The Newtown bee., 1879-03-18
Women Warriors.


 no mean part as warriors in the wars of antiquity, but it is not so generally known that they have often distinguish ed themselves for valor on the battle field in modern times, excluding the memorable examples of Boadicea, Joan D'Arc, the Women of Limerick, etc. Yet there are portions of the world in which they are famous as warriors even now. The king of Siam at this present moment has bodyguard of 400 women, armed with rifles and lances. When the invincible Dahomian army marched up- on Abeokuta in 1851, they numbered 10000 men and 6,000 women. The wo- men were placed in front at the critical hour of assault, and LOGO of their brave were left dead before the walls.
 The Spartan women of old, who strung their braided hair upon their husbands battle bows, were not the first of the wo- men of war; nor was Joan or Moll Pitcher the last. If Diodorus is to be believed, the Asiatic Amazons who were wont to hover among the mountains of Caucasus, not only learned to fight, but they monopolized the business. They strangled nine boys out of every ten at the moment of birth, and sent all the girls to the military academy, They drove their husbands and other mascu- line parasites to the caves of the earth; and when these gentlemen timidly emerged to break their prolonged fast, they were hunted like so many rabbits. The women marched to battle under their chosen queen, and overran and subdued the whole of Asia. They built Smyrna and Ephesus. They whipped Thesus, and put the Greeks to flight. And didn't the African Amazons of an- tiquity subdue the Gorgons and Atlantes2 In fact, if the profane history of 5000 years ago is worth anything, the women of that day were accustomed to [" strike from the shoulder" in fashion that was really terrific.
 And in later days, ferocious women of war have appeared from time to time. In South America, around the confluence of the Japura yith the Amazon, the traveller Orellana, in 1S40, found well-equipped and powerful republic of women, whose fierce feminine army successfully resist : ed 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 choose their partners from the royal guests. The male children were drowned, but the girls were carefully reared for the army. The women built 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 fiourished and maintained their independence for several hundred years, as il attested by the narratives of all vigilant travellers, from Orellana to Humboldt.
 Several women received pensions for their services as soldiers in the ranks during the American revolution; and during tie recent civil war, it is esti- mated that not less than 100 women fought in disguise as private soldiers. 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 four years, and finally passed in review with Sher- mans army.