The San Francisco call., 1905-08-04
Masked and BeW,Mskered
: VandaI AHacks Day
Dreamer.
Miss Pearl Sandef-Im' S
Halo Is mberUlous
to BnIZets.
Escapes All Sbots, FIRES
Back and Wins by
kicking.

In Miss Pearl J. Sanderlln. a comely
lass of II years. San Francisco has a re-
markable character. Miss Pearl lives with
her mamma at $50 Washington street, but
she loves nature. writes poetry and is
happy when she can steal far from the
madding crowd to drink in the divine
aff1atus
When the shadows were growing long
on the hillsides Wednesday afternoon
Miss Pearl felt that the spell of poetry
was upon her, so she hurriedly boarded
a car and rushed toward the sad sea,
never stopping until she had found a Sc
cluded spot over the surging Golden Gate
in the vicinity of Bakers Beach.
The young lady went there to write
poetry. carrying in her mind visions of
Tennyson. of Byron, of Poe and others
who have written apostrophes to the
surging mainland in her reticule a %
caliber revolver, for Miss Pearl is some
what of a shot well as a poet
The young woman's experiences during
the afternoon would furnish material for
volume-not of poetry, as she had
planned, but of adventures and hair
breadth escapes by the numbering sea-
which she had hoped to pacify by her
poems.
After drinking in the inspiration of her
isolated sitting with nature for some
moments Miss Pearl began to write her
poem, beginning
1 stand amid the roar
Of surf-tormented shore,
And hold within my hand
Grains of golden sand
But she got no further before there
was q violent interruption. The inter-
prefer of nature heard a stir of scurrying
feet. Looking behind her she beheld a
monstrous six-footer with revolver-a
masked and bewhiskered highwayman.
He fired five shots with such rapidity as
to suggest weapon of the automatic
magazine type, but the divine affiatus
was with her and the Villains shots
could not penetrate the halo. Not a sin
gle bullet struck the daughter of the
muses..
Dropping her manuscript, the practical
lover of rhyme opened her purse pulled
out her little revolver and began to emp
ty its contents in the direction of the
scoundrel who had broken into her train
of thought. Realizing that he would
surely give up the ghost unless he be-
stirred himself, the bandit ungallantly
Knocked Miss Sanderlin's weapon into
the sea. Vandalism was soon getting the
best of literature in the strange battle
by the waves, but the child of Inspiration
had card up her sleeve, so to speak,
and the wretch who had interfered with
an extent that Miss Pearl believes he is
languishing somewhere in mortal. pain.
In a twinkling the young woman re-
called her anatomical accomplishments
and dealt the vandal a kick that would
have done justice to Fay Templeton,
darling high-kicker of comic opera. One
blow from her little foot settled the van
dal Miss Pearl remembers no more. Her
assailant's remains have not been found
by the police.
Corporal Van Meter and Private War
moth of the Seventh Coast Artillery
found the young lady wandering fright
ened and speechless about 8 o'clock of
the evening she had set aside for the
completion of her poem. She was in the
southwest corner of the Presidio. her
poem lost, her revolver in the sea. She is
confined to her apartments just now, but
has hopes of finishing the poem some
sunny afternoon. She denies reporters
the pleasure of hearing her narrative. but
to Corporal Morrissey and George F.
Mulcahey of the detective force she gave
out the following statement yesterday
afternoon:
Yesterday about o'clock 1 boarded an
ElIis-street car and went to the beach for
a ride. left the car at Bakers Beach
and finding large rock, | sat down and
began writing poetry, when a large man.
who must have been over six feet tall
and who wore a mask and false whiskers
came I'D behind me and caught me by
the shoulder. ] tried TO get away from
him. when he pulled out his gun and fired
five shots at me- Then it occurred to me
! that I had my 22-caliber pistol in my
purse, and 1 pulled that and began to
shoot, when he knocked it out of my
hand into the water. 1 then kicked him
in vital place and put him out of COM
; mission. After that knew no more until
7 found myself at the Presidio. and, with
the aid of kind friends, I reached home
about midnight"
Although there were powder marks on
the girls shirtwaist. there were no signs
of violence, and the police are inclined to
believe that it all existed in her own
mind.