DAN KELLY, Outlaw.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 78, 1 April 1911, Page 17

DAN KELLY, Outlaw.

Eelng MEMOIRS OF DANIEL KEItfA" OF EDWARD KRIrLY. 18 inSH OF THE KELLY GANG OP SUPPOSED TO HAVK ' $ IX THE FAMOUS FIGIIT BE T AT GLENKOWA.V gjited by AMBROSE PRATT. PREFACE. Sβ atn now living ran either authenticate tboritativcly dispute the claim put for"rf'to ft« e memoirs. Did Daniel Kelly ***L e the Glenroivan tragedy, aud was 6aved, as is related by hls Hotter' It ls BOt my place t0 ventnre opinion. Curious readers must nnswpr « c nuetion for themselves, bearing adist&j •" niin(i four eetablished facts, T ilcl jay be here enumerated:— U'Ai't moment of the Glenrowan fight, .jrllcn ins never been determined, Ned .'. 'jdly disappeared from the hotel; made j; ££~ way, unseen and unsuspected, '.t&rbugJi the police cordon into the Wir forest, and was absent for an iniefloite period. It is unknown what he did in that interval, where he went, iwlioin he met. He returned, and was (jptured , as the narrative described. fi.} There' is not a shred of trustworthy In existence to show that ' Daniel Keliy remained in the hotel liter his brother's disappearance, or ijiat he was iv the building when the jrc broke out. H) There is not a shred of evidence In existence to show that the charred ionednst, found among the ashes of the cioteVafter the conflagration, had ever telongea to Daniel Kelly. Jt) Ked Kelly must be presumed to have liid some strong motive for deserting j bis past in fche thick of the combat. i i That lie was no coward is proved by Uβ subsequent return, calmly, aud in I ! cold blood, to share the fate of his '•'■: Bates; notwithstanding that, had he j J chosen, he could have escaped with I ; ease, there being none to stay him. -: flis motive, whatever it may have been, J remains to this hour a mystery.—The i< Editor. i • CH'ATTBR I. J OUFGEffiS. ■ j lie cruellest of the many wrongs that England inflicted on Ireland is embalmed pM> oblivion in the historical enactment I ijUch proscribed the blessings of educajlOß from ittoat Bad and stricken counitry. Kepis were abolished,- schoolmasters were iiifijai from the land, and no gentleman J pijlit bare hte children instructed in the I flit and jgnaeee of Jlfe, except under \tMTy' , penalties aud forfeitures. It was jStftaUVs purpose to .plunge, the people she iaS. conqnered into a profound abyss of feamance, in order (that she might more I roflily master their rebellious instincts, I nppreas their turbulent patriotism, and rarisa /them of their Think ot-JV. - Universal compulsory education has (Sways 'been the fixed ideal of enlightened ptoieemaoslilp. (England cynically (reversed ■ tfcift salutary "principle 'and covered Ireland *ii a decree enjoining universal compulißijr ignonipce and constituting the training a. felony. "While >tJhe chil-:-lNß'*of Britain iwere being whipped for , flijfas truant, the faitheis of Ireland were ;■ being menaced with gaol and the hangman I far , thinking of sending their children to }(*ool. The tree of this Infamous design : tijre an abundant harvest of bitter fruit. 