HEROISM OF A SERVANT GIRL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1156, 24 June 1885, Page 5

HEROISM OF A SERVANT GIRL.

As a rule deeds of bravery which occur in doraesfric.life .are not " wired " to di3.tant dependencies, but the world is not indifferent to such noble acts as are recorded of Alice Ayres, a poor little domestic who lost her life in endeavoring to save the lives of others. Alice Ayres li?ed at an oil and colorman's shop in a street at Southwark — one of the numerous parishes south-east of London. On'the 25th April a fire broke out about midnight and ; spread with alarming rapidity. The wife of the owner of the shop, Mrs Chandler, was heard calling " For God's ,sake, help !" .Butthe sound soon died away, and the poor creature does not appear to, have been afterwards seen alive.' Then the heroic girl Alice Ayres appeared at one of the windows, and the people beneath urged her to leap into a sheet which, they held to break her fall. . She heeded not, but disappeared, suddenly to apppar again with a bed, j which she tfirew to the crowd below. Then, with great coolness, she dropped from the window three children, two of whom were, saved. The flames, fed by the combustibles, were positively scorching, and the poor girl was once again urged to leap to the street. For a moment she seemed to hesitate, as though she thought there was some task left undone. The poor- creature remained by herself, well-nigh exhausted, and /then Bhe got out of the window, and clinging for a little time to the sill, she dropped into the street, thereby injuring herself severely, the spine being most affected. She .was at first removed to the- residence of Mr Fenton, Union-street, and subsequently to St. Thomas's Hospital, where she died. Never, since the days of Grace Darling, has there been a more laudable act of valor to record than that performed by Alice Ayres.