Minnesota sends a contribution with a letter,
in which he says he is "for the freedom
and nationality of Ireland." Colonel Mulligan,
writing from the Headquarters of the Second
Division, sends a hundred dollars, and will,
when the union of the States is solidly settled,
give his assistance in establishing Irish nationality.
Brigadier-General Julius While, writing
with exceeding bitterness against those statesmen
who rise in their Legislative Halls (meaning
the British Houses of Parliament) and
encourage and defend the traitorous villains who
are making America flow with blood, prophesies
that Irishmen fighting Freedom's battle shall
yet hear its thunders on their native shore.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives
is a contributor to the amount of twenty dollars.
Major-General Pleasanton is another; so also is
Brigadier-General Montgomery, whose donation
is accompanied with the charitable hope that,
"with the blessings of Providence, not only our
individual but national efforts may teach England
a salutary lesson of retributional justice, resulting
in securing to Ireland the inalienable boon,
&c." Sundry soldiers of the United States
army do not limit the testimony of their
sympathy to mere words, but send contributions
ranging in amount from one to five dollars.

A great meeting of the Brotherhood was held
in California, at which a Mr. Mooney acknowledged
that he had always found Englishmen
hospitable, just, and generous, but, as regards
Ireland, that, "every year the people raise abundant
food from their soil but every year the
ships of her oppressors come into her harbours,
and, like buccaneers, carry off by force the food
which Providence has planted in her rich soil
for her inhabitants, and her people are obliged
to put round the hat in helpless mendicancy to
the world. But they have vowed on the top of
Slivenamon, in Ireland, to beg food no longer,
to petition the Queen of England no longer, but
to arise, organise, and on the gory field assert
their independence. They may rise or they may
fall, but they will never beg again. (Great
cheering.) Mr. Mooney said he was good for
one rifle, and there were twenty thousand Irishmen
in California who could and would each of
them send a rifle to Ireland, yea, even their
brave hearts." He concluded a stirring address
by suggesting "an immediate commencement of
the work, and the sending to the fair at Chicago
a golden brick and a few silver bricks of
California metal. (Cheers.)"

At this meeting it was announced that Miles D.
Sweney was willing to contribute one thousand
dollars to the cause. This was the signal for a
great outburst of applause, and "three cheers
were given for Miles, who was immediately
voted the bulliest of the contributors." In
return for a contribution of five hundred and
seven dollars from the Ninetieth Illinois
Regiment, the editor of the Fenian prays that, "when
the terrible day of reckoning with England comes,
God in his infinite goodness may vouchsafe that
these noble veterans may have the full measure
of their desire granted—to be in at the settlement."
The men of another regiment are only
waiting the termination of the American war to
"flesh their bayonets in corpulent Mr. Bull."

Among the articles contributed by Ireland to
the fair are three photographic portraits by the
venerable Archbishop McHale; "a Whole Irishman"
sends a moire antique gent's vest; others
send a piece of Lord Edward Fitzgerald's coffin;
a pocket-handkerchief; an Irish MS.; a few
numbers of Punch; sundry '98 pikes and shillelags;
a jar of whisky which had not paid the
excise duty; a bog-oak negligé; a copy of a
letter from France on Irish bravery; a sword
picked up on Bunker's Hill by an Irish-English
soldier; a pistol used in '98; a lump of stone,
on which the broken treaty was signed by the
illustrious Sarsfield; a bird's-eye view of the
Protestant Reformation; a pair of lady's boots
worked with a '98 pike; a Scotch claymore
taken in Wexford in '98; a large doll, dressed
as the Tipperary man's dark-haired Mary; a sod
off Wolf Tone's grave; a watch-pocket, worked
by a lady who hopes that it will be worn next a
manly heart, that fondly throbs for Fatherland;
a portrait of St. Patrick; a horn of a Mangerton
stag; a bit of the Atlantic cable; a photograph
of Emmett in one of his pensive moods; a pair
of rose-coloured cork slippers; a flag, which
"has been noticed by some of our alien rulers
in both Houses of Parliament as a most rebel
flag, with language in an unknown tongue;" a
gross of pies "specially manufactured for the
fair;" a curious bone, found on the island of
Inchidonny; "the crowbar used by the drummer
bailiff when he headed the crowbar brigade in
this district in the years '46—'48." This is the
gift of one of the brigade, who has repented of
his share in the cruel work of desolation, by
which so many a cheerful homestead has been
left a sightless ruin, and numbers of people
have been driven from their homes, and forced
to fly to foreign lands or to the workhouse,
where at that time certain death awaited them.
There has been sent also a grand blackthorn
stick cut from over the graves of the ancient
Britons buried in Ireland. A large number
of odd volumes of books were contributed.
"Donations of food in any quantity," it
was announced, "will be gratefully
received. Beef, mutton, lamb, veal, bacon, ham,
pork, sausages, fowls, turkeys, geese, chickens,
game, raw or cooked, fish and vegetables of all
sorts, cakes and pickles, fruit and vinegar,
anything, in fact, that will tend to the comfort of
the visitors and the increase of the receipts, and
the further it has to travel and the greater the
quantity, the more highly it will be valued."

The fair was to be opened by the governor of
Illinois, and for the entertainment of visitors
there were to be theatrical performances,
concerts, lectures, &c. &c. "Ireland's gifted
daughter," Miss T. Esmonde, was to give
poetical and patriotic readings; "the soldier
and patriot," T. F. Meagher, to make an
address; and "the committee were also
negotiating for, and hoped to be able to conclude the
necessary arrangements to give a grand billiard