'have passed. England .In the : nenwhlle feas done and attempted much h-S*e'-'Tray of reparation, yet she has ■t'succeeded, and never can gnceed, In ;.; Woe out that shameful .page from Ire- ■ ; fa's memory. lie edncatioinal prohibition, of which I : (Kfc,: produced as its immediate conse'■'p*M'*ne- effect of a great pall stretched ;IW the entire face of the land, shuttling ; : witte Meseed \tgkt of the sun. The poor l|<9P)e insensibly relapsed into semi-savag-ejfrtiane richer classes sent their children . Hmed to receive on the continent of WSpe the learning denied to them ait and .a process «f national emflgratlon ' IfjuriirMch by degrees acquired an irre- ;; ihßWe -momentum, amd ultimately draiad bdaad of her best blood to her own f ptit bum, and no less to *he detriment «f Ser ; oppressor. ■;;■.!«£. tenißjr from cwhicli I sprang wee eiwget thtee foamiest hit by England's l«nr?ed poifcy. The KeHys at were ; ,ttoitt ittme landed gentry of tome farport- . Ist*,'bnt of.no great money capital, and •{Wγ estates had (been heavily encumbered j!• .the result of risings and rebellions in »Wch-they tad played their part, nsbiting ; JWiye in ithe cause otf the Stuarts, whom ; tt«T held to be Ireland's rifiihtful kings. ?ften pejee fell at length, to be malntadned teeafter by the iron law of arms and lg- ;, *>^nce,"tl)e j jiead of. the house was a we- ■ yni-Aer husband had been slain at Lough-eo-and sbc was bankrupt of means to ; •Wie.Bifaßt eons ucross the water to a ; ftraca Academy. They grew up like the . iettsjof-ithe field, and. like beasts of the . Md.fliey H T ed and died. "Within two • Wnerations the last acre of the ances- ■ fell loiduiss had become the property W aa English money-lender, and the : Ktiljg' Jmfl j n^0 t he condition «ielots, working like peasants on the . hiJ i orer ; wiiich their ancestors had ruled j." torts. They were in like case with jtansif families in all parts of Ireland. ).'■?*?P e :?»ple nod their traditions. They I"tyh jwktoes and bnifiter milk, and acrid •Wnortee. .Their hearts were filled "with a W*f,.ecase of injury. They halted Engfrrrour, and they hated Hffiticular Englishmen iwho had supwited .ihem Jn .thedr homes and holdings, W,*'bitterness surpassing that of death. pjewrwrs went always in fear of their Every town held a garrison of Eng- *!» trtops to maintain order and "Justice," ■WTTftee tnePe woultl j, ave , lieen cononuai , of the peasanitry, who stubbornly : WBeteo in regarding itheir EngUsh landi«Ws as tyrannical imtruders, aud who ' Wiaw pay rent or fealty to any except ; •Vmwverislied peasant scions of the old **<= -Enyllsh soldiers prevented rebelHoms. but they could not supp* B the more secret forms and expressions I ' The downtrodden Irish gradually fe*"^^ 4 - * he WOrst vices and hablts of su °- ■ftperrteuted races. They develoiped into iypoerites, and the practice of at landlords from behind hedges *&!?*■ ' — ia e closely resembling a pastime. Tie custom was damng?*«Tery sense of the term. It has an . aigniacance in that it shows how : *6 L?* 0 * he a^>yss ** dishonour n nature ' JS ve > candid and honourable people OecHne tut the instance of oppression •Bw " - "lie ■ " ire " mnst not Mame its votaries each. The major fault bekmss to Engi*»eland iad deWberately endaarourmitigate ithe difficulties of gtovernreducing people of Ireland to ttie staitus of brutes, .the social stains tatTl"' She ihad succeeded so well in ■«i««'i£« taWe V®*-*" -ne process, she «nd s;tamped out of TecognitatiV* etan*irds aud trndations of : conduct. Hartng not Sins left CTiae save aark - n-nlefcter- ; «iii-f ent?o, tetred ana revenge, we wonder ithnt the decivilised and W* "peasaats swnck tact art 30 ™ - te manner Uiat civdi- ■ "aarflerere employ.

