GIRLS IN PERIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 66

GIRLS IN PERIL.

SOME INTERESTING STORIES

That it is not the physically strong who are alone capable of acts, of bravery was proved one day in May, 1890, by the act of a Mrs Dorothy Pumphrey, who was known to her neighbours* a-> .i paiticularly nervous, delicate, and shy little woman. One afternoon the child of «i friend was playing near a, well in her mother's garden, when she accidentally fell m. Mrs Pumpkrey was one of two women who. alarmed by the child's pricing scream, ran to the spot. Without a moment's hesitation she stepped into the small, crazy bucket and aoked to be lowered into the hole. Thirty or forty feet down she reached the surface of the water, leaned out of the bucket, and grasped the child. Before she could drag the little one in, however, the bucket overturned, leaving her hanging from the chain — but still clutching the rescued child. There was a moment of awful suspense alike for the plucky woman and for the agonised watchers above. Presently a boy of 15 was lowered by a rope, and Mrs Pumphrey relieved of her helpless burden. Then Mrs Pumphrey placed a foot in the bucket, and signalled to be drawn up. But the strain, and perhaps the foul an. had been too much for her. and half way to the surface s.he fainted. The bucket swayed to the side, Mrs Puniplirey's right foot caught in the- chain, and she fell in the water head first. Revived by the sudden shock, she was just able once more to clamher into the bucket, and in a terribly exhausted .■•tate was this time drawn safely to the top. A lonely spot in Dorset was the scene of a deed of remarkable bravery combined with quick wit and intelligence. The heroine was a Miss Julia Hatcher, residing at Haves Cottage, Moorside, one of two lorelv "cottages in a field lying otf the main road "to Blandford. The* attacker was an infuriated bull.

Miss Hatcher was busily engaged in glove-making when she heard terrible screams. Rushing to the door, she was horrified to find a huge bull tossing a lad who had been milking. Miss Hatcher lost neither her nerve nor her presence of mind. Recollecting that bulls, close 'their eyes •when etoned, she stooped hurriedly, picked up an apron fill, and be^an a vigorous "bombardment of the animal. The heroic girl pressed forward to the attack ; the animal, his attention diverted from his victim, charged several times, but was driven off by a well-sustained fire, and ultimately retreated, followed by an extra volley to ccmplete the rout. Then Miss Hatcher picked up the boy. who was seriously injured, and conveyed him unaided to her mother's cottage. Miss Kate Veiity was one day reading in her room near the river wharf at Linton Falls, Skipton, Yorkshire, when a child's screams attracted her attention. Running over to the wharf, she found that a little fellow named Harker had fallen into the river — swollen by heavy rains to double its usual size — and was being swept with appalling speed towards the falls. Like a flash. Miss Verity was out and across the bridge above the falls. Arriving level with the child about- 40ft from the falls, she dashed headlong into the river, caught little Hurker, tlirew his head over her shoulder, and then, inch by inch, fought her way to the bank and to safety.

A young Irish girl, Miss Julia Dignam, of St. Doolaugh's, Balgriffin, Dvb 1 in, wears proudly a silver medal, presented to her at Marlborough House by King Edward as Prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England. The deed for which she won this coveted honour was one of peculiar bravery, because she thoroughly realised the awful risk she ran. A lad named Sharkey was overcome one afternoon by fumes issuing from a lime kiln. An alarm was raised, and Miss Dignam, who is the daughter of a labourer, and was close by, without the slightest hesitation jumped down into the kiln. She found the lad unconscious at the bottom, and, absolutely unaided, carried him up and out of the kiln. Unhappily, however, the boy was dead. Very impressive is the tribute which has been erected at the entrance to the harbour at North Berwick, in Scotland, in commemoration of a noble and heroic fracrifice on the part of a girl of 19. Catherine Wat*>on. of Glasgow, was staying with her family at Noith Berwick. in a house *on the Kast Bay, in the summer of 1889. One day she saw, from her bedroom window, that a young boy had been carried out of his depth, and was struggling vainly .igainht the undercurrent. Without any delay or fear *-he rushed out half-dressed, plunged into the sea, and swam to the boy's rescue. She soon reached him. Then began a splendid struggle between the brave, strong girl and a stronger and relentless sea. It ended in her supporting the boy long enough for him to be saved when other help at last reached him. By this time Mi«s Watson's strength had given out ; the currents had swept her beyond hope of rescue. A monument erected to Miss Watson" s memory bears a medallion portrait, subscribed to and executed by her friends in the Glasgow School of Art. From Ihe site of the monument one looks over the sea to the Ba&s Rock, and views *he place where Miss Watson so nobly gave her life for another. — Fiom the June Part of the Gal's. Realm.