HERLOIC TELEPHONE GIRL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 24, 27 January 1906, Page 13

HERLOIC TELEPHONE GIRL.

KEEPS HER HEAD AMONG BANK ROBBERS. Once again a woman has proved her courage and resource in snfiden emergency and peril. Miss Hattie Cheeseman, telephone operator at Hagerstown. Indiana, is the heroine this time.

While a gang of ten bold and daring robbers were breaking into the First National Bank building at Hagerstown, Miss Cheeseman, seated at the telephone exchange in her room, immediately above the bank, pluekily stuck to her post while seven explosions of nitro-glyceriae shook the floor beneath her feet.

She was the first to give the alarm. If her efforts had been rewarded the robber gang would never have eecaped with their spoils, fully a thousand pounds. As it was, her conduct was so admirable as to win the praise of the entire community.

Not for a single moment were her thoughts turned towards herself. She was thlnkmg only of the safety of others and of the disaster that would follow the looting of the safe in the bank below. She was thinking of the people that would be made penniie »s if the burglars succeeded. As these thoughts passed through her mind the plucky girl made heroic efforts to arouse the slumbering citizens and spread the alarm. It was shortly before 1 o'clock that Miss Chpeseman, all alone, was seated at the telephone, switchboard. Suddenly she was sturtied by hearing strange voices below. Investigating, she discovered that robbers were at work in the bank.

Whispers and the noise of breaking glass greeted her ears, presenting a fine opportunity for her to faint or go into hysterics. But she did neither. Although ttie dread and anxiety which she felt beggars description, she coolly and calmly went back to her switchboard and began to call up the local subscribers. Her conversation ran something like this: — "Hello, Is this Mr B?" "Yes." "The bank is being robbed by about a dozen armed men. I am celling up all the subscribers. They do not know that the alarm is being spread, and you can catch them if yon hurry." With that Miss Cheeaeman would disconnect Mr B. and immediately call up another subscriber. Her tiutj" accomplished, the brave gir', almost in a frenzy, peered through the office windows, and breathlessly listened at the cracks in the door to ascertain if the c'tizens were coining to the rescue. Just as breathlessly she waited to hear the welcome sound of firing in the street, the signal that the citizens of the sleeping village had rallied to the support of their property. But no sound indicated that her warniDg had been heeded or her exhortation obeyed.

How long she waited Miss Cheesemaa does not know. Minutes drag slowly under such suspense as she was enduring.

It was but a few moments later that she felt the floor beneath her feet shake, anil theu a roar like thunder burst upon the midnight air. The first charge of nitroglycerine bad been fired Then for a momr>nt all was still. She still remained nt her post, hoping that the citizens whom she had awakened would come to the rescue. In another moment a second explosion followed. This was stronger than the first and seemed even to shake. from its foundations. Evidently the safe was proving stubborn. But more nitru-glycer-iae waa used and more explosions followed until a total of seven had torn a path into the inner vault where the money was stored.

The citizens did noi heed her warning, however, aud the robbers were successful in their work. Although some of those whom she notified did hurriedly dress and come into town, they were too frightened to get together and put up a desperate fight. Besides, they evidently thought that the issue of an assault on ten desperate and well-armed robbers would bo exceedingly doubtful. '

After looting the safe the robbers made good their escape, carrying with, them more than a thousand pounds of the people's hardearned money—which could have been saved for them If every one in the little town had displayed the bravery and dauntless courage that Miss Cheeseman did.

Even after the escape had been made and before Miss Cheeaeman had been relieved from her perilous and nerve-racking duty to her telephone company, she had succeeded in calling up other towns in the neighbourhood, notifying the officers at these places of the bold robbery at Hagerstowu and telling them to be on the look-out for the bandits.