Omaha daily bee., 1889-08-19
HAYTrS AMAZONS.

The Ebony Damsels whom Legitime
Has Enlisted an His Army.
The war in Hayti, where the alleged
rightful ruler Legitime is being driven
into his last ditch by the alleged
revolutionary leader Hippolyte, has
developed an interesting feature in the
drafting OF women into the army of the
formerf says the New Orleans
Picayune. Legitime has been worsted
on every field and driven back until his
domain is limited pretty nearly to
his capital city of Port au Prince. AS
his army has dwindled away largely by
desertion to the other faction, he found
himself without troops to man his forth
fications, for his city was long ago
strongly fortified by the Spaniards and
French who held 1T at different periods.
In this extremity Legitime has hit
upon the plan Of filing up his depleted
ranks with women. There being a sur
plus of the softer sex in the capital of
the negro republic, it has been possible
to enroll quite number of these ebony
amazons, who are not embodied in eX-
elusive battalions of their own sex, but
are distributed among the men. These
women are dressed in masculine cos
tunes, and said to look very much like
negro youths of the male persuasion.
The Haytiau negroes, where they
have been amalgamated with the native
Caribs, have become almost beardless,
particularly when the men are young,
and hence these Haytian amazons are
said to be distinguishable from the
males when all are standing in line to-
gether, chiefly by the fact that the
faces of the women are more pleasing
and less hard and brutal than are those
OF the men. Every person who has
sc en- our own fair amazons on the stage
or engaged in q broom drill will have
noticed that in the peculiar conforma-
tion of the sex the superior swell at the
launches and the lesser breadth of
shoulders combine to exert special ef-
fects upon the manual Of arms.
When the guns are brought to a
and upon the shoulder, they do not
stand erect, but incline at an angle to-
wards the head of the fair soldier.
Moreover, when the troops are aligned
in position of the soldier" it is more
easy for them to touch hips than elbows
as required by the code, and should the
time ever come when the armies of the
white nations are to be made up of
women, it is to be hoped, in the interest
of grace and symmetry, that somebody
will design special arms and a manua.
lOr UQClF uSc SulUeu LO JDe
of the beautiful sex. When the mascu-
line creature takes up the trade of a
soldier he goes IN for show and gets
himself up as gorgeously as possible. If
we are to have hereafter an army
Of amazons, they should be made
up altogether lovely. Fortunately,
the ancient style of excision of the
breast will not be perpetuated. That
was done to enable the fair warrior to
draw the bow to its utmost reach. Now,
the drawing of the beaux is done in
quite different manner ,as the ancient
weapons of barbarism have all been
discarded.
But to return to the Haytians, those
sable Moll Pitchers and maids of Sara
gossa have not yet done any fighting;
but should they be driven to it they
will probably display as much bravery
as women do in an emergency. 1t
seems a brutal outrage to drive the
softer sex into battle, but If we are to
credit ancient traditions, it has been
often done, and in view of the fact that
the entire civilized world is accumulat-
ing constantly increasing deficiency
of men and corresponding excess in
the number Of women, it is not out of
the reach of possibility that the myths
of the Old World amazons may be re-
allied in fact as time advances. What
has been will be again.