Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-01-06
JAMEG HTEPHENk IN ACCOUNT
WITH THE IRISH STATE PhaS-
From the New Y,rk Irish American.

I NI LEHTn nave IEAEilEA Alt AlAAEhuGu uNolAllh-
ton; but we think, after reading Mrs.
| ODonovan's letter, the honest (but de-
lldedD portion Of them will be inclined
| % ask, like the adherents Of the Mofat
/ Mansion" dynasty --" q" Where has this
money gomez
No. IL MIDDLE MoUETJoY STREET,
| DUBLIN IRELAND, Nov. 20, l566.-Dear
| Madame-Your very kind and welcome let
ter Of October 20 followed by your note Of
a week later, inclosing an order for El1,
came TO hand IN due time. 1t is needless
TO repeat how very necessary was the gift to
the funds Of our committee but allow Us to
| thank You and the Detroit Sisterhood very
sincerely for the time and trouble spent in
realizing it. As gou are satisfied with the
explanations Of my former letters, there is
no necessity for again entering into details
of the poverty and great destitution still
existing among the prisoners families II
may be proper to remark here that, having
| heard Of subscriptions being set on foot for
| the relief ofthe prisoners families, and a
large sum realized by the Jones Wood
meeting. we were expecting these past
months contributions from America but up
10 this time have met disappointment, as
| none, eTccDt v0ars, dylieed Your proposal
] .
not at present feasible; there are several
reasons for this The children are reallyal
| too Young TO work or be Of service. Again,
| we have not then Of sending them for
our funds allow us only to live from hand
70 mouth" having to. day sufficient for to-
| days tenure Of life, perhaps, but no prOyi-
sion for tomorrow rather a sad position
| Tor fagiilies that had once been comfortably
/ .fft,at,I ,,hfeofipvu
! another exists in this-that we cling too
fondly still TO Ireland and he promises Of
| James Stephens. If these should all fail as.
| doubtless many Of the sufferers will avail
| themselves Of the kind offer Of the Sister
| hood in Detroit, and seek their homes in
/ America, myself among the number. You
will be pleased to hear that the prisoners,
under the act OF habeas cOrpus, are, with
the exception Of about forty, all at liberty.
However, the convicted mems families are
numerous, and still entirely unprovided for,
except what little we can week-by-week
spare to them from the funds.
] am, very sinCerly, yours,
NJ. J. ODONOvAN Rosa.
To Miss Anna j. Mcdonald, Secretary,
Fenian Slsterhood, Detroit.
Depending on " the promises of James !
Stephens :" Poor widowed wife God |
help You, and all in Irelrnd who, hoping |
against hope, still lean upon that rotten |
reed-the promise Of one who, hitherto, has |
tempted braver and better men than him |
self TO risk their all Of happiness in this life,
only TO leave them in the lurCh when the |
fatal hour Of trial came, even "a he left |
ODonovan and kiCkham and the others in /
Moungoy prison, when those who planned |
and effected his own escape had calculated |
to free them likewise, and would have done |
30 but for the cowardice Of james Stephens, |
Poor widowed wife still depending on |
the promise Of James Stephens" even |
while, in the simple language of patient |
suffering, you bear terrible evidence against |
him, that Of all the money which he |
has obtained by trading on the sympathy Of |
cur people for your woes and the sorrows !
and privatiOns Of those bereh like you Of |
the arms that should sustain and guard |
them, not one cent has ever reached you /
through all those months of weary clinging /
to the hope whose only alternatives are |
starvation or exile, alternatives, too de |
pendant upon the chance Of good faith, or |
courage or manhood Of a knave, who has |
but 100 well played the loeman's game Of |
fraud and treaehery, and now seeks only |
the secure obscurity in which TO spend the
ill-gotten profits of his Yillainy God help 1
poor Ireland If her suffering children had, /
indeed, no other hope than that which de- |
pends on so frail prop, as the oft-made |
and as oft-hroken promises Of James
Stephens" For weeks our columns have
been laden with accounts Of how his dupes /
In ireland have been hurried into English |
dungeons, consigned thither by the very |
warnings which he had publicly given to
the enemy 10 be on the watch for them at
this time, well knowing, as he did, that his
words, sedulously disseminated through /
the medium of a corrupt press,-would |
combine with the utter hopelessness
Of the cause he had BETRAYED, 10 |
produce the reckless desperation which
prompts men, in the hour of ruin,
TO rush blindly on destruction. The |
period within which he solemnly promised
those who believed in him that he would be
in ireland, fighting against British domi-
nation, will have passed ere this reaches
most Of our readers. Even as We write, IL /
wants bus twenty-lour short hours of the
expiration Of the allotted time; our intelli-
gence from the other side comes down to
Friday, the 2Sth Of December, and instead
of the successful instruction which James
Stephens promised 20 those from whom
he drew the hard earnings Of their toll, we
know that all hope of even a respectable
rising is worse than vain; that the English
iails are again Crammed with unresisting |
victims. and the men who would freely
have died for Ireland are lying, panic
stricken and despairing from the country.
What must those unhappy mgitives think
when they reach these shOres-what must
be the reflections Of their more unfortunate
brethren In the solitude of their prison
cells. when they Learn that at The very time
when james Stephens promised TO be
with them ia ireland, 20 begin the hghJ |
he was still in America; that he never
leit these shores at all that, now his /
promised time IL mp, he l. still here; and, |
that no longer back than Sunday week, he
was seen and conyersed with by two per
sons. at least. 20 whom ha is we'll known, 90 |
the 7umpuous lodgings in this city, which /
he had hired ont Of the funds wrung 10y |
fraud from thg poor lrishmen and women |
who trusted in his lying promises
One word more as To has treatment OF /
the families of those whose wives he has /
helped 70 widow, and whose children are |
orphans through his instTumentahty. We /
! have shown how, all uuconscIously, the |
wife of O'Donovan ROssa has testified |
against him, that the funds raised by APP
! pealz in their name have never reached
| them. lie has. himself pronounced his
own condemnation. In the speech which
/ he delivered az the picnic held here last
September. 10 raise those funds, he SAYS
/ land We quote here from his own Official
report '- .
"O'Dcnoyan Rosss has leil behind him
| eve children uuproSidod for; and his Is
only one case. An patriotic peoples have
provided for the destitute children OF their
/ patriots VIII Won neglect themy You
/ must be sure that history will light you
/ down % eternal inlamy or honor sccordlng
/ Is yOu act
By the last mail we received letter
from an Irish lady. the annexed extract
from which bear on this matter somewhat
/ heavily
"KIEasrovS, Dec. IS, 1885,
Jane Stephens is reported 20 be ip Dun
kirk: and the government are keeping a
/ vieilani watch for him al all the ports His
wife IL here, eduutHg ~ he streets IN The rich
e-' s-},fi and alb5S. as easily she may. since
they are paid for ont Of the hard earnings
OF The poor Irish girls =nd working men in
America
The wife aud children Of O'Donovan
Rosa existincin Dublin, on charity, from
hand TO mouth, having. to-day, sufficient
for to-day's tenure Of life, perhaps, bat no
provision for tomorrow: and the wife OF