QUEER DOINGS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Evening Post, Volume XIV, Issue 49, 26 August 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

QUEER DOINGS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

THE HANGMAN AND THE PORK SAUSAGES. The Tumbarumba correspondent of the Border Post, New South Wales, writes to say that on a recent Saturday, Gundagai was thrown into a terrific state of commotion. By the down mail coach from Sydney the common hangman arrived in the township, on his way to Wagga Wagga to execute a criminal, and created an uproar because he was offered pork sausages at the hotel for lunch. He swore fearfully at the landlord, and the landlady went into hysterics. He told the servant to remove the " sanguinary cat's meat," that he would not have none of the blind staggered pigs of Gundagai. A police officer was called on the scene, but this only roused the dander of the hangman to a higher pitch, if it were possible. He characterised the constable as an old blathering son of a gun, and defied the whole force, cavalry and infantry, of Gundagai, to effect his capture. SeniorSergeant Carroll, the officer in charge of the police, who is real game, closed on the hangman and gallantly effected Bis arrest, amidst the cheers of the crowd who had by this time assembled. On the interposition of the tinder-sheriff, Mr. Joseph Giovanni Thurlow, who was also a passenger by the coach, en route for Wagga Wagga, for the execution of the condemned man, Daniel Boon, a sort of a drum-head police court was opened, and the hangman, after receiving a severe haranguing from the local justice, was fined 40s, or in default seven dayß' imprisonment in the gaol of Gundagai. The hangman had not the needful about him, wept bitterly, at the thoughts of having to be confined in the local prison, and insolently said that Gundagai was the last place the Almighty had created. The difficulty was surmounted by the suggestion of the Gundagaigeese magistrate. He said an H-2 Jform filled for 40s, signed by the hangman and accepted by the sheriff, might be received as a sort of first mortgage or collateral security on the execution fee about to be earned at Wagga Wagga, the document to be held by the clerk of petty sessions until the fine was paid, or the hangman could " take it out" on his return journey. So far, the hitch was satisfactorily arranged. Meanwhile the whole of the Gundagaigeese — young and old, male and female — assembled in front of the court-house with deadly weapons — guns, squibs, catherine-wheels, pistols, crackers, swords, pitchforks, and broom handles. A cry of " Lynch him ! Lynch him !" ran through the crowd, and a scene of the wildest disorder prevailed, the mob becoming furious and perfectly ungovernable. The local justice mounted a case near the court-house fence, where he read the JRiot Act three times, and called upon all, »s loyal and dutiful subjects, in the Queen's name to lay down their arms and disperse. The hangman was then observed turning by the court-house corner, with three troopers behind him. " There he goes I" shouted the j mob. The North Gundagai brass band struck up the " Rogue's March," and the over-grown larrikins from South Gundagai, armed and accoutred with kerosene tins and penny whistles, triangles, and cracked frying-pans, surrounded the bewildered hangman, and created such a horrible din as to positively drive him clean out of his senses. He ran frantically, and mounted a stump in the court-house yard, from which he essayed to address the crowd. He was met with a perfect hurricane of boo-hooing. He shouted at the top of his voice, made the most hideous grimaces and gesticulations, and when he said that he would never die happy until he had " scragged a Gundagaigoose," the yells of the mob became truly terrific The crowd surged to and fro like the billows of an angry sea, and the cries of " Lynch him ! lynch him !" again resounded through the air. A woodcutter from Reedy Flat, named Tim Howlahan, roared out, "Down wid him ! down wid him !" A savagelooking stranger picked up a large lump of road metal and flung it, but it,*misaed the hangman and struck a eli^tle-fSt pojiceinan named O'Rburke in tfie belly, and knocked him toes up on the green. At this stage the scene became indiscribable. Mrs. O'Rourke, with a baby in her arms, rushed towards her husband crying most piteously, "Daniel, Daniel, agra,are yez dead 1" but there was no

response. The doctor was on the spot, and found that the man's pulse was gone. He opened one of the veins in his wrist and a little blood oozed out, and then sent for a bottle of Jones' Irish Jerusalem whisky, forced a cropper of it down the dead policeman's throat, and in a twinkling he opened his eyes and showed signs of animation. By this time Mrs. O'Rourke had recovered from the swoon. It was pitiful to see herself, the bottle of whisky, Daniel, and the child conveyed on a No. 6 stretcher to their quarters. lam happy to say they are all right again. All this took place in about a quarter of an hour. The mob cried out, "Who struck O'Rourke ?" At this time the turn of affairs became highly critical. The local magistrate, with commendable presence of mind and undaunted demeanour, mounted the gin-case again, and with a drawn sabre in one hand and the Act of Parliament in the other, and gold spectacles on nose, read the Riot Act again, and reminded the people that acts of turbulence would not be allowed to go unpunished. Whilst thus engaged in upholding the majesty of the law his wig was blown off, and his bald head did not figure to advantage. Some of the irreverent passengers from Sydney, who regarded the affair as great fun, set up a loud guffaw, in which, it is to be regretted, many persons present joined. The under-sheriff, like a good general, took advantage of this turn of affairs, effected a strategic movement, covering the hangman in his retreat, and both proceeded on their journey to Wagga Wagga. The hangman's I O U is now lying in the Gundagai courthouse, and the people have all recovered from the fright. The Gundagai people should not place pork pies before strangers, for this was the i cause of the whole storm.