FEMALE HEROISM

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 193, 8 November 1872, Page 3

FEMALE HEROISM

The Bravery of women is more frequently of the passive than of the active kinft. By the very nature of their position and duties they endure rather than act, and the bravery of their endurance is often truly Heroic. Now and then, however, we find recorded of women, acts of Such bravery as we are accustomed io ascribe. almost exclusively to men. Grace Darling, l in -the life-boat with her father, going to the rescue of the crew of the Forfarshire; the Maid of Saragossa, animating the soldiers to the defence of their besieged town; are instances which occur at once to everyone as illustrating the active form of bravery among women. Every now and then also we read accounts of deeds done by women which show that active bravery is possible to them even under very trying circumstances. One of these was recorded in a letter to 4 The Times ' in the beginning of this week, and the circumstances deserve detail. All travellers abroad are familiar with the appearance of the women who are employed on railways to attend to gates at crossings, to wave signal flags, &s. It is of a woman occupying no higher position than that of signal-woman on the railway which leads from Italy iuto France by way of the Mont Cenis. that the story is told. On the Ist of May, the passengers in the train from Turin, via the Mont Cenis tunnel, passed safely through it and the following one, that of St. Martin—when their attention was directed to a woman running towards the train and waving a red flag. The ground wais covered with deep mud, the rain was pouring in torrents, and, in her haste to meet and arrest the train, the woman was seen to stumble and fall, twice. The engine driver was fortunately able to obey the signals and to pull up, and then the woman too much scared.and out of breath to speak pointed to a bridge not more than LOO yards in front of the train. Here a stream, swollen by the rain into a powerful torrent, having destroyed a mule pass above had brought down masses of stones and earth from the mountain side, and had swept away the bridge. In a few seconds more, had it not been for the presence of mind and bravery of this poor woman, the train, with its living freight, would have been hurled into the mass of debris, a,nd probably precipitated into the rushing river beneath. Only a few minutes before, a train, going towards the Mont Cenis tunnel, had passed safely over the bridge. But in these few minutes the work of destruction had been accomplished. The signal-woman had observed the commencement of the breaking up of the bridge. She knew that in a very brief time another train was due from the opposite direction. . She hesitated not a moment; she waited not to indulge her curiosity, nor wa3 she paralysed by fear ; but quickly she saw what was the only thing to be done, and with all her energy she set herself to the accomplishment of her purpose, which fortunately did not fail. The correspondent who.-sends news of the good deed to ' The Times ' does not tell us the name of this brave and faithful woman. He says simply that the passengers made a collection for her—which we hope was a good one, if they esteemed their liyes as of value to themselves or others ; and he hopes that her conduct will obtain for her some permanent preferment—a hope in which we most heartily join.