Continuing some Blantyre stories from 131 years ago. Long forgotten, but retold here. A most extraordinary scene took place at a wedding which was celebrated in Blantyre on the evening of Friday 3rd November 1893.
A wedding was being celebrated in a house in Springwells and despite the rejoicings, a quarrel had arisen between two male guests. Their differing opinion and desire not to embarrass the happy couple, led them to ‘take it outside’ where apparently some fighting was on the agenda.
As the men started arguing on an upper landing outside, they were followed out on to the stone steps by a concerned woman and a young girl of surname Lee. The other friends followed from the house, and tried to stop the fight, but to no purpose.
During the scuffle, the weight of the men, woman and girl leaning on the cast iron handrail was too much. The old, inadequate railing attached to the stone steps gave way whereby the four persons were precipitated a distance of fourteen feet downwards to the bottom of the steps, the men still fighting as they fell.
Unfortunately, they dragging with them an interceding friend and the girl, who had been holding on. The woman bruised, the men seemed little the worse of their fall, but the outcome of this rammy was that the little girl, a family member of one of the fighting men, was somewhat seriously injured. There’s a lesson in there somewhere!
AI imagines the incident to illustrate this unfortunate story.
