weird midnight messenger (1911)

7/27/2019 Weird Midnight Messenger (1911)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/weird-midnight-messenger-1911 1/3

The World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955), Saturday 11 November 1911, page 19

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128269598

Mysteries of the Australian Bush.

THE WEIRD MIDNIGHT MESSENGER.

(By FBAJTE XEEX.)

HAVE penned in these pages at

different times some of the wond

rous stories of life in the great

bushland of. Australia. I have

sought to picture the side of the

mysterious, the awesome, Ihe

wonderful, the fascinating; and as'I review in

my mind the unfolding panorama I am con

fronted with many strange problems. To my

personal knowledge, the lands beyond our seas

furnish no incidents of a like character. There

are the veldts of Africa, the steppes of Siberia, the prairies and forests of America

North, the jungles and the mighty rivers of

the South They furnish little to amaze and

astound beyond the ordinary; and it is onlytne of the far

East India, Thibet, and

China which approach in

their mystical occultism

the scenes whereof I write.

But the latter are of the Old

World, Australia is of the

new. None of my Austra

lian stories, perhaps, rank

with that I here propose to

chronicle. It stands alone

In its mysticism and com

pelling power of interest.

Not so many years ago,

in a certain part of one of

the federated States of Aus

tralia, the exact location of

which need not be recorded,a young man, nearing his

.9th year, was, one evening,

engaged in trying to yard a

number of cattle, duringa terrific thunderstorm, in

the immediate vicinity of a

station homestead. He was

a young man of a most vio

lent disposition, and on this

occasion was riding a par

tially-broken horse. Againand again the few cattle

broke away from the yard,

and again and again, as he

raced after them on his

mount, he uttered the vilest

Imprecations, showing his

discomfiture at being unable

to yard the beasts. Had he

waited awhile, assistance

would have come to hand,

but his impatience stirred

him to continued action.

All this time the rain poured down. The

thunder pealed and the lightning flashed. Then,

all at mice, came a terrific thunderclap. The

lightning darted athwart the sky in unusual

brilliancy, and the few people near the home

stead beheld rider and horse hurled to the

ground and remain still They ran over and

found the young man's body blackened almoat

from head to foot, a portion of the riding

?addle burnt to a cinder, and the horse cut to

pieces The thoughtful residents of the locality

read the punishing, avenging hand of Provi

in this terrible The dead man



dence in this terrible fatality. The dead man

lad for years led a wild, dissolute life, caringlittle for himself, and less for anyone else*

Now, listen to the sequel to the fatality. Zt

reads like a story from the Early World.

In that part of the country the settlements

on either side of the road extended for up

wards of one hundred miles. After that, the

country was not held by the settler. It was

undeveloped, and occupied by the native blacks

and certain herds of wild stock. Within a

radius of one hundred miles there were prob

ably 40 families. As the rainy and stormy sea

sons came round, a few years after the terrible

incident I have recorded, residents of those

parts began to tell stories of some strange

horseman on the road- He was seen by differ

ent people. They either passed him by night,

riding along the route, or he passed by them.

Be never moke, and people could not make

Wt wfco the straac* rider .was. It could be

noted, however, that he

rode a dark, swift-step

ping horse, and he was a

man* of youthful appear

ance-might be 30 to 40

years of age.

Who was he? The

question was asked on

all sides. Everyone in

the district was known.

and be could not be (

placed. And If Ike vu a visitor to the)

district, where.

was Ms abode? There

were men there who knew every inch

of the country, so to speak. Gangs of youngmen and their seniors gathered in the night >

and patrolled the roads, sometimes catching aJ

glimpse of the stranger as he disappeared in]

a timber clump. Horses were immediatelyJ

put to the gallop, but the pursued alwaysj

managed to keep well clear of the chase. Andj

this went on for some time.'

. But on stormy nights, when the rain pelted<

down, the thunder boomed over the plains,

i

the lightning lit up the sky, and the movements<

of. stock and bush life foretold the approach-(

ing war of the elements, it was revealed to(

the settlers what the appearance of the strange(

horseman meant. Always at midnight on these (

wild nights, the thud of galloping hoofs would <

i be heard on the road, and the settlers would .

\ hurry out to see who rode abroad and with (

\ despatch on such a night. And, as the light- (

(ning gleamed, they beheld the black horse /



( extended in full gallop oyer the sward, his rider;

C crouching low over his withers, and through)

( the .settlements swept the magnificent racer

f of the night, but he was the Courier of Death)

f -always.j

/ In the morning, alter all traces of the]

/ storm had died away, it was found the grim:

) Destroyer had called at some home and taken

)someone from the fireside, sometimes a male,

j

) sometimes a mother or a sister, sometimes aj

) child. Always the gallop of the horseman ia

J the storm meant death to some family-meant<

Sone less to mourn among a scattered com-

<

) munity.(

\ For more than two years did the Messenger(

\ of Death ride through the land, and for more{

( than two years did the settlers live in dread t

(and await his approach; What did it <11

( mean? Who was.the rider? Was he mortal, j

( or was he only a wraith-rider of the storm?

( And why must the community pass through)

( such a terrible ordeal? Then people remem-)

( hered the awful end of the young nun of the

( stockyard. There must be some connectionJ

)of the incidents, and beyond that stage their

j

)speculation could not go. Bit, as the De-

j

) stroying Rider continued his terrible rounds

> in the tumult of the stora and families sawj

\ their numbers lessen, a terrible fear grew upon\

I

them, and they vacated their lands, takingI

their stock and belongingswith them. Thttffc

I

in coarse of time, the broad acres, which had

I

grown the golden wheat in December, werw

I no longer tilled, and the sounds of lite wer«

I no longer heard near the old road. The growth

. of scrub and creeper choked up the fences, and

I the abandoned selections fell to decay. And

, not till a new people cune to the bund, tilled

it, reared their stock on it, and peopled It with

their progeny, did the swift rides of the mid

night messenger cease. Then he disappeared

as suddenly and as' silently as he came, and

once more the landscape betokened industry..

prosperity,and peeee; and, as the years rolled

>

by, the story of the dark horse and rider beI

came but a memory.|

And what may the reader deduct from these

)

strange incidents? There can be only one de

|

duct ion, and that is: We are reminded of the|

majestic sentence- How wonderful and ter

I rible are the ways of the Creator of beatd[

and earth.

weird midnight messenger (1911)

Documents