandria Post is not so mature a journal,
having as yet good space to grow with its town.
Among its announcements, we are told, two prizes
were to be given at the Spelling Match that night—
one open to all scholars of the county schools; the
other to " any one who participates." Musk rats are
coming in, being quoted at 10 to 11 cents ; and by
the 20th March the grade of " Spring rat" will be
quoted higher by the fur buyer. "The fur trade
is quite dull, but few pelts being brought in." The
bounty for killing wolves has been repealed. The
Minnesota Iron Works seen to be making a push,
as attention is called to their advertisement in both
papers. Although the Post devotes much of its
'pace to religious matters, it is not above the fol-
lowing quaint appeal to its readers :
We (that is, the devil and the rest of us) have not, in

our capacity of printers, received a mince pie or a dough-
nut this winter. We mention this with regret, because
we had hoped that the custom of cheering the printer
heart through his stomach, so successfully inaugurated
last winter, would be continued indefinitely. Has the
mince pie season closed ?"
At a debating society this subject was considered:
---" That woman's suffrage would be a greater
curse than whisky as it is.' Some twenty iniztvl-
duals participated in the discussion. Towering
above the rest was Long Prairie M'Kinney, with
a good display of hazel brush on his chin. 1113
arguments were forcible, but not clear ; but this
was DO damage to the debate, as Major Brown
jumped up and pitched into the assemblage. a
frightful atnouut of historical facts, in which
Queen Esther, Charlotte Corday, and Joan °f
Arc, were brought out in full prominence." The
graceful John Galbraith, when he took the floor,
knocked things endways, and the timid feared a
row ; but " the graceful" was allowed to " slop
over" without harm to the debate. • The mathe-
matical Wymar" threw in some problems which so
cooled things down that the judges arrived at the
merits of the debate, and the question was decided
in the affirmative. The weather at St. Cload on
the 24th February was described as beautifully fine,
the sun shining brightly, and furs at a discount ; but
on March 5 it had become colder at Alexandria, aP:I
the editor of the Post again urges loggers to take
advantage of the late fall of snow to get their
work completed, as " the sledding season is taper-
ing off," and no time should be lost. He also stirs
up those engaged in ice cutting to hasen their
work, as the snow was beginning to melt; and he
noticed the first flock of wild geese from the south
as having a few d iys before passed over his house.
It is evident that Otter-Tail county is the fa-
vourite just now in Minnesota; that the whole
State is making rapid progress ; that the people
are well satisfied with their prospects, and that an
air of prosperity and content reigns throughout ;
and we could have no better indication of this than
through the inspection of such journals.