Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1879 — An Iowa Heroine. [ARTICLE]

An Iowa Heroine.

An adventure in which a brave Des Moines lady was the heroine, came to light yesterday for the first time, although the incident occurred several days ago, the lady having kept the matter quiet for reasons of her own. The heroine of the story is Mrs. W. H. Hyde, who lives on Sixth street, near Crocket.

About S o’clock in the morning she was awakened from a sound slumber by a noise at one of the rear windows of her bed room. There was no light in the room, but the moon was shining brightly outside, and by its light she discovered a fellow at woik cutting one of the lower slats of the blind. Mrs. Hyde’s husband was out of town, and she had no weapons with which to defend herself and property, but she had a stout heart and a strong will, and, as subsequent events will prove, nerves steady enough for the emergency. When Mrs. Hyde discovered the man he had cut nearly through the blind, and would soon have been in the room. There was no time to be lost, and her plan of action was hastily decided on. Stealing out of her bed she crept qnietly on her hands and knees by a route which the burglar could not see, to the door of a hall, from which a staircase led down to the basement of the building, Mrs. Hyde’s room being in the story above the basement. Decendingto the basement the undaunted woman searched for a hatchet, with which she meant to attack the fellow who was seeking to burglarously enter the house. Not finding the hatchet, she seized two bee' bottles, one empty and one filled, and with one in each hand made her way back to the bed room. ■ \ f By the time she returned the burglar had one of the blinds open, and was preparing to open the other. Swiftly, silently and unobserved, she gained a position by the side of the window on which the blind had been opened. From her position here she could see that the man was standing on the ladder which had been placed against the wall. Before attempting to open the

seoond blind he stuck his head into the chamber to see if all was right As he did so Mrs. Hyde raised the empty bottle and brought it down on the rascal’s head with a force which shivered it into atoms. Not a word had been spoken, not a sound made during all this time, and, as the viliian recoiled after receiving the Mow and threw open the closed shutter. Mrs. Hyde, with the other bottle clutched in her hand, changed her position to the other side of the window, so she could strike better and with more effect in case the rascal resumed his attempt.

Silently she stood there determined to defend her home to the last; cool, 2uietand collected, but ready to give II her possessions for a revolver. A few seconds passed and then the fellow again appeared at the window. As everything was so still, be evidently made ut> his mind that the blow he had received was from some falling article, and that the way was yet open to carry out his scheme of robbery. * •> Again the head appeared, and again the silent woman, nerved with desperate energy, used her means of defense. The bottle descended with a dull thud on the side of the fellow’s head, and he either fell from the ladder or else descended it in a terrible hurry, for in a moment after, when Mrs. Hyde stuck her head out of the window, she beard a man say, “Oh, my God!” and then saw him stealing away out of the yard. She watched him for some distance, and saw him join another man and the two disappeared, and then stood guard untH daylight, when she discovered blood over the ladder, on the wall, aud on the window casing, showing that she had done her work effectually. The fellow made no attempt to return, and Mrs. Hyde kept the adventure to herself for two or three days, for fear a publication of the story might lead the fellows to return. But she has a revolver and a husband to protect the premises now, and the next burglar will be apt to get a fatal dose. The pluck, coolness and nerve displayed Dy this lady are wonderful, and she deserves to be placed in the ranks with other Western heroines. —[Des Moines Register.