Spotlight: An Incident of Morgan the Bushranger (10 March 1899)

Molong Argus (NSW : 1896 – 1921), Friday 10 March 1899, page 7


An Incident of Morgan the Bushranger.

Old Bobby R — was a squatter millionaire in the Riverina district, and as tight-fisted an old screw as ever cumbered the earth. On one of his splendid stations Bobby employed a married couple, the husband being a boundary-rider, the wife looking after the hut and attending to the cooking. One day the man, while riding round on his usual work, was thrown from his horse and killed. The ration cart had been sent out by Bobby, the boss, the day before with his usual week’s supplies, but the moment the miserly master heard of his servant’s death he sent a message off to stop the cart and bring the rations back. He agreed to ration man only, and the man being dead, Bobby didn’t see why be should waste a supply upon the woman.

For meanness that was simply devilish, but it is at this point that the bushranger Morgan comes into the story. Morgan was prowling round seeking whom he might bail up at the time, and hearing of the scurvy trick just related he at once went to Bobby’s station, and after threatening to pump the old skinflint full of lead, he let him off on condition that he (Bobby) carried out to the poor widow’s hut a bag of flour, a bag of sugar, half-chest of tea, and other articles. Then he made the miser further agree to keep the unfortunate woman and her family on the station and give them all necessary support, failing which he (Morgan) would return and shoot Bobby dead without a moment’s hesitation. So terribly in earnest did Morgan seem that Bobby not only gave him his word he would do as he requested, but he honestly kept that word — at least until Morgan was shot, and that very day Bobby, the soulless skunk, shut off the supplies and turned the poor widow and her children adrift. Bobby is also dead now, and of the two I would rather change places with the bushranger than the miser.

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