Street Fights in Edinburgh

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 148, 7 June 1890, Page 3

Street Fights in Edinburgh

The Scottish correspondent of the Otago Daily Times writes : — Readers } of Sir Walter -cott's biography will I remember his participation, in the days of his boyhood,* in the street 1 battles in which the youth of Edinburgh were accustomed to display their sympathies and expend their energies. The old feeling seems not to have died out yet, though it is called forth by different questions, i On St. Patrick's Day and some successive days, some hundreds of boys formed themselves into two factions, Scotch and Irish respectively, and turned some of the streets, including the South Bridge, into battle fields. At times the thoroughfares were blocked by them. Three were arrested and brought up at the City Police Court before Sheriff Ophoot. A selection of the weapons used, consisting of old boots, palings, and thick branches of trees, was also produced in evidence. " One of the culprits pleaded guilty. The Sheriff after hearing the evidence against the others, dismissed them with a severe admonition, and warned them and their colleagues and antagonists that any repetition of the offence would be punished with imprisonment. Since then peace has been restored, and political larrikinsm is once more compelled to seek its outlet . on the platform or in the Press. (For continuation of Reading Matter see fourth page.)