The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-12-26
WOMEN AND WAR.
In All Nations Wives and Mothers Val
iantly Maintain the Martial Spirit.

iantly Maintain the Martial Spirit.
abolish WARP" said a great general
once to peace enthusiast. Before
you can do that you must reconstruct
the woman" And he was right. 1t is
the contempt of the woman for the
coward. her preference for the smart,
well-set soldier rather than the sleek
civilian, which leads, and always will
lead, thousands of men to confront
death in battle.
Napoleon fell only when the wives
and mothers of France had turned
against him. So long as they thought
he was fighting for France alone they
/ freely gave their own, and not till they
realized that he was fighting endless
wars for his own ambitious purposes
did they revolt against these perpetual
sacrifices. Woman is always patient
and ready to bear suffering; tears and
a broken heart" are too often her lot in
such times as We're these But she
will not give forever for another's
purely selfish aims.
In the American civil war women
played a great part-especially the
4 southern women. They more than any
one compelled every able-bodied man
in the south to go into the line of bat
tie. They frowned on every laggard
and loved the rags the Confederate sol
diers wore. God bless those Virginia
women." said Confederate general
they're worth a regiment apiece" II
think it a sin to eat anything that
could be used for rations," said one
great lady at the time when Lees
troops Were starving. She kept her
word and died of her self-enforced
privotions. There was--perhaps there
is still--at Washington a strange and
sad collection of letters taken from
dead soldiers on both sides and never
claimed In these mothers and wives
everywhere preach devotion and stimu-
late to noble deeds.
In the Franco German war the Ger
man women showed the same spirit
the same self-denial They met the
awful lists Of casualties at Worth, at
MARSHA Tour, at Gravelotte, at Sedan,
with heroic fortitude and calm.
In many wars women have taken an
actual part in the fighting. At Peters
burg, in the civil war, bevy of south
ern girls stood under fire and sang
Bernard Taylor's "Song Of the Camp
to cheer the southern troops. Girls
acted as guides to scouting parties on
the most dangerous errands in this
war.
Under Marlborough the famous
Christina Ross served as a dragoon in
many actions, was twice wounded, and
ended as a Chelsea out-pensioner. At
the Nile the women in the British fleet
for mems wives were then carried by
custom of the enthusiastically went to
the guns or helped with the powder di-
vision. Many were wounded, and it is
fact that the sultan sent special
present of money. The same thing
happened at Trafalgar, and probably in
every great battle which about that
time our ships fought at sea,
In the French invasion Of Spain the
Spanish women, especially distin
guished themselves by their furious
and relentless hostility to all things
French; at Saragossa and Corona they |
stood beside the men upon the ram
parts or loaded muskets for them, and |
wee betide the wounded Frenchman
who fell into their hands!
In the Franco German war there was
more than one occasion where women
took a share in the fighting. In the
hand-to- hand conflict which surged
around Bazeilles during the battle of
Sedan the Bavarians were ,naddened
by the conduct Of the women OF the
who fired repeatedly from the
houses at them and ill-treated the
wounded One old woman, who was
seen dragging an injured Bavarian to-
ward a blazing house, was shot in the
sight of all, and it is an unquestiona-
de fact that many of the gentler sex
7erished in the combat. Official Ger
nan accounts spoke of the "fanatical
md savage participation of the inhabi-
ants in the fight itself" and lola, in
MS great "Debacle," has given us a
rue and terrible picture of their deeds. i
In the Boer struggles in the past with
he kafirs the Boer women have al