At Tower City, McKenna found Donahue’s saloon a popular resort for his countrymen, and he at once honored it with his presence. Donahue, the proprietor, was one day entertaining a number of his friends living at Mahanoy City, when the stranger, “from Denver,” entered the room, and, assuming a reckless air, with the signs of having indulged in a few glasses of something more potent than water, soon made himself popular with those present. This impression was increased by the rich stories he related and the rare songs he sung. The next day he discovered, in the same house, a second copy of the Boston newspaper, before alluded to, containing an answer to the slashing attack upon the Mollie Maguires. The later communication dated from Locust Gap, about four miles from Tremont, and the charges of the earlier publication were all completely negatived. Donahue’s attention was ingeniously called to the subject, and he unsuspectingly answered that he had read the article, having borrowed the journal from a neighbor for the purpose. In a short time thereafter, the two men being alone, the saloon-keeper said: “You must know that I was a mimber of the order, for two years and upwards, but gave it up some time since, belaving it is not a good crowd fur any wan, havin’ proper respect fur his good name, to be connected wid. Still, a number of excellent friends of mine are holdin’ on, and will not listen to raison, or be persuaded to cut adrift from the body. I am sure that, one day, they will learn I’m quite right an’ they far in the wrong. It wur very well wid us until the fighting begun at Mahanoy City, betwixt the Burke and Duggan boys, the last showing themselves the more powerful; but, faith, the effects of the battle can’t aisily be wiped out, an’ these sharp newspaper writin’s are part of the results of the contentions. I think the order is losing strength, in being split up, inter smithereens like, by dissensions an’ broils, widout an’ within.” Donahue was showing himself a man of more than ordinary intelligence. After a judicious invitation to drink, at McKenna’s cost, he continued: “Considerin’ the ladership hev fallen into wake an’ bad hands, an’ the mimbers at loggerheads, one anent the other, all the time—to say nothing about the opposition of the Bishop an’ the clargy—it would be just as well if the counthry wur clane rid of the entire subject!” “Mayhap you’re more’n half right, Mr. Donahue, but did ye niver think, fur wan moment, the very order you condemn may be the manes—wid other naded help—of bringin’ into union all the Irishmen in the coal ragions, givin’ them protection an’ securin’ them their aqual rights?” The detective was paving the way for future work, and would say nothing against the Mollies. “I’m more’n doubtful of that same,” returned the tavern-keeper, “such mane men are at the helm! They’ll run the machine for their individual profit, an’ use the power of the society for evil, an’ only evil, purposes!”