HORRORS OF THE BUSH.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1294, 10 April 1872, Page 2

HORRORS OF THE BUSH.

Under the above heading an Australian paper writes : —At the Sandhurst City Police Court on Monday, a scene occurred which will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it; it was one which could not fail to excite sorrow and sympathy in the hearts of those who are most accustomed to see strange things in this country. Two men named George Peters and Edward Glyde, were brought before the court by the mounted constable stationed at Kerang, near Swan Hill. They werelunatics; they were clothed in rags of. the filthiest 1 description, and one of them half-naked, having neither boot to his foot nor hat to his head. Thorax which they had on were old and rot-ten and they seemed as if they had been mended a hundred times, each attempted improvement making them worse than before. Their hair was hanging down to their shoulders as if it had not been cut for' many years, and this combined with the length of their whiskers, the filth of their bodies,, and their general appearance, formed a spectacle alike shocking and hideous to behold. It appeared as if they had just come from some mountain-cave, and never before knew what was ci\ ilization; or like Rip Van Winkle, had woke from a sleep of twenty years tofind themselves; miserable, destitute,, and mad. The men were found wandering about the bush near Kerang. When first discovered by the police they looked like wild men; or rather,, as the trooper put it, more like gorillas, than human beings. One was first set'n walking round a tree. He had been observed by a shepherd on the rim who took no notice of him for a few days ; b'iV seeing the poor creatureperforming the same endless task for two days, he went and asked him what he was doing, to which he replied that lie might as well be walking as sitting down. Of course the shepherd saw he was talking to a lunatic ; and noticing his desperate condition, he went to the police station and gave information. The trooper in charge rode out to the run and took the lunatic into custody, lodged him in the watchhouse and went in search of the other. The same evening as he was riding through the scrub he saw a small fire at a distance; he proceeded in that direction, and on coming up to it he saw a man bending over the fire on his hands and knees, doing his best to warm his unprotected body. On the constable speaking, the lunatic jumped up startled as if he saw an apparition, and was about to fiee, when he was safely secured and hurried away to the watchhouse. On Saturday, both men were conveyed into Sandhurst from Kerang, after having travelled a distance of nearly eight miles; and yesterday they were brought up before the court and were ordered to be sent to the Yarra Bend. Nothing is known ot their past careers, nor can anything be learnt respecting the manner in which they li\ed in the bush, or how long they have been there; but their exterior alone tells a tale of borrow and privation which words cannot describe.