G'day Joe,

A rather less formal (Australian) occasion of the bell ringing for an acquittal is cited in a rather 'close to the edge' song I did publish in Mulga Wire ... about 150 2-monthly issues back! (Yike ... That's 25 years ago!)

The song is by one of Sydney's less than reverent songwriters, John Dengate ... and sets out to flesh out a short, collected, portion of a song from the time of the events (~ 1913 ... ?), when the local young men in the New South Wales country town of Binalong, decided to disturb the order of things, by which the town's dances maintained a social divide - either a chalk line through the centre of the hall to keep the common folk in the outer darkness ... or the closed events that didn't allow hoi polloi.

The tactic selected was extreme: during an invitation-only ball, toilet pans from the local hotel were conveyed to the hall and thrown in the windows - thus the song's title: The Shit Flung on the Floor! Several local lads were arrested ... on the sole testimony of one woman who had been outside the hall at the time and claimed to have recognised some of them. Apparently the father of one of these lads actually had enough money to hire a Sydney lawyer ... and, when he pressed the woman as to what she was doing outside the hall - and with whom - she refused to answer and the case collapsed.

Supporters of the accused then rang the courthouse bells, as in John's song:

"... So the courthouse bells are ringing
And the Binalong boys are singing,
For the shit flung on the floor!"

I guess this tends to support the idea of a tradition whereby the courthouse bells would be used to signal important events ... even if this time was not sanctioned by the court.

(Errr ... I could post the song ... though I might be cutting a bit close to John Mehlberg's territory!)

Regard(les)s,

Bob