Tin-kettling, a dangerous wedding tradition!

I was going through some books the other day when I came across one I bought many years ago and, apart from having a quick flick through occasionally, I am ashamed to say I have never read properly.

Before you tut tut me it is A4 sized and over four hundred pages long. Not the kind of book you can cart around with you for a bit of light entertainment!

It is called the Complete Book of Australian Folklore (by Bill Scott) and is a combination of folk tales, songs (with music), illustrations and snippets from old newspapers or reports. This book was first published in 1976 and the edition I am reading is from 1997.

Once I started reading it I realized that some of the things referred to in there are things I could look up in the digitized newspapers.

One section of the book I found interesting was about tin-kettling. Tin-kettling is when the peace and privacy of a wedding night is rudely interrupted by a group of noisy hooligans outside banging kerosene tins, pots and cans; hurling rocks onto the roof, and generally ruining the mood.

I’m sure that other countries have different names for similar traditions, and we have all seen that modern version of tin-kettling, when cans are tied to the back of the newlyweds car to rattle down the road attracting attention as they drive away from the ceremony.

For a time in the late 1800’s tin-kettling (also known as ‘rough music’) became a real problem in some parts of Australia. Newlyweds would be seriously harassed until the noisy ones had been bought off with sufficient alcohol.

Ignoring these ‘kerosene heroes’ would only cause the ruckus to become more destructive, with stones being thrown through windows. Even running off for a lengthy honeymoon wouldn’t help matters, the offenders would be aware of their return and the noisy torture would still be inflicted as though the wedding had just occurred.

Goulburn Evening Penny Post 10 Jun 1893 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98526041

A look through the archives shows that there were quite a few incidents, like this report from 1893,  where the tin-kettling got out of hand and people were injured.

An example was mentioned in the book of a man whose daughter’s wedding day was interrupted by a group of determined tin-kettlers.

Instead of buying them off as many did he shot at them, injuring one or two. The article suggested that if all victims of such a noisy attack reacted in such a way this annoying practice would soon end.

I wondered if that tale was true and, naturally, had to have a look. I found this article from The Sydney Morning Herald in 1873 regarding the charges and evidence against a father who had done that very thing.

Interestingly the article ends with the Police Magistrate reprimanding the youth involved; saying that it was their bad behaviour which had nearly cost their friend his life, and the prisoner his liberty, and that they were as much and more to blame than the prisoner was.

Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Chronicle 18 May 1861 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59789290

I have also found articles that show tin-kettling was used at times as a form of protest against the union of the couple. In 1861 this much married widow was tin-kettled upon her marriage to a youth who was younger than one of her sons.

The article notes that some of the most demonstrative members of the noisy crowd were the widow’s many children!

Another report noted that the Rev. Grindle of Manuden, who married his late wife’s nurse a mere month after her death, was vigorously tin-kettled by the villagers in protest. They vowed to continue until he left the town, to which her protested that his late wife would have been happy with his new union.

Too bad if you lived in a town filled with people who didn’t like you or your new partner, the wedding is not likely to be remembered as the happiest day of your life!

If any of you were tin-kettled or tortured in any other way when you were married please share 😀

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If you are interesting in more wedding traditions I did a long ago post about the origin of using a bouquet in weddings. Tussie Mussie.

Flying Books and a magic library.

I saw this short film on tv last night and had to share it with you.

If you are a regular reader by now you have probably guessed I am a sucker for animation and that I love a good book and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore has both, no wonder I was glued to it!

It also has a magic library, a Wizard of Oz style whirlwind scene and dared to ask the big questions like “Why does the weasel go ‘pop’? Does it matter? If life is enjoyable does it have to make sense?”
I dare you to resist.

The entire film runs for about 15 minutes and is wonderful. Below is the (short) official trailer but to see the whole thing click here.

My favourite xmas present.

I don’t review books here on Buried Words and Bushwa. Although I love to read, I prefer to leave it to people who are better at it than I could be.

I am going to talk about a book today though although it is not so much a review as a rant about how much I love it.

My family was doing a Kris Kringle this year so a friend was given all of our names to match up, and we were each given a person to buy for.

I was very hopeful that Youngest Sister would be the one to get my name. Along with my dad the two of us are the big book lovers of the family and she always gets me something wonderful.

Luckily she did, and this time she remembered my love of Shaun Tan, so one of the books in my present was the utterly wonderful Tales from Outer Suburbia.*

I am a confirmed Shaun Tan fan and one of my favourite books ever is The Arrival. No words, just pictures, and the reunion near the end brings a tear to my eye every time. You can imagine how eager I was to see what treasures Tales from Outer Suburbia might contain, and I wasn’t disappointed.

In Tales from Outer Suburbia Shaun Tan tells small tales of strange things happening in everyday places, Eric the exchange student and his departing gift, what really happens to discarded poetry, Grandpa’s wedding. The gentle stories have a feeling of both melancholy and wonder.

