Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-02-01
EMMET'S BIRTHDAY
Patrick SarsfleId Club WIN Have
Noted Man Here.

The Patrick Sarsfield club will OBJ
serve Emmet's birthday, March 4,thii
year with more varied programm,
than ever before, the principal at
traction being Captain George S. An
thony of New Bedford, who com
manded the whaleship Catalpa, which
brought six political prisoners from
the British penal colony at Free.
mantle, Western Australia. This
story reads like fairy tale and IL il
were something the public didn't
know a good deal about few would
| believe that such game could be
worked upon great nation by few
men. The scheme was perfected by
John Dewey, James Breslin, James
Reynolds, John Boyle O'Reilly and a
few others, who had behind them the
strongest and most aggressive organ
lied body of Irishmen that ever got
together with a common end in view
The job cost about 100000, but ii
was dirt cheap at that
The Catalpa sailed out of the har-
Dor at New Bedford in April, 1875
fitted up for an extended whaling
cruise, by the way, and while there
were about % persons on board the
real secret of its mission was confined
to Captain Anthony and Dennis Dug
gan, the ship carpenter, and he kept
1t to himself. When he had reached
a point near the base of operations nc
unfolded his plans to his first mate,
Samuel p. Smith. The land end of
the scheme was handled by John
Breslin, who, masquerading as a
miner in Australia, did this work
just as well as he attended to the re-
lease of James Stephens from Rich
mond prison, Dublin, while the gov
eminent was chuckling at the idea of
getting the head of the bold Fenian
boys under their thumb.
But this Is very long story, too
long to be told in the columns of a
daily paper, and the best we can do
is refer all who care to read of the
thrilling rescue and the war of words
between Captain Anthony of the
Catalpa and Colonel Harvest of the
British gunboat, Georgette, the latter
running down the Catalpa and de-
handing the prisoners on board, but
the Yankee skipper wasn't to be
bluffed and pointing to the stars and
stripes at his masthead, gave the col
onel the a,ha, and sailed serenely on
and kept riding the waves until he
cast anchor off Castle Garden, on
August 10, 1876, just sixteen months
after he had left New Bedford. When
the captain left he weighed $50
and his hair was as black as coal.
When he returned he had reduced in
weight to 1913 pounds and his hair
was sprinkled with gray. His friends
have kept him in mind ever since
and the Sarsfield club is making an
effort to give Waterbury an opportun-
ity to have a hand shake with him
next month.
The men rescued were James OAR
ragh, Martin Hogan, Michael Har-
rington, Thomas Hassett, Robert
Cranston and James Wilson. The
only crime with which they We're
charged was that of converting theiy
comrades in the British army to
Fenianism. John Boyle O'Reilly was
another of the victims, but made his
escape short time before on board
the whale ship Gazelle and knowing
what his old friends were suffering
he put his whole soul into the pot to-
liberate them. He talked of them in
his "Moondyne" just as he saw them
as fellow convicts. "They were cut
ting their patient way into forest
only traversed before by the
aborigine and the absconder. Before
them in the bush, as in their lives,
all was dark and unknown-tangled
under brush, gloomy shadows and
noxious things. Behind them, clear
and open, lay the starlight road they
had made-leading to and from the
prison."