Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-11-20 | Page 9 | Hello Girls Work While Battle Rages

iLL0 GIRLS WORK WHILE BATTLE RGES Plug In Calls While Reds Besiege Petrograd Telephone Tele-phone Building. PAN FRANCISCO. Nov. if. Details of fighting in the streets of Petrogid irr-i-dent to the fcolsheviki revolution were prln'f i today by the Sn n Francisco Bulletin In a .'-pecial cablecram from its staff correspondent . mentioned in first dispatches as being one of two Americans who took shelter in the telephone exchange, ex-change, around which tlie fighting centered. cen-tered. The Bulletin's cablegram was dated November 13 and v.'as dela yed in t rans-minslon. rans-minslon. In i art. it said: ' wan in i he telephone building Pun dav whiie a squad of sixty military radets tried to ho id it asainst Bolshevik! sailors and red guards. In the doorway, talking to The cadet was an American Socialist. Albert Rhys ' Uliams. who pulled me X in'o the shelter of the entrance. Upstairs v. e found 300 operators plugging in calls, itle rifles crackled outside the windows. "At 2 o'clock the sailors attacked the cadets in the streets. Boys trained in this business of war had built barricades of hexes and boards across th sidewalks. Some hid behind motor trucks, resting their guns upon the engines; some lay flat in" the mud and others fired from underneath trucks. "The girl operators had deep circles under tludr eyes; their faces were pale and their hands trembling. They huddled together or lied in one direction or another an-other as the tiring ma rked the danger points, hut a hundred or more stayed at their posts until 4 o'clock, when the tiring reached its height and caused a panm. Twenty remained at their switchboards until the building was surrendered "In a room on the second floor were Antonoff. head of the Bolsheviki war ministry, min-istry, and some other prisoners. In the middle of the afternoon the cadets tried to start a peace parley, offering to surrender sur-render Antonoff if allowed freedom for themselves. " 'We will take Antonoff from you and kill eve it last one of you,' was the answer. an-swer. "The hoys became desperate. " 'Why doesn't Kerenskv come?' thev asked again and again. Their stock of ammunition was diminished. The red guard and sailors were crowding the courtyard and the firing had stopped. Everybody was paralyzed into inaction. Then Williams came into the room with Antonoff. " 'Taveriskh Antonoff. save our lives.' pleaded the cadets. Terms of surrender were quickly arranged and Antonoff and Will tarns went down to fare the red guard. Maddened by the loss of their own men. these w.ro eager to go uostairs. " T have given my word of honor as a revolutionist that the boys shall not be killed, and, as revolutionist s. von must keep that word.' said Antonoff. T will myself shoot the first man who harms one of the cadets. I would rather we ail die than that this American should say that the revolutionists of Russia were hase and revengeful.' As the first cadet hied downstairs Antonoff took his hand, and, turning to the sailors, said: " 'This is number one. and I trust his ine in your nanos. Guard It, for it honors the revolution.' 1 "As the last cadet passed a sailor said" rr 'There goes the last of the trash,' but v he was quickly hurried away bv his com-s com-s rad.es. ''The girls In the telephone exchange slipped out quietly and were not molested."