National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1871-01-27
What a Woman Did.

put to fight mob Of twenty drunkt n
mon, in the village Of Holland as fol-
lows /: The mob was on n general
"spree," and the disposition to do mis-
chief was manifest. Entering the tavern
Of Mr., Paul, the landlord was speedily
driven from the scene. his two young
sons, one eighteen and the other twenty
years Of age, coming forward to deal
with the riotous visitors. The boys, who
vainly endeavored to pacify the drunken,
savage gang, and to induce them to
leave the premises, were finally set upon
and badly beaten, Us were also q couple
Of men boarding in the house, who came
to their rescue. Up to this time Mrs.
Paul had not appeared. 1t was not
until one of her sons, covered with blood
and bruises, retreated to her, in the rear
apartment of the house, that she felt her
self summoned to action Her first
instincts were altogether womanly. She
thought that she could persuade the
ruflians, by an appeal to the ordinary
respect of man for woman, to desist from
their violence, and she boldly went into
their midst, drunken aud armed with
clubs ns they were Her appearance
and her appeals had no effect upon them.
They threatened her own person with
violence, and swore that they would bun
the house and kill the inmates TLen
this strong-hearted woman rose to arms,
and declared for battle with the savage
mob which would not be conciliated by
peaceful persuasions Escaping from
side door, she attempted to rally
the neighbors, Of whom there were
enough near at hand, to the defence of
her threatened house and family. But
the neighbors would not rally the mob
looked too formidable to them. She
could gather no force to assist her /; and
perhaps it is not singular that the
villagers stood timidly aloof, because,
without some resolute leader to give
them confidence i'll each other, men are
apt to appear towards in such an emerg-
encv, through every ones fear that he
may expose himself without good back
ing from his fellows. At all events, the
neighbors of Mrs Paul declined to
assume the defence of her premises, so
she was left to her own resources.
Nothing 4 united she borrowed two re-
volvers, d spatched n messenger to the
village store to purchase hundred
rounds of cartridges, and returned to
her beleaguered home The rioters
were in full possession of its front rooms,
and engaged in indiscriminate smashing
OF windows and furniture, helping them
selves to liquor and appropriating pro-
perty She loaded the revolvers that
she had borrowed, placed them in the
hands Of her two sons, stationed them at
the two doors leading into the bar-room,
where the mob was mostly congregated,
and directed them to fire several shots,
first into the ceiling of the room, above
the heads of the crowd, in the hope that
that might suffice to alarm the marauders
and drive them Off That the shots were
so fired is attested, we are told, by the
bullet marks in the ceiling. They had
no effect q; the rioters We're too mad with
liquor and with their passion to be So
bered by the warming Some of them,
on the contrary, made rush toward one
of the boys, and then his brother fired q
shot which struck the foremost OF the |
assailants in the abdomen, and then, too,
under the directions of the courageous |
mother, who reloaded the reyolvers as
they were emptied, the firing was kept
up, straight into the mob, until it broke
iuto panic and fled. One man was killed
outright, or dropped dead a few PAGES
from the door, and was found lying as
he fell, with bottle of whisky under
one arm and piece of clothing plunder !
ed from the tavern under the other.
Two others are likely to die from the
wounds that they received.