WOMAN KEEPS 20 POLICE AT BAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 104, 1 May 1920, Page 19

WOMAN KEEPS 20 POLICE AT BAY.

i BOILING WATER BATTLE. i How a woman fought two bailiffs and j twenty policemen with boiling water, a ' poker, heavy tools, and other weapons in | defence of her furniture has just been told i jin the police court at Philadelphia by a j I number of battered constables. The scene they described might have | ! been taken by the passers-by for the' j rehearsal of a knockabout film comedy. Failing to obtain payment by instalments lon goods supplied to a lusty Irishwoman, i "Mrs. Ellen Gallagher, a local furniture | company sent two bailiffs with a writ to seize the contents of her flat. j I Mrs. Gallagher refused to open the door ; to the bailiffs' summons, and poured scald-' ing water on the unhappy men through a j skylight. Tbey broke in the door, hut were met In the passage by Mrs. Gallagher, who, ignoring appeals to reason, counter- , attacked with a poker, which she bent ', . nearly double on one of their h.eads. | The attackers retired and telephoned for I reinforcements, who arrived in the shape of twenty policemen in a patrol wagpn of the type familiar to kinema patrons. Tumbling ', out of the wagon in the best kinema style, the constables dashed up the stairs Into the flat. Mrs. Gallagher promptly honibed them out with two large jars of turpentine. , t The attackers were unsupported by artil- , lery, but launched a fresh assault. They were met by two large monkey wrenches, ,' one of which removed most of one police- , man's teeth. At the same time a stream , of "liquid fire," in the shape of "boiling . j water, spread dismay among them. (But a third attack, which Included a ■ I flanking movement through a neighbouring . flat, was successful. Four large policemen held Mrs. Gallagher down, while the ; remainder of the force removed the fnrnlI ture. Then the still unsubdued '."garrison" i' was bundled Into the patrol wagon, which i having deposited the "wounded" at Mount I Sinai Hospital, conveyed her to a cell.