A Great Orator

New York, 1895

The Hon. John F. Finerty, who will be heard here in conjunction with Mr. M. J. Murphy, the noted singer, next Wednesday night, at the Opera House, is a man with a record.

In 1864 he delivered a stirring patriotic speech at Slabh-na-mon in the County Tipperary, which so aroused the people that the authorities compelled young Finerty, then a mere lad to leave the country. He came to this country, enlisted in the Federal army, served to the close of the war and came out a non-commissioned officer. The Fenian movement then sprang up and he became one of the leading spirits in it.

In 1876, he became war correspondent for the Chicago Times and served in the great Sioux and Apache campaigns under Generals Crook, Miles and Gibbon. While in this capacity he saw some pretty hard service and was with Lieut. Sibley in his famous scouting expedition, one of the most daring exploits in modern warfare.

On his return to Chicago he founded the Citizen, of which paper he is still the editor. Mr. Finerty is one of the ablest orators on the lecture platform in this country, and is unexcelled as an Irish historian.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, April 12, 1895, p. 8.