The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-10-21
A GANG OF BUSHRANGERS.

Capture Of Party Of Notorious AUS
tralian Band1 to- a Chapter OF FIX:
Of tie NorthfielG KoSber Raiders.
The Melbourne correspondent Of the
London Ne,vs writes as follows, under
date of the 2Sth of June:
AT last the colony of Victoria has
been freed from cloud-I had almost
written a disgrace-which has been
hanging over it for now nearly two
years. In October, 1879, the bush
rangers known throughout Australia as
the Kelly gang, began the career of
crime which has ended at last in a
most dramatic manner. So long had
the Kelly band defed the utmost eff
forts of the Victorian police, aided by
black crackers from Queensland, that
many people thought they had left
Australia, and had escaped either to
California or South America. Yester-
day evening, however, news was tele-
graphed down to Melbourne which
proved conclusively that the two
Kellys, Ned and Dan, with their as
sitant outlaws, Hart and Byrne, were
still in the colony. A man named
Sheriff, who is connected with the
Kellys by marriage, and who was for q
long time what is here called {; Kelly
ympathyzer-in other word, one Of
their accomplices-had latterly turned
traitor and had been giving informa-
ton to the police as to the outlaws
movements, doubtless with a view to
sharing in the $4,000 reward offered
by the government for their capture.
The Kellys suddenly appeared be-
fore a lonely hut in the bush near
Glenrowan, where Sheriff was hiding
in company with four policemen. They
caught a German, and compelled him,
with a revolver at his head, to ask
Sheriff to come out and tell
him the way, as he, the Ger
man, was 'bushed'-that is, had
lost his road. Recognizing the Ger
mans voice, Sheriff came out of the
hut, and the instant he did so was shot
down by Joe Ryan, one of the outlaws,
The bushrangers having killed their
betrayer retreated to the bush into the
dark and fired into the hut, calling on
the police to surrender, This the
troopers steadily refused to do, al
though unable to return the Kelly's fire
effectually in the dark, and themselves
being much exposed, as there was Il
bright fire burning in the hut. When
morning came the outlaws retreated,
and the police were able to telegraph
to Melbourne what had occurred. A
special train was at once sent with re-
Environments ofpolice up to Glenrowan.
Knowing the desperate character of
the gang, it occurred to the police to
send on pilot engine in front Of their
train, and it was lucky they did, as
they neared Glenrowan the driver dis
covered, in time to bring up, that the
rails had been torn up. During the
delay which occurred Il trooper came
galloplng up to say that the kellys had
:hailed up a hotel three miles off had
driven half the township into it, and
would be or if not pursued at once.
The police instantly started in pursuit,
and arrived in front of the hotel just as
Ned Kelly, the chief Of the gang was
making off into the bush.
"A hot fight ensued, in which the
police and man named Dowsett, a rail
way guard took part. Kelly wore his
extemporized armor, made of plough
shares, ON his breast; and is said also a
helmet and thin wire mask on his face.
At last he was brought down by two
shots, one striking him in the abdomen
and the other in the groin. The in
slant he fell the police rushed in and
secured him, and he is now on the road
toMelbourue jail under strong guard.
It is not thought he will survive. The
police then attacked the hotel. At
round 'G It. b weas ON" there we're at
some thirty innocent people in
the house. After a time these man
aged to escape, and then the police
opened a heavy fire. 1t is said-but
for the sake of humanity hope it can
not be true-that the three bushrangers
kept back two little children in the
hotel, holding them up at the windows
and firing from behind them. One
child is said to have been shot dead.
and the other badly wounded. But 1
can not believe this until I hear it from
an actual eyewitness. A constant
firing was maintained on both sides for
hours, and the police do not seem to
have been hit, though an unlucky
newspaper reporter, named Rawlins,
is stated to have been wounded.
'The first bushranger to fall was Joe
Bryne, the one who, as I have said,
murdered Sheriff the night before.
Steve Hart and Dan Kelly, the two
survivors, still fought on, answering all
calls to surrender with oaths and jeers.
A field piece was on its way from Mel
bourne in order, if necessary, to batter
the house down. But before it arrived
the police on the spot took other
measures. For half an hour no shot
had been fired from the house, and a
death-like silence prevailed. Unwilling