The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1877-11-12

The Irish 'skirmishing fund" has at
tracted good deal of attention in New York
of late. Areporter Of the Sun has just inter-
viewed O'Donovan Rosa, the leader Of the
Irish ''skirmishers," on this subject That
chieftain shows that this fund, now amount
ing to Sal, ,724, is wholly under his control
and that he Is responsible to no one for 1t.
When asked what he intended to do with 1t,
he refused to tell and when pressed by the
impetuous reporter, he referred him to the
following extracts, written by himself in the
Irish World, under the head of "Maxims for
Skrmishers
Human Warfare-The shortest, swiftest
and cheapest warfare-that which does the
greatest material damage to the enemy with
the least loss Of life to either side-is the most
human warfere
Cheap Warfare is the age Of dyna-
mite and torpedoes- agencies with which
nature has come forward to aid the weak, the
poor and the enslaved. Cheap warfare! Let
this be the motto War against England with
the smallest number Of men and the least
possible expense.
Regular Warfare Nearly Obsolete--Fleets
are now almost useless. AS the ironclad
drove out of existence the old fashioned
wooden ships, so the torpedo will drive out
the ironclad. The fleet of Europe and America
are at the mercy of the stealthy little enemy,
and the best type Of the torpedo boat carries
no crew.
England's Fear-Three men and few
pounds of dynamite are more than a match
for the mightiest frigate. Months of prepara-
tion, hundreds of men, the biggest guns, and
all the latest improvements go down before
the apparently insignificant assailant. Eng
land to-day is beginning to count the cost OF
vague and unpleasant idea is just shadowing
itself on the British mind that all this prep
| aration for the defense of the island may have
been useless.
These mysterious hints about torpedoes
and dynamite are likely to produce great
excitement in England; but perhaps the bold
est suggestion is that Of contributor from
Providence, r. l., who suggests this mode of
warfare:
AS skirmishers, 1t behooves us to acquaint
ourselves with such appliances as are calcu-
| lated to crown our efforts with success In
this connection l should wish to draw the at
item appearing some time ago in the papers
with the caption, "Bottled Death" "At a re-
cent meeting of the Paris Academy OF
Sciences member exhibited a small vial OF
osmium, the most deadly poison known. In
short explanatory address he remarked
| that twenty pounds Of the metal would be
sufficient to poison the entire population OF
the world. ne-thousandth part Of a grain
of osmie. acid, set free in volume OF air OF
one hundred cubic yards would possess such
a deadly influence that all persons respirin!gs 4
the more dangerous is the fact that it has nc
known antidote." Some persons with fine
drawn conscienceS may eXclaim that this
would be a terrible way of making war.
Mr.. Rossa, himself, remarked of this
poisoning suggestion, that 1T would be a
grand thing if bottle Of that osmium was
smashed in the English House of Commons
while a full house was passing coercion laws
for Ireland"
BY means of these poisons, dynamite, tor.
pedoes, and Internal machines, Mr. Rossa
and his skirmishers hope to cripple the
power of England. Anybody with any effec
tive Internal machines or any choice poisons
on hand who will apply to Rosa will get
good job, the killing off OF some thirty mil
lions of people This poisoning, however
must be done cheaply, as the funds OF Rosss
& Co, are not large. Enough for them to pay
fancy priceS