All of the stories are accompanied by beautiful drawings of both the instantly recognizable and the totally unexpected. Televisions with teeth and speedy legs, a vista of suburban houses all with backyard missiles, a crowd of giant clockwork birds towering over a creeping car.

As always, I have to go back to linger over his drawings. They are so simple and beautiful that whenever I pick up a Shaun Tan book it makes me want to rush out and buy a new set of drawing pencils and a fresh art book. I can’t draw of course, he just makes me want to!

*The other was Terry Pratchett’s The Compleat Ankh-Morpork, just to ensure no housework gets done at all today 😉

Robert Hughes dies in New York. August 2012.

I was sad to hear the news today that Robert Hughes, Australian critic, historian and author (among other things) died in New York today, aged 74. (ABC news)

Robert Hughes was the author of my favourite book on Australian history, The Fatal Shore.

This book is fascinatingly written, and explores the reasons why Australia was used as a penal colony, the hardships suffered by the convicts transported to Australia and the society created by such events.

Robert Hughes had a great knack of writing truly interesting stories from different points of view, and the ability to really give you the feel of the hard lives lived by our ancestors.

I have The Fatal Shore in my kindle, but I love this book so much that the caravan has its own copy just in case the kindle lets me down when we are away in the bush. I can’t tell you how many times I have read it. Hearing the news of his passing has inspired me to pull it out again. Thank you Mr. Hughes, RIP.

Tom Cole. Buffalo hunter or superhero? 1938.

On Tuesday I did a post about a buffalo hunter named Tom Cole. The last we saw of Mr Cole was as our little boat steamed away, leaving him on a platform surrounded by 50 miles of floodwaters. He had his saddles, six months of supplies, some tobacco and whiskey, and a portable gramophone. He was also surrounded by my imaginary hordes of hungry crocodiles.

The Sydney Morning Herald 22 Jan 1938 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17434237

I held out little hope of finding any more articles on Tom Cole, partly because of my imaginary crocs, and partly because the best stories don’t always have a second chapter in the papers.

Apparently there is no keeping a good man down and it wasn’t hard to find other articles about the amazing Tom.

This time we catch up with Tom as he is wandering into Darwin with a limp and a few tales of near misses. I think Tom Cole is one of those blokes referred to when people say ‘they breed ’em tough in the bush’.

Dragged a few hundred yards by a horse? He’s fine. Neck stepped on by a horse, knocking him unconscious for hours? No problem. Horse stomped on his leg? No need for a doctor!

The story of Tom Cole is a real rags-to-riches one. Turning up in the territory with no money and having to borrow 25 pounds to go buffalo hunting, ending up 12 years later with two cattle stations and thousands of pounds.

He was right though, in his belief that cattle had a future in the Territory. These days cattle is a major industry there.

Superhero and a good businessman!

When I was looking for information on Tom Cole I found this book, ‘Hell West and Crooked’ that seems to be the autobiography of this amazing man.

I was disappointed to find it was not available for my kindle, we are going camping for the weekend and it would have been the perfect thing to read sitting around the campfire.

I will look out for it in print though, I would love to read more of Tom’s adventures. If you read it please let me know what you think of it (and if it really is the same Tom Cole!).

Eric Partridge, word lover and dictionary master.

The West Australian-15 July 1936 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article40733834

My current favourite book is the gigantic (1400 page) dictionary of slang written by Eric Partridge (1894-1979).

Without the help of Mr Partridge I wouldn’t have been able to understand many of the obscure words used in the old articles I love. I realized the other day that there was no reason he wouldn’t be referred to somewhere in these newspaper articles so I looked him up. Lo and behold, there is an article about him being awarded a fellowship to begin writing what will end up being ‘The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang’, yet another book on my wish list.

Eric Partridge was a very interesting man and achieved a lot in one life. He was born in New Zealand and came to Australia in his teens. He served at Gallipoli and was wounded in France. Later, he took up a travelling scholarship at Oxford, lectured at universities in Manchester and London and started a publishing house before writing a variety of dictionaries and books about language. (See http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110155b.htm for a summary of his biography)

Morning Bulletin 6 Mar 1929 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54645539

In my readings about him I found his name mentioned regarding a scandalous book called ‘The Sleeveless Errand’ written by Norah James. The book was declared to be obscene and all copies ordered to be destroyed. Mr Partridge owned the publisher of this book, Scholartis. He read the book and had suggested that, although horrible, the language mirrored real life in certain parts of the community.

I doubt those people making the decision in court in 1929 were people in the part of society her book used for reference. Banning the ‘degrading muck’ in this book would hardly make the lower classes change their ways would it? I wonder if the  language in the book would have been seen differently if it was written by a man.

Obviously the ordered destruction was not as effective as the magistrate would have hoped. I notice that copies of it can be bought on the interweb. Who would have thought of that outcome back in 1929?

If anyone out there has read ‘The Sleeveless Errand’ I would be very interested to know what you thought of it.