The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-03
THE GREAT GAME OF GRAB.

clared that it was impossible for a man to be
in two places at once unless he was bird
The "Fenian exiles" who arrived lately at
New York ought to have been in at least three
places at once, in order to satisfy the various
competitors for the honor of entertaining
them. A delegation of Knights of st. Pat
rick, the Tsmmany Committee, and Collector
Murphy are mentioned as contending over
the bodies of ODonovan Rosa and other
"patriot heroes on board the steamber Cuba.
Collector Murphy seems to have strangely con.
founded his duty as the head of the Custom
House of New York with his Fenian proclivi-
ties. But, indeed, there was such an out
pouring of sympathy and champagne that it
was perhaps inevitable that the collector
should be merged for the moment in the
Irishman. We are told that Collector Muir
phys revenue cutter Bronx lowered here aud
there, with Major Haggerty and General L.
Millen, who were trying to capture the Fe-
mans in order to secure the Irish vote" On
board this steamer $35, 900 ia paper money
was ready for the patriots as soon as they
were ready to accept it. Another steamer,
chartered by the knights of st. Patrick, was
also waiting for the refugees. The Tam
many Hall party, on board third steamer,
chad secured the services of DR.. Carnochan,
the Health Officer Thus one political
party was prepared to put the Fenians into
quarantine, while the other held itself ready
to seize them as contrabaud goods. But of
course these extreme measures would only
have been adopted to prevent the opposite
party from carrying off the prize. It is diff
cult to believe that the New York Herald,
when it describes the boarding of the Cuba
by these three steamers, is not covertly ridi-
culing the effusive patriots. The band on
board the Tammany Hall steamer played the
'Star Spangled Banner" and every man
aboard began to screech and cheer as if he
were mad. This was very early in the pro-
ceedings Then came the "Wearing of the
Green" and more tremendous cheering.
Colonel Roberts proposed three cheers. Colo
mel De Courcy proposed three cheers. Richard
OGorman proposed three cheers. Everybody
proposed three cheers. Then rockets and
blue-lights were burned, and the band
played est. Patrick Day, and "the enthu-
slasm reached its height" Then the steamer
boarded the Cuba, and there was "a savage
outburst of cheering, and the hands of the
exiles were energetically shaken. every
body leaped on board but the reporters, and
by the usual bad management of the police
they were kept off for half an hour" This
perhaps is the most surprising feature in the
proceedings. We should have expected that
the police, like the Custom House and the
Board of Health, would have become for the
moment either Republican or Democratic
organization, but they really seem to have
done their duty; and if they stood for half an
hour between the reporter of New York
journal and steamer fresh from Europe, they
must have done it very we'll. "The scene in
the cabin all this time was of that nature
which it is impossible to describe "-parti-
cularly if the reporter who should have de-
scribed it had been excluded from both
ship and cabin by the police But the ima-
gined impossibility is quickly overcome by a
practised writer. He tells us that some men
cried and others yelled for Joy, and when
Richard O'Gorman and Coroner Roberts got
into the cabin, "where the ladies were sitting
eating their second supper, the excitement
was most intense. The custom of a second
supper is probably peculiar to ladies who
make transatlantic voyages We should
think that if the ''intense excitement" affected
the ladies, they must have needed a supper
before going to bed. Richard O'Gorman
now offered the exiles the hospi-
talities of Tammany Hall, and Colonel
Roberts, spoke Sin the most feeling
manner" of the money that had been collected
for them, and "aluded to the Joy which he felt
in clasping their hands" So much for Tam
many Hall. The Knights Of ST. Patrick fol-
lowed, and by the mouth of John Mullaly
offered hospitality irrespectively of party or
politics. Then came General Millen, of Col
lector Murphy staff, who stated that he had
$37, 900 Sin bills" ready for them, and
that he was there to represent the United
| Oldtco, VIM thSh hOSpltdllIlShs hc
cautious statement that the money was sin
bills" hardly reeoncilable with another
account of these proceedings, from which
we learn that Collector Murphy and
his staff had prepared themselves
for the intense excitement of the evening by
a dinner at the AstOr House, and under the in
fuence of good liquor had become oblivious
of the distinction between public duty and
private sympathy. If indeed the hospitalitief
of the United States were offered, we should
be inclined to think that Collector Murphy
was drunk, and General Millen was drunk,
and everybody was drunk; or perhaps, to pul
it mildly, they were excited. Like the re-
porter of the New York Herald, we
were not in the cabin of the Cubs
where the ladies were having their second
supper, and, like him, we can imagine what
occurred when the excitement became in.
tense. The position of ODonovan Rossf
between the Republican and Democratic de
putations may be compared to that of Captain
Macheath pulled hither and thither by hii
rival mistresses. He and his companions
would go neither to the Metropolitan Hote
as guests of Tammany Hall, nor to the Asto
House as guests of Collector Murphy or tn,
United States, but they would stay on boar(
the steamer
Chow happy could be with either
Were t'Other dear charmer away;
But now you both tease me together
TO neither word will say"
The exiles retired to their own cabin, AM
after an absence of three-quarters of an hou
-. H.. Il, a44fan ~