NED KELLYS TRIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 60, 31 July 1914, Page 2

NED KELLYS TRIAL.

•KJiCALLJiD M J. K AHOUIUALJ). BORROWED LAWIKIi/S OYJiKCOAT. I'i'JJisoXAL, MvtTl. I, ,JF OUTLAW. When tins Australian, and the Victorian paper: »,.| 1: idled will!

au-omits ami dtiiimcuu.w]:, of t!«." dreadful deeds ol' the Kc.iy »';m» an editor conceived the idea of gmng'Ned Kelly's side-of lli e .dory. Air. J. K. Archibald, of Bulletin fame, was a young Pressman at Hie nun.', and he was marked out as the man -to cover tiie job. Tlie outlaw, however, apparently fearing that the Press ambassador might be made an instrument for his capture, did not complete the proposed .arrangements for an interview. That he had no doubt of young Archibald's personal good faith was shown when I the two eventually met. That was ! when Kelly was tried for his life. I _ Ail- Archibald recounts the dramatic incident m Jus own graphic fashion.— "Through the good offices of a friend I was given a seat in Court at this famous trial. On his entering the dock, the prisoner nodded to me and beckoned. 1 got up and approached the OQ?k on being told that Kelly desired to spcaii to mc. He held out his hand, which I foiled myself taking, to luiy own great 1 could not divine how he knew nib or - 1 , ' liu ' nevw seen him before; but' it turned oat that, when it was proposed £>* - 1 should interview the bushranger in tiii mountain fastness, there had been seat to Kelly an excellent portrait of me by my JParsee friend iiigginge Sorabje IV ehec, who, in his way, had been an Indian gaol photographer and who knew that the only honest and always reconisable likenesses are those taken in prison, where, as for obvious reasons portraits are never retouched, the character Hues of a man's face are left intact

"When the Judge, the courtly Sir Redmond Barry, pronounced sentence of deutli, the bloodstained highwayman listened impassively, and then exclaimed: 'Such is life; you and me will meet over yonder, and sooner than you think." "Kelly's prophesy, delivered with his impressive pointing of si forefinger, was fulfilled, for the Judge died ere the body of the outlaw was well cold. "Nod Kelly, I was told, feared to appear in his own shabby overcoat before s« tremendous an elegant as Sir Redmond. The Judge was Australia's Beau Brummel, im even greater and 1 more overwhelming swell than that stately xubincundity, dear old Justice G. B. Simpson, of my latter days, the last survivor of the Sydney Block Brigade, who, his head well' back, his ample adiposity protruding, and his dainty umbrella poised beneath his artistically sleeved arm, so as to do the leasL possible harm and produce the greatest possible effect, sails along George street,bowing- regularly to innumerable nice women of his acquaintance, and moving as. if some unseen spi-.t were towing hiuau Judge Barry wore the most wonderful hat ever seen, more wonderful even than those of the racecourse brim affected 'by the late Mr William Knox, of mining fame. He was decorated with a stock, and his garments were as devoid of wrinkles as the face of Jem Punch, who stored all hia inside in his massive skull.

"Kelly tried in vain toget a coat from several fashionable tailors, but at last his solicitor, Mr. Willie Ciaunsou, brother of the clever and once Radical I David, kindly offered him one for the | occasion. The offer was gratefully, accepted, and the outlaw accordingly appeared behind the spikes garbed iii the obliging William's cheaterlield. Verily he was a wolf in sheep's" clothing, for William, though the most liery of orators, was one of the most kindly creatures who ever liyed. There is'finger in the nanw of Bill, and Billy may be a downright fellow after his'fviskiness | has worn away; hut William is generally a serious-minded posturer of im. ■ mensurable self-importance, and Willie iilw Ofteii a joyous agg, "There was nothing essentially villainous about Ned Kelly's appearance. He was a not uirhandsqme and very manly-looking young ' Irish ma u—who might have taken to honest work instead ,of busliranging. Ills chief characteristics were his height, which was well above the average, and the largeness of his blue-grey or steel-grey eyes, guarded by remarkably long lashes. His eyebrows were heavy and almost straight, and his lips, as far as we could see them, so thin and determined-looking as to seem almost out of place in company with his high Keltic cheek-bones. Ere Kelly,was allowed to don the borrowed overcoat, the pockets of that garment were carefully searched, but as nothing was found except a moustache comb, an empty Pomade-Hongroise bottle, and a copy of Willie's next election speech—lie stood for Parliament twenty times, and never got in—Kelly was permitted to wear it in the dock. It was carefully retained, no doubt, and has long been laid away in lavender to be handed down aa a historic heirloom to unborn generations of the Gaunson family."