The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1871-01-05
IDAHO WORLD.
From the Western Monthly for December.
- - WOMEN AS WARRIORS.

inr and organizing III 'no
tbe ramnarts of the city-one hundred
thousand strong, or weak, as the case
nav be-under the military title OF
nTbo )Amazons of the Seine" They
arc to dress in sort of rough Bloomer
costume and are to be armed with light
muskets carrying 200 yards, with car
fridge boxes and full equipments. The
first battalion of 1920 is now being
drilled by. q retired officer.
If the startling project should be ac-
tually carried out to practical effective
ness, it will certainly present a new
picture to the civilized world OF this
century. Yet it will not be entirely
new. The King of Siam at this mo-
muent has body-guard of 400 women,
armed with rifles and lances. When
the invineible Dahomian army marched
upon Abeokuta in 1851, they numbered
10000 men and 5000 women. At the
critical hour of assault the women were
placed in front, and 200 OF their brave
were left dead before the walls. And
do we not read that the wives OF the
ancient Britons mingled in the wars
fearlessly, and rushed to battle at the
side of their husbands and brothers
The Spartan wives who strung their
braided hair upon their husbands bat
tle-bows were not the first OF the wo-
men of war: nor was Joan or Mol
Pitcher the last. If Diodorus is to be
believed, the Asiatic Amazons who
were wont to hover among the noun
tains of Caucasus not only learned to
fight, but they monopolized the bust
ness. They strangled nine boys out OF
every ten at the moment of birth, and
sent all the girls to the military acade-
my. They drove their husbands, and
other masculine parasites, to the caves
of the earth; and when these gentlemen
timidly emerged, to break their pro-
longed fast. they were hunted like so
MANY rabbits. The women marched to
battle ander their chosen queen, and
overrun and subdued the whole of Asia.
They built Smyrna and Ephesus; they
whipped Theseus, and put the Greeks
10 flight. And didn't the African ANA
IONS of antiquity subdue the Gorgons
and Atlantes-whoever they were? In
fact, if the profane history of 5000
years ago is worth anything, the wo-
men of that day were accustomed 10
strike from the shoulder" in a fashion
that was really terrific.
And in later days ferocious women Of
war have appeared from time to time.
IN South America, around the conhu-
ence of the Japura with the Amazon,
the traveller Orellan, in 1910, found a
we'll equipped and powerful republic Of
women, whose ierce.fcminine army sue
cessfully resisted his European soldiers
in battle. No men were permitted to
live in the nation, but the men Of the
adjacent countries were received and
entertained with much hospitality in
April Of each year At the beginning
of the festivities the queens chose their
favorite gallants from the royal guests.
The male children were drowned: but
the girls were carefully reared for the
army. The women built all their own
houses, killed their own game, made
their own slight clothing, and found
helpmeet" quite unnecessary. They
had five temples of the Sun, built Of
stone. and gorgeously plated with gold.
They had fourished and maintained an
independence for several hundred years,
as is attested by the narrative Of all
yigilant travellers, from Orellana to
Humboldt. ~.
Several women received pensions for
their services as soldiers in the ranks
during the American revolution; and
during the recent war for the Union, it
is estimated that not less than 100 wo-
men fought in disguise as private sol
diers. Some are known to have been
killed in battle; the sex of others was
detected by the surgeons who dressed
their wounds; while at least one fought
gallantly at the side of the man she
loved for fonr years, and finally passed
proudly in review with Sherman's ar
my, at Washington .-4
1t seems, then, that woman, under
certain circumstances, can fight. How
does this disclosure affect her political
status? .2zoa-
VILE MAKE THEIR Own RALs.-The
President, and Roo I'd &c D..oa4a.n &c IL .