I iliave recounted these faoto not to excuse, nor even to palliate, out to explain my lather's crime. In the year 1840, a chance was offered Urn to destroy the descendants of the man who luid pauperised itlie Kellys, and wtho was ait that moment legal owner of the land which counties* generations of Kellys thud uudisputedly euJoyed. 'At the sight of Oils landlord—(to quote my fa tier's word—"All <tihe wrongs of my eonnitry, all the sufferings of my forbears burned and 'boggled lv my throat." It was Uβ evil fate theit he carried a gun in Wβ hand. Obeying a blind, over-master-ing Impulse be snatched it ito (his shoulder and his finger pressed the trigger. ' HJa Tlotiai dropped to earth, dangerously, but not fatally wounded. Ea.rly in .the £»lk<wink year, my father was transported to Van Dllenien's Land. Would to God that Wβ judges (had been more just, lees merciful, and hanged him on the epot! Thus he would have escaped the great Infamy that befel Silm in Australia; to 'beget suet a man-child as the writer of these notes. CHAPTER 11. THE CLAN. My father lias been frequently described ■by fanciful scribes, w.ho have dipped into the liistory of the Kellya with a view to the manufacture of sensational fiction, as a man of violent temper, much given to quarrels and brawls. The only ground for this fallacious assumxrtion is tfhat lie was dubbed with the sobriquet "Ked Kelly." The nickmuue, however, originated not -from the quality of his temper, but tram the colour of his hair. "Ked Kelly" was, in fact, a man of qnil&t habit who, in tie latter years at all events, rarely gave way to anger, even when bitterly provoked. In 'his youth ■he may have deserved the description coined for ihim after his death, but the iron discipline of a convict prison -had taught him the foily of turbulent manners, and lie took the lesson to heart. His gaol record Is almost destitute of black marks. Hoping to regain his liberty—not to return to Ireland (that was impossible), bat to roaat the convict colony free from the gall of chains —he submitted unmurniurlngly to the exactions of his task-masjers, and became an \exemiplar of subservient 'humility. His naturally passionate disposition was, lv this fashion, brought into complete control. He hated his gaolers one aud all, but he concealed Ms feelings with so much craft that before uiitiiy years had passed lie was considered a reformed character, and he was ; finally permitted to quit Van Dioouen's Laud and essay his fortune in tie new settlement of Port Phillip—afterwards the colony of Victoria. For a while ac remained in the city of MeFuourne, earning his living at various laborious employments; but town life was not suitable to one who had been born and bred on a farm, and at 'the first favourable opportunity he wandered into the country. There his knowledge of cattle and horses served him well. He became a stockman, and secured good wages. Early in the "fifties" destiny gtrided his steps to the ■township of Wallan, then Hooked upon ac an outback settlement, where be lodged with tie family of a well-to-do selector named James Quinn. "Ked Kelly" promptly fell in love with his host's third daughter, Ellen, who as promptly returned liis affection. He proposed marriage and was accepted. James Quinn had no idea of entering Into any sort of alliance ivlth a convict, and he sternly forbade the match. The lovers, however, scorned tiis prohibition, eluded his vigilance, and eloped. After the marrl-ige, my grandfather,, who was much attached to his daughter, put aside his anger and accepted the inevitable. Thenceforth the Quinns and the Kellys Hved on terms of increasing amity. Within a year or two they moved north in a body to Glenmore, where .they took up considerable selections and settled down to the life of farmers and graziers. At this juncture the future held none bur ■the fairest prospects for the allied families. Each member was comfortably situated. Each iheld a competency of land and stock, and it only needed a reasonable course of patient effort to found substantial fortunes for one and all and their descendants. Nevertheless, a leaven was at work, from the earliest moment of the settlement, bound at last to produce contrary effects. The Quinns and Kellys, if left to themselves, might possibly have led humdrum respectable lives to the end tof the chapter; yet I think not, for, although "Red Kelly" had conformed to the tows and habits of decent society, 'he was not a proper person to entrust exclusively with the education of young children. The truth Is, that his ideas of right and wrong were essentially primitive, and his code of morality might be defined In a sentence". "Crime consists not in breaking the law, but in being discovered breaking the law." In any circumstances, therefore, "Bed Kelly's" children must have run a great risk of being brought up with dangerously loose notions; for schools in that district were few and far between, and the echoo , teachers of the period -considered their duty discharged ■when they had initiated their pupils into the mysteries of the three It's. But apart from these considerations events transpired ■which shaped 'the fortunes of the rising generation incurably for ill. Tht- two families had hardly settled down in their new homes when emigrant friends and relations arrived frwni the- Old Country, who flocked to the neighbourhood and surrounded the first comers with a swarm of selections and farms. These people were mostly Irish peasants of reckless and impatient mood, who had grown disgusted with the restrictive Iwmc conditions, and were intent upon bettering their fortunes hi their own way. They had been so long accustomed to resisting constituted authority in Ireland, that they were not inclined to bow their necks in Victoria. They brought with them some of the worst traditions of their class—the traditions which had grown up