HANGING EXTRAORDINARY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1112, 5 September 1871, Page 2

HANGING EXTRAORDINARY.

Under the heading of f* The man who hung his wife/' the Hobart Town Mercury t tells the following story;-—Last week, as,a whole barge-full of mourners at the late Dr Dawson's funeral were returning from Franklin to Iron Scone Greek, on their way homewards, the attention of one of the many Hobarc Town visitors was called fay a Huon passenger to a figure sitting with head bent, and thoughtfully, as it smoked a black pipe in the bows of the boat. ;" That's the man who banged his wife; I wonder if he's thinking -about her now,' remarked the speaker. " Hanged his wife, and not hanged himself ?" jerked out the visitor. " Yes, hanged his wife," repeated the other, " and the most curious part of it is that they live together still, and are the happiest pair in the whole district. Tt was in this way: One night when Bullswood and his wife were returning homewards in their punt, the wife's bonnet, which carried a veil, ribbons, and feather, in the brghest style of fashion, caught against one of the dead trees yonder, ihat overhangs the river. It was pitch dark, and the poor girl, thinking that the ringers or fangs of a demon had fastened upon her, clasped both hands firmly over her head and around the dead limb. Bullswood puffed awaj at his pipe, and pulled on manfully, leaving his wife hanging by the arms in the moonlight in the scrub. He had passed many a glistening shade of the tea-tree on the bank side before he heard a ' Where are you, Jim 1 * in accents sweet and clear. Out went the pipe, back water with the paddles, a splash like fury, or a whale dying in the water, and in rather less than no time, Jim Bulls wood's wife was tenderly dropped down into the punt again."