Looting a bar at the Piney in 1891

Here’s how the Brisbane Courier reported a hotel break-in on 8 June 1891. It’s a crime report with a bit of flair, quite different from the way it’s done these days.

                                     Looting a Bar
                          Pineapple Hotel Entered

When Mr. Peter McGuinness, licencee of the Pineapple Hotel, Kangaroo Point, entered the bar of his hotel on Tuesday morning, he at once saw that it was not as he had left it the previous evening. A window had been raised, and a case knife lying on the sill showed how its catch had been turned back. All the bottles opened the night before were empty, and glasses were lying about promiscuously that had been made use of in drinking the liquor. A number of bottles of brandy and whisky was missing, and the foot marks of five or six people were to be seen about the floor and on the counter. Mr. McGuinness judges that the theft occurred at about 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. At the closing hour on Monday night there was a number of semi-larrikins about the hotel, but up to the present the police have been unable to fix upon any of the persons concerned in the affair.
(Brisbane Courier 8 June 1891)

Comments:
Jeff W. It’s interesting and also delightful to read the descriptive journalism of the past – far more entertaining and enlightening of the events of the period.
Imogen I. “glasses were lying about promiscuously” – this made me laugh!

 

 

 

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