during the dark period of compulsory national ignorance, enjoined by English persecution. Several were accomplished in the art of cattle "driving." Most of them considered 1 it a mere venial sin to "pot at" a landlord from behind a hedge; and few indeed that had not been concerned ac actors or sympathisers in the agrarian outrages at the period. It was natural that my father, John Keliy, should appear something of a hero to those wild spirits. He had done a thins and suffered for It, which many of thorn ■had wished, perhaps, or even tried to do. He had passed through strange experiences which they were anxious to hear from his lips, and above all he had that romantic cachet of distinction, ancient lineage, which always makes a powerful appeal to the Irish blood. Before long my father was tacitly Installed as a sort of leader to the formidable clan which baa taken possession of the countryside. For a time the Qntnns, .whoee notions w«ra staid and law-abiding, held themselves aloof from the clan and its proceedings, but eventually they vrere unable to resist the pressure of general opinion, and soon became infected with the prevailing disease. It is not altogether easy to give the evil a name. Its first stages were not alarming, but it was always dangerous. Catt'.e and horses that had strayed from the neighbouring districts into the Kelly country acquired the trick of staying there. The Kellys, Uoyds, Clancys. Sherrits, SkilUane and others of the clan had a plausible excase to offer. Their country, they said, con-, teined better feed 8 a&a it was a> essentially

wild, rugged, and mountainous that thejr were always under * great difficulty to ktep their cwn stock In bounds. TSiey ostentatiously offered their assistance to the owners of the etraye to unearth the lost Btock, and sometimes the strays were discovered and returned. Bnt all such good deeds went unregarded, whereas much talk was raised whenever lost steers could not be found. Gradually the Kelly country began to have a bad name. The neighbourIng squatters shook their heads when -it was mentioned, and at length a story was ibmited abroad to the effect that a settler named Bryce, when attempting to recover some young stock from one *>f Lloyd's selections, had been violently abused and warned off. Thenceforth sqnattere who sought for lost stock in the 111-famed country made the excursion by twos and threes, , and occasionally in company with the police. i That was quite enough to Inflame the' more ardent spirits to reseutment. They declared It was hard to be ill-named without deserving it, and "Red Kelly" was th<* more inclined to Jisroe with them because the term "cx-convlct" had been flung in tois teeth more than once by visiting eon-' etablcs. It ls often the Brst step that costs. "Red Kelly" led thp way. He mustered a number of cattle that did not belong to any of the clan, and caused them to be driven across the border into New South WaIPS, where a purchaser was soon found for them. Within six months of this feat cattle stealing was in general tosuc, [and an extensive Illicit traffic was estnbliehert between the two colonies. James Qulnn's homo-stead, strange to say, became the headquarters and stronghold of the thieves. My grandfather had been I slow to join his relations in their lawless pursuits, bnt once having crossed the Rublcon he never looked back. His lionieetead ■was located near the junction ot the right and left branches of the King River, anil directly in the track which was principally ' [ used by the cattle "duffers" between Mansfield and the Murray. The district waa extremely wild aud Inhospitable, aud offered ideal conditions for the operations of the thieves. The risk of detection In carrying off and disposing of their plunder was almost nil, and they could "collect" stock from all sides with the greatest ense. Several years elapsed before the police rund-e any serious efforts to cope with the clan; and, by that time, horse-stealing and "cattle duffing" had come to be regarded by every member as quite an orderly custom—a business Indeed. Confidencn and long immunity from punishment engendered general carelessness. My grandfather alone was not careless. Tie had probably profited more from the 'dufllng" traffic than any two families' of the clan combined, but he was a very canny old mau, and, looking far ahead, be always kept on good terms with the police. Nut so mj- father. He knew that he was marked , down for a victim, bnt he refused to be warned; and at length. In the year 18G3, he was caught red-handed, tried, convicted, and sentenced to a long period of imprisonment in Kllmore saol. j The police supplemented their triumph by establishing a depot near my grandfather's homestead, co as to command the track ■by which, the stolen cattle were habitually transported Info New South Walee. The Quinns and their associates made strenuous efforts to dislodge the Intruders. They burnt the doppt more than once, and they harried the constables in every conceivable way; but their trouble was ;ln Tain. The police had come to stay, and the more they were ha rawed the more determined became the authorities to maintain the establishment. Perceiving that the came was np, my i grandfather cold his station,, and very wisely retired from the neighbourhood' to' spend his last days in peace and quiet elsewhere. The more reckless and enterprising members of the clan, however, treated the elder Quinn's sober example with contempt. ' .Prevented by the close supervision of llie police from carrying on the "dufflng" trade in Glenmore, they "pulled out" of their selections and moved north to the still more wild and mountainous district of Greta, where police were still unknown, and where every man might be a law unto himself. There arrived, they took up new selections, built new homesteads, and resumed their unlawful occupations. (Continued weekly.}