Glenrowan
“Some time back, when quietly riding out in the vicinity of Moyhu Common, he chanced to espy Young Kelly rounding up some cattle and ordered him to desist from doing so, but not relishing the interference he became very insolent. Irritated at this abuse Mr. Poundkeeper showed a touch of his former spirit, and pulling the youth off his horse administered to him a sound thrashing.”
“Kelly looks much emaciated and is covered with bruises from gunshots which failed to penetrate his armour, but struck him hard in spite of it. From what Kelly has stated to the police the movements of the gang for the past six months will shortly be made known.”
“The excitement caused here by the conflict between the police and the Kellys, and the destruction of the desperate gang of outlaws, is subsiding. A general feeling of relief is experienced by the respectable inhabitants of the district, and it is pretty certain that now the gang are no longer to be feared that some of their movements during the past twelve months will be made known. Already stories concerning their movements are freely circulated, and from these it is apparent that the police have during the past month or six weeks made it very unpleasant for the outlaws.”
“On Saturday evening, by the last train to Melbourne, Mr Leving, of the Bank of New South Wales, paused through Sandhurst on a visit to his relatives at Castlemaine (writes the Bendigo Independent). A member of our staff interviewed the gentleman, and in the course of conversation, was shown about 30 telegrams from different papers asking for Mr Leving to forward for publication the Kelly autobiography in his possession, all of which requests had, of course, to be refused.”
“Edward Kelly, a young man about twenty years of age, who has been suspected of being a confederate of the notorious bushranger Power, was charged with assaulting a hawker named Jeremiah McCormick. Mr Lamont, instructed by Mr Norton, appeared for the prosecution.”
“At last, however, a spirit arrived breathless haste at a sitting, and on being asked why the spirits had not come to the watchers before, said that all the good spirits had been busy for days making a net to spread over the precincts of the Melbourne gaol, in which to enmesh the spirit of Ned the atrocious when it should leave his body.”
“No mention having been made in any of the official reports of the horses that took such an active part in fulfilling the frightful tragedy at Sherritt’s, where the murder took place, and Glenrowan, at the destruction of the Kelly gang, it is a matter of public interest to know what became of them, and to see the animals that could carry a heavy man incased in armor, weighing 97lbs.”
In my poking around through various documents related to the story of the gang I found a bundle through the Public Records Office of Victoria that included a list of items that had been recovered from the gang, mostly at Glenrowan.
“Speaking about the black trackers reminds me of a humorous incident which occurred during the attack on Jones’s hotel to one of these gentlemen. Constable Milne and Constable Gascoigne were standing behind a tree in front of the house keeping a steady fire directed towards it, when a black boy of O’Connor’s, standing under cover a few yards off, called out at he wanted to light his pipe, and asked the constables for a match, Milne thereupon placed a few matches in a blank cartridge, and plugging the end with a piece of paper, threw it towards the tracker. The cartridge, however, did not fall within three or four yards of the tracker, and for a moment the latter was puzzled how to reach it without exposing himself to the fire of the outlaws. At last, after glancing earnestly towards Jones’s hotel, he called out, ‘Ned you —— ; don’t shoot me till I get the matches,’ and sprang forward at the same instant as one of the outlaws sent a bullet within an inch of his head as he stooped, and which would have gone through his body if he had been standing straight. In return for this salute — as soon as the tracker got back to his shelter — he delivered the contents of his rifle into the house, with the remark, ‘Take that Mr, Kelly, and put it in your pipe.'”
“To-morrow will be the fortieth anniversary of the capture of Ned Kelly, the notorious bushranger, at Glenrowan. The accompanying pictures and narrative have been supplied to us by Mr. W. R. Wilson, of Sydney, who has a wonderful store of knowledge of the doings of the gang. At Wangaratta Mr. Wilson was a school-fellow of Ned Kelly and two of the other outlaws, and he was present at the capture of the chief ‘ranger. So much romance has been woven round the career of the Kelly gang that Mr. Wilson feels impelled to tell the true story as he knows it.”
Glenrowan 