The Argus at KellyGang 8/7/1880 (7)
The Argus continued with its report of the KellyGang at Glenrowan
full text
Start of the seige-plan to take up the track
Had the special train continued its journey without any warning having been given, it would have been impossible for the engine-driver to see the breach in the line until too late, and the inevitable result would have been that the train, with its living freight, would have rushed over the embankment into the gully beneath; if it had gone on the left side, it would have had a fall of about 20ft.; and if on the right, a fall of about 30ft. At the spot indicated the platelayers were compelled, under peremptory orders from Ned Kelly, to so remove the rails as to render the destruction of the train inevitable. How the plans of the gang failed, the foregoing narrative will have shown.
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THREATENED OUTBREAK OF SYMPATHISERS
Shortly after the capture of Edward Kelly he was attended by Dr Nicholson, of Benalla, and Dr Charles Ryan, of Melbourne. Divested of his massive coat of armour, he looked a most extraordinary and pitiable object. He was literally covered with wounds, his face and hands were smeared with blood, he was shivering with cold, and his face was a ghastly paleness. Helpless in the hands of those whom he had defied to capture him alive, he was speedily removed from the district which had been the scene of his wholesale plunder, his daring exploits, and his cold-blooded murders. But the excitement did not cease with his removal. Immediately after the tragic event at Glenrowan, the charred remains of Daniel Kelly, Steve Hart, and Joseph Byrne were handed over to friends, without any formal magisterial inquiry.
Not until after the handing over of the bodies did the authorities recognise the necessity for going through the usual formalities, and then it was a matter of extreme difficulty to regain possession of the bodies, which had been removed to the hut of Mrs Skillian at Seven Mile Creek, which had become the scene of wild orgies. One or two of the sympathisers with the gang openly defied the police to interfere with the funerals of Kelly and Hart. “If you want the bodies back,” said they, “you will have to fight for them.” No one could have gone to the Seven Mile Creek without a strong body of police, and even then the visit would not have been unattended with danger. Indeed one of the Kelly sympathisers told the police that the remains would be interred at a certain hour on Wednesday whether inquiries were held or not, and reports came from Greta that all the Kelly sympathisers there had made themselves intoxicated at the wake, and were bouncing about armed, and threatening to attack the police.
The greatest excitement prevailed in the district, and sensational rumours reached town with regard to disturbances that were said to have arisen through attempts to hold an inquest on the bodies. The police, however, were too cautious to afford any pretext for fresh outbreaks. Instead of going into the midst of the nest of sympathisers and friends, the magistrate deputed to conduct the necessary inquest gave an order for internment. Senior-constable Kelly, with four troopers, accordingly proceeded to Glenrowan by the forenoon train, and two or three policemen were directed to come down from Wangaratta. Their orders were to accompany the magistrate to Mrs Skillian’s hut if it was necessary to go there, and if that had really had to be done a disturbance, and probably more bloodshed, would have been the result. At the last moment, however, it was decided that as the game was not worth the candle, a magistrate’s order for interment would suffice, and the police were therefore recalled.
The hut of Mrs Skillian, to which the bodies of Hart and Kelly had been conveyed, became a centre of attraction in the district. Crowds of questionable characters flocked to view the remains of two men who had figured for a decade as centres of a system of crime almost beyond belief, and it was in these motley gatherings that the passing disturbances occurred. Many of the male sympathisers were armed, and whilst in a drunken state professed to be anxious for a brush with the police, and it is averred that one of the relatives of the Kellys held up his hand over the remains, and swore to Kate Kelly that he would avenge the slaughter of the gang. Nothing, however, came of the wild threats, and within a week after the assasins of Sergeant Kennedy, Constables Lonigan and Scanlan, and Cherry and Sherritt, met with so tragic a retribution, comparative quiet was restored in the district which they had so long plundered and terrorised.
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'EXCITEMENT IN MELBOURNE '
In Melbourne the news of the startling occurrences in the North-eastern district was waited for with the greatest avidity and read with the most intense interest.
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