THE BRAVE MAID OF NOYON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 11 April 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE BRAVE MAID OF NOYON.

A TRUE STORY, FROM FRANCE.

My Dear Little Friends, — Often in the past I have told you stories of the deeds of brave men —some of them aboufrich men of noble birth. To-day I want to tell you the story of another brave deed. This time, though, it is the action, not of a man but of a girl who was engaged as a servant in a house situated at Noyon, a little town in France. • Below the house in which she was employed something went wrong with the sewer pipes, and four workmen were sent to repair the trouble. For a time the workmen toiled under the ground fixing the drains, but after a time it was noticed that no signals were coming from them. The residents of the house wondered what was the matter, and grew alarmed, for in the sewers poisonous gas often accumulates, and anyone going down into it is rendered unconscious and often is suffocated. Could it be that those four men had been overcome by the gases? At last there was no room for doubt; not a signal was received, jund it was decided that someone must go down to the rescue. But who there was willing to risk his or her life in order to rescue four absolutely unknown men? For a time all hung back. Upon hearing of the plight of the workmen, the servant girl begged to be aHowed to go to their aid, and a rope was knotted about her. Slowly she was lowered into the manhole. At the bottom she found the four men lying unconscious. Quickly she untied the rope, and, passing it about the shoulders of tke first man, gave the signal for him to be hoisted up to the fresh air—to safety. Again the rope swung down, and the girl tied it about the second man, who also was hoisted out of the manhole. The rope came down for a third time, but now the girl found herself being slowly suffocated by the deadly fumes. Bravely, however, she knotted the rope about the third man's shoulders, and, even as she gave the signal to be drawn up, twisted her long hair about the rope. Carefully the helpers above hoisted the double burden, and by the time it reached the top the girl, as well as the man, was unconscious. The fresh air, however, soon revived the 17-year-old servant maid, who once more descended in a gallant effort to save the fourth man. She tied the rope to his body and had it dragged upwards, but, upon reaching the surface, she found that the man was quite lifeless. So it was that this brave little French girl saved three men's lives and gallantly tried to rescue another . from death. The French nation loves to _ reward a brave action, and I am pleased to be able to record that some handsome (. . v gifts found their way to this little girl • VJ<i who so cheerfully and readily risked her j own life for the sake of others.