A BRAVE DEFENDER.

Waikato Independent, Volume XII, Issue 1019, 1 June 1911, Page 3

A BRAVE DEFENDER.

SOCIETY GIRL KNOCKS OUT LARRIKIN. A magnificent chance for the moving picture man was missed at the top of Collins-street, Melbourne, on Monday last, when a sturdily-built girl in grey charmeuse swept into the midst of a larrikin push, scattering its members like skittles, "woodening" the leader with a well-placed suede glove on the point of the jaw, and rescuing from its clutches an aged man whu was being cruelly maltreated With blows and kicks the old man was hustled on towards the corner of Collins-street, the larrikins meanwhile using foul language and every now and again punching him viciously. "Knock him out. and put the ooot in," yelled one ecstatically as they reached the corner. His delight was short lived. .Something like a whirlwind or a bolting aeroplane came out of the air and sent the larrikins flying in all directions. As for the man who wanted to "put the boot in," he looked up just too late to duck a neat left swing from a handsome, well-dressed girl, which caught him on the point of the jaw. As he fell his skull cracked on the roadway, and had a timekeeper been present he mjght have checked off 100 before he moved. The girl- dragged the old man into the doorway, out of the way of the other larrikins, and 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. "I hope I haven't lulled him," she said, apprehensively, as a passing cabman pulled up to assist. "I hope you have," said the cabman, who had witnessed the affair from a distance. "I'll roon .revive him," he added, and taking his whip from its socket he lashed the prostrate form of the larrikin lilt he revived and made off hurriedly, crying like a child. Meanwhile the girl had got the old man on a passing tramcar, upon which the survivors of the push reorganised and dashing up tried to tear him from her grasp. Several people got hustled in the dtrugele. As the tram proceeded towards the Town Hall the crowd of larrikins pursued it, still trying to get at their victim, and to pull him out of his plucky protectress' guardianship, nor did they desist till the tram reached the fown 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-pun-cher in Victoria. Her pluck and promptitude were admirable, .and her presence of mind and resource remarkable and unusual.