Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-12-06
A Brave woman's Lonely vigii..
Corr. Phenix Herald.

GILA BEND, Nov 27, 1880.
 It IS not pleasant to be alone anywhere after dark,
 How many of the Herald's lady readers would dare to keep solitary railroad station open after dark?
 Yet one woman down here takes her place at the telegraph operators desk when night comes, and there she sits, all alone till ? a. m., reporting the huge, black freight trains that go laundering by at intervals and keeping the Southern Pacltic's single track clear; standing, so to speak, between those noisy, screeching, spark-darting monsters of the night, that they do not crash together and hurl their endangered train crew into eternity.
 Mrs. O.L. Pease was as popular in Phe- nix society as any of the belles that now reign in her place. She flew into spaslns when darkness caught her out somewhere unattended She did not know then how brave she could be.
 When the man who held her destiny in his keeping came along, wooed and won her, there was no hesitation about accompanying him to the important rail road station at Gila Bend
 But it was lonely down there and, for occupation she studied telegraphy. It looked wild for her to attempt that art which lordly man spends years in acquir- ing. But in few months she had mas tered it and when the night operators chair became vacant she dropped into it.
 The early evening hours are not so wearisome. Trains are moving; next mornings newspaper dispatches are pass ing over the wires; operators at other sta tions talk and perhaps exchange some pleasantly. She can hear it all, even the "ha-ha" laughing agent along the line signals to show he Is smiling and to let her enjoy the joke as well as himself. Telegraph people can joke as pleasantly hundreds of miles apart as ordinary ac- quaintances can in their own parlors.
 But as midnight crawls along, the merry lepartee subsidies; trains do not run so often; only the instruments click, click and the sober cloak of darkness outside the office answers her wish for morning
 Suddenly black. rolling eyed face is pressed against the window pane just over the sleepy woman's shoulder. She starts as she first catches sight of the hor rid grinning countenance. But finally she recognizes old 'tEoss," the ex-Pheni- clan negro, who is occasionally sober, but nearly always, cs u0vT, drunk. He had u dispute with some one and now wants to come in check the old trunk he has drag ged, with many stagger, to the depot for his old Phenix home.
 Finally he consents to go away and call around next morning. So the star tied little lady settles into her usual con- posture.
 But listenl Hear that stea!thy tread softly entering the passenger room op- posite her office. Who is it? What does he want? Will he slide back the ticket sellers shutter. thrust in his gun and bid her stand with hands up, whereby the way to the railroad campany's safe will be open for his jimmy and other craeksmen's $ tools! The question must be answered, and at once. With noble nerve she grasps her lantern, unlocks the door, walks firm ly out upon the platform and into the presence of her robbers. It is only a harmless tramp, however, who wants a warm place to sleep ill. But he can't stay there. Quietly she tells him to go and he goes, down to the coal shed or elsewhere beyond her jurisdiction. The feminine fibre is not yet sufficient ly tested. A red, distorted Indian mug next appears. He brandishes the whisky bottle that has fired his crazy brain. He motions for the lady operator to come out and join in the orgie. Perhaps on her re- fusal the whisky bottle will go crashing through the window and it's hundred pieces be buried in her pale but beauti ful face. This time her husband hears the disturbance, rushes in, disarms the fuddled savage and packs him off into the sage brush.
 On another occasion the alarm came NTav,.,o,. knife shot back the rays of tue office lamf as he tried to force open the door. TheI our heroine thought decisive action i'm peiative. Seizing the little B Smith Wesson pistol that lay conveniently upor ] the desk, she marched to the door and convinced that Mexican she would shoo ! if he did not vamos. He had seen he practice shooting by daylight and remem bered how bottles had lost their necks a every discharge. So be. too, mapped out i different spaoiaf orbit.
 Thus night after night this plucky little woman sits at her post alone, ignorant oi l the new terror some brutal ruffian has il store for her. But she has gained con fdence in her power of resisting all at tacks. The lit;le pistol eiisiened on he desk under the lamphght. It Is ready tt speak on an instant's notice. While tn, Herald's lady friends sleep peacefully i we'll guarded towns. apprehentting no dan ger. one PheniX woman watches, 60 mile away on the desert, protecting a thousan, railroad lives, and helping her own sci secure by the consciousness of duty don and the calm pluck that conquers brut force as mind everywhere triumphs owe gross matter,