A BRAVE DEFENDER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 93, 9 June 1911, Page 3

A BRAVE DEFENDER.

SOCIETY GIRL’S ACHIEVEMENT. A magnificent cliancc for the movinir picture man was missed at tlie top of Collins Street, Mellimirne, when a sturdily-built girl in grey eliarmous'J swept into the midst of a larrikin push, scattering its members like skittles, “woodeuing” the leader with a well-placed sticde glove on the point of the jaw, and rescuing from its clutches an aged man who was being cruelly maltreated by a larrikin push. With blows and kicks the old man was bustled on towards tin 1 corner ol Collins Street, the larrikins meanwhile using foul language, and every now and again punching him viciously. “Knock him out and put the boot in,” yelled one ecstatically as they reached the corner. His delight was shortlived. Something like a whirlwind 01' a bolting aeroplane Came out of the air and sent the larrikins Hying in ail directions. As for the man who wanted to “put the boot in,” ho looked up just too late to duck a neat left swing from a handsome, well-dressed girl, who caught him “oh the point of the jaw. As he fell'ids, skull cracked on the roadway,' and had a, timekeeper been present he might have checked off one hundred before lie moved, 't he girl dragged the old man into the doorway, out. of the way of the other larrikins, ami stood up to them gamely. But they made no advance. The fate of their leader appalled them, and they slunk away for the time being. •T hope I haven’t killed him,” she said apprehensively as a passing cabman pulled up to assist. “1 hope you have,” said the cabman, who had witnessed the affair from a distance. “I’ll soon revive him,” lie added, and taking his whip from its socket ho lashed tiic prostrate form of the Jprrikiu till, ho .revived and made off hurriedly, crying like a child. Meanwhile the girl had got the old man on a passing traiiicar; upon which the survivors of the,push reorganised, and dashing up, tried to Tear him from her grasp. Several people got hustled in the struggle. As the tram proceeded towards the Town J 1 all the crowd of larrikins pursued it, still trying to got at their victim, and to pull him out of his plucky protectress’s guardianship, nor did they' desist till the tram reached the Town Hall, when they dispersed, the street being too well lighted for their purpose. The young lady, who declined to allow her name to be made public, is the daughter of a Toorak squatter, and is well known in society. She is also a prominent physical culturist, and probably the best lady amateur ball-puncher in Victoria. Her pluck and promptitude wore admirable, and her presence of mind and resource remarkable and unusual.