Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-06-20

wnom a patern9l governments does not
provide mosquito nets, were one and all
disfgured by the winged tormentors.
Half dozen young women who were re-
ported willing to face the unknown perils
/ of the bush were trotted out for our in
/ spection in most business like manner,
and tall, fair, handsome, shy English
girl Of two or three and twenty was bound
over by mysterious documents to meet
me at a certain time and place, and, under
my charge. to proceed to Wyalla, trans
port for her ''boxeso being duly arranged
for. And that was my first introduction
TO Mary Lawson.
Then, with many thanks TO my fair
friend, away sped l, on business under
stood much better than that of hiring
housemaids-to wit, the buying of what
We Austral ans call buggy, but what is
known IN the states as wagon, or buck
board-four light wheels, all about the
same height, a perch, a shallow tray and
splashboard, mounted on fore and aft
| springs, on which is a seat for two; the
whole as tight, tough and elastic as q
skillful combination of mild steel, hick-
DRY and leather can be rnade to be, and
she best vehicle yet devised for travelling
over the complication of ruts, rocks and
|
Australian bush. Mine was an ''Abbott,"
newly imported from Concord, N. H.
not cheap article by any means, but a
very good one. And q week afterward-
my visit to Sydney too soon over, for
had sold 1000 head of store cattle TO a
| Victoria man, TO be mustered and deliv-
cred 100 miles down the road, and had
not many weeks to do it in-I was on my
| 4
| by my side, in the buggy.
! I had driven one of my horses myself;
about the other there existed a tradition,
on the station, that someone had once
| seen him in harness. He certainly, at
| first starting seemed to have forgotten
| his early experiences. My companion,
! however, treated his eccentricities as
matter of course, merely remarkiDg that
she was used to horses. 1t was evident
that she had good nerves. The young
woman INDUCED in one good cry during
the journey, much to my alarm, but
| otherwise took the many strange sights
and sounds she saw and heard very
| quietly. She spoke good English and
| seemed nice in her ways, and was, she
| told me, the daughter of a Devonshire
! farmer and cattle dealer, and after her
parents death had been for a while in
service III London.
| jim Curtis, the Wyalla stockman, met
us, so miles down the road, with fresh
horses. and I handed over my charge 20
Mrs. Kay, after a prosperous journey.
j i'm was a fine, tall, handsome young fell
low, a type of an Australian "CornstaIk,"
| slim and broad shouldered, with curling
| fair beard and hair and good tempered
! eyes. A splendid rider and horse breaker,
| real good stockman, either in the bush
or in the yard, he was well liked every
| where, and model 80 be initiated by all
| the Jackaroos and new cbums in the dis
| trict. And, in clean white shirt and mole
| skin trousers, neat boots and a little
| cabbage tree hat, with his handsome
brown face and perfect seat on horseback,
| he looked like the beau ideal of daring
| stockman, and was celebrated for various
exploits among cattle and horses. Indeed
ii needed good man to follow him among
ranges or in scrub or TO "track up" TO him
after mob of wild cattle. Jim was the
son of a small farmer, Singleton way; his
father and mother had probably both
come to the colon "under government"
as the phrase used to be.
Well, to shorten my story, went / ON e,
mustered my cattle, and, in couple of
months time, again found myself guest
at Wyalla. I, of course, inquired for and
saw my housemaid; she had recovered
from her mosquito bites, aud was, uude-
niably, a worry handsome girl. Mrs. Kaye
| liked her, and praised me for the way in
| which | had executed her commission.
| The next news that L heard, some months
later, of Mary Lawson was that she was
| engaged to be married to Jim Curtis, but
| the event was not to come off until "after
shearing," an interval of some months.
Then came evil tidings. Jim had got
mixed up with some horse dealing trans
actions, had yielded to the temptations to
which all the stockmen are ex posed where
| horses abound, had been tried for horse
stealing, and had been con 7Icted of oil
legal possession" of a certain mare and
foal, Rhich is about the utmost of which
a bush jury will fnd a man guilty. So
Curtis, instead of marrying the pretty
new chum, had before him the prospect
of nine months imprisonment in the
county Jail.
My friends at Wyalla, where Jim was a
favorite, were very sorry for him. Here
was a young fellows whole life ruined
for what might only have been case of
| 'soldiering," Or mistake about brand !;
and here, too, was Mrs. Kaye's favorite
parlormaid crying her eyes out for her
lover ahd vOwiDg that she would marry
Jim as soon as he came out of prison.
About that time sort of epidemic of
bushranging or robbery under arms had
set in. Pe1sly, Gardener, Morgan, the
Clarks and many others had made the
country ring with their desperate deeds.
Many men had been shot and robbery
under arms had been made a capital of
fence. In the partially settled districts
of New South Wales there was growing
up a class of young men, many of them
of convict blood, lawless and very ignor-
| ant, preferring an idle life, diversified by
little horse planting or downright
horse and cattle stealing TO steady work.
From this to bushranging is but step
and to such young men these brigands
seemed heroes.
These men were good bushmen, splen-
did horsenlen and were sympathjzed with
| by the small settlers. many of whom have
a hereditary hatred of the policeman. To
| inform against these men was to court
death, and they flung about their stolen
sovereigns with lavish recklessness.
When a bushranger said to a man,
"Bail up, you, or I'll shoot you," he
De cant what he said, and often did it..
Thus the terror they inspired was great
and their example contagious. Banks,
gold escort, mails, stations and travellers
had been sGupg up without number, and
the robbers seemed to have the gift of
fern-seed, and there was certain amount
of uneasiness pervading our district,
though as yet we were free from molesta-
| ton.
About tueiva mont hs after Tim CUrtis's