weird midnight messenger (1911)
TRANSCRIPT
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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
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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 /
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( 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.