Many of our print media publications these days publish something like “In Brief” columns – short items of interesting news of the day.
The Daylesford Advocate was no different in the late 1800s. Following is a sample of the snippets of news that caught the attention of the editor (and presumably the citizens of Daylesford) in the edition of Saturday 11 February 1882.
Professor Pepper’s experiment to draw rain from the clouds by means of a huge kite, has not proved a success.
The border treaty between us and South Australia is signed – we are going to be good friends with our slow and sure-going sister.
A shark has been caught at Fremantle Western Australia, with portions of a man in his stomach. Wreckage has been sighted off the coast. Putting this and that together the loss of some ship has been conjectured.
Nature needs a large quantity of quills to make a goose with, but a man can make a goose of himself in five minutes with only one quill.
A coach is to run between Ballarat and Camperdown as soon as the railway to the latter place is completed.
Savings Bank depositors must look to their pass-books. A thief stole one of those records in Sydney, and drew the money, and now the courts have ruled that the depositor, and not the bank, must bear the loss.
William Smart, a clerk of works, has been arrested on a charge of perjury. It is alleged that he married a Mrs Lane at a registry office, and made a declaration that her husband was dead, knowing that he was alive and living in Carlton.
The remains of a man named Lowe, lost five months ago near the Gardoyne River, Western Australia, have been found about thirty miles from the spot where he was left by his companion, named Brockman. His clothes were strewn about, and there are evidences of death having been caused by want of water.
A singular wedding took place in the farming district to the west of Ballarat recently. The bridegroom had seen the summers of seventy-eight years come and go, and had lost his first wife about three years since. The blushing bride, relict of one long deceased had stood the chequered action of life for four and seventy years. Cupid is despotic, and when the little cherub puts his foot down, somebody’s future is materially affected.
From the Daylesford and District Historical Society. https://daylesfordmuseum.net/
