Sydney Morning Herald (41)
Information had been sent to Melbourne, and a special train of police (preceded by a pilot engine for safety) picking up Lieutenant O'Connor and some black trackers at Essendon, went on Sunday evening to Glenrowan. The engineer of the pilot-engine learned, when a mile off, that the line had been pulled up, and the news was conveyed to him by a schoolmaster in the district, a Mr Curnow, at the risk of being shot down by the outlaws, or some of their friends. Mr and Mrs Curnow were stuck up at about 11 o'clock on Sunday morning by Ned Kelly and Byrne at the railway gates, as they were driving towards Greta. Their horse and buggy were put up at Jones's hotel, and they themselves were lodged in the station-master's house.
When bailing them up Kelly said, “I am sorry, but I must detain you." They were detained until about 10 o'clock at night, when Kelly and Byrne took them to the hotel, requested them to get into their buggy, and then accompanied them to the police station, where Kelly told them to go home and get into bed, and to remain quiet, otherwise he would shoot Mr Curnow. Mr Curnow heard of the rails having been pulled up, and as his house stood quite close to the railway line, he was able to hear the pilot engine approaching. Upon hearing it he immediately ran out with a red handkerchief, which he held up, with a lighted match behind it. By this action the special train was secured, and the locale of the gang discovered.
When the police arrived they found that several individuals had been gathered together and placed in Jones's hotel, by the bushrangers. Superintendent Hare in charge of the force, reporting says:— "Constable Bracken rushed up, saying he had escaped from Jones's public-house, and for God's sake go quickly, or they will get away. I then ran with two or three men following me, and I went up towards Jones's, and and when I got within fifty or eighty yards a shot was fired from the house, and struck me in the left wrist. I immediately got the house surrounded by all the men I had." The firing on the house then followed, and a tedious interval intervened, during which Mr Stainstreet, station-master left the hotel, where he had been kept prisoner, and had a narrow escape of being shot by the police, but he saved himself by proclaiming he was the station-master.
He then reported that the gang were in the house, and that the shots of the police had struck the daughter of Mrs Jones, a girl fourteen years of age, on the head, whilst the son, John Jones, a boy of nine years, was wounded in the hip. Very soon after this, hysterical screams of terror were heard from Mrs Jones and a Mrs Reardon, who were in the house. The police frequently called upon the women to come away, but they hesitated. During this firing more police arrived, but the bushrangers could not be dislodged; and, what was more perplexing the prisoners inside could not be persuaded to leave, although the police repeatedly called upon them to do so. At 12 o'clock those inside suddenly rushed out, carrying their hands aloft.
The police told them to advance, but many were so terror-stricken that they ran hither and thither screaming for mercy, afterwards approaching the police, throwing themselves upon their faces. One by one they were called, and, being minutely searched, were dispatched to the station. When the turn of the two youths named M'Auliffe came, Superintendent Sadlier directed constable Bracken to arrest them as “Kelly sympathisers." They were accordingly handcuffed. During these proceedings Ned Kelly, the leader of the gang, shot Superintendent Hare in the wrist, and got away. Knowing that three of his companions were in Jones's Hotel he returned towards that place subsequently.
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29-aug-11
