The first issue of The Bulletin, 31 January 1880, contains the piece “A Heavy Wet”. Posing as a reporter, the author chronicles the public baptisms of women by evangelist Frank Warden. It is illustrated by cartoons.
The writer is The Man in the Bottomless Pit. This was possibly the pseudonym of either The Bulletin editor Jules Francis Archibald or The Bulletin co-founder John Haynes, although neither are known for satire.
The Man in the Bottomless Pit is not a known alias of the satirist Theodore Emile Argles who wrote under the names Harold Grey, The Moocher and The Pilgrim.
- A Heavy Wet, January 31, 1880, The Bulletin.
Similar Representative Article:
- A Sydney Sabbath, 6 March 1880, The Singleton Argus and Upper Hunter. Attributed to ‘A rambling scribe.’