Daily Kennebec journal., 1900-09-08
WOMEN IN BATTLE.
kmaNns Who Have Girded Them
selves for War.
Instances from All Ages 10 Show Their vaior
and Patriotism.

been formed at Pretoria. Ii is called
the Amazon Corps. All the members
are unfit NrHed in kits and are armed"
For moment the pulse Of the
readers Of this news stopped; one OF
those catches which follows any sur
prise then the blood coursed on again.
But why should any one gasp?
Women in war. 1t is no new condi-
tion. 1t is not the first time that the
Boer women have been found at the
front. and other women of other times
and people have been as courageous.
Still the thought OF women in battle
Is not in harmony with twentieth cen
tury ideas; the much vaunted new
woman has not taken the field of
Mars the girdle of Venus better be-
comes her than the panoply OF war.
and woman in war as a woman still
shocks all humanity.
1t is not the first time that this
rumor has been circulated at the out
break Of the war il was intimated
that the Boer women would resist the
invasion of the Transvaal and the
Free State.
President Kruger, in his procIama-
tiOn to the world at the beginning OF
the war, made the peculiar statement
that if England attempted to subju-
gate the South African Republics the
Beers, would. in their extremity, re-
sort to methods which would "Stagger
humanity Putting one thing with
another, the correspondents al the
front and the military experts in Lon
don seem To have come to the conclu-
sion that Oom Pauls "staggerer" was
nothing more nor less than his deter
mindtion To put rifles in the hands Of
the Boer women 10 defend their
homes
Mr.. z. X. Bishop. who is a refugee
from the Rand, where he was engaged
in mining when the war broke out
says. II have lived in South Africa
since 1855. and think | know the BOer
character fairly well. You ask me
win the women actually fight / an
"wrr, I believe they will. They are
quite capable OF il. To the American
VINO is familiar with the character Of
the real Western frontier woman OF
our country, the idea will not Seem SO
strange Like her sisters Of former
years III the borderland OF civilization
i'm this country. the BOer woman Of to-
day is used to a life fun OF labor pri-
rations, and perils. She has learned
tO BE- s-lf-reliant, and knows how to
shoot She has stood off the black
savage with her rife when her hus-
band was away on the veldt. Why
should she not turn her skill as
markSWoman against a white invader
Of her home?
What the English would do under
such circumstances seems to be even
more certain judging from past his
tory ana national characteristics
With all their bOaSted civilization it
is Il sad fact that consideration for the
weaker sex is not a characteristic OF
Englshmen. Indeed. the charge has
been made with much evidence to
back it up that the English are a
nation of wife beaters."
Certainly, among the lower classes
~ Engnshmen wife beating is SO com
mon and notorious as to have become
the subject Of serious consideration on
the part Of many humane and reform
societies. British soldiers would not
be lenient upon the Boer women.
which is not surprising. as Boer wo-
men would have no hesitation in kill
ing British soldiers
Should the Boer women revert to
history they would find that in one
notable instance. when English valor
was pitted against the genius Of wO-
men in warfare, sex was not a barrier
tn vengeance. Joan Of Arc paid the
penalty for her temerity at the burn
ing stake. Then let the Boer women
beware
What the outside world will do IL
the issue should arise is merely a mat
ter of speculation. The world easily
gets accustomed to horrible things.
But the women have already been
found in the Boer lines When the
Yorkshire Regiment charged with
tiNNd bayOnets over the rough rocks AT
Frere they found among the dead
Eoers. shot through the forehead a
woman She had gone down among
her brethren. fighting for a common
cause. Gaunt. young, bronzed by the
hlaZing sun Of the dry. illimitable
Vcldt, clad in coarse Dutch garb a big
Euld-mounted brooch in her bosom,
hut a heroine to the death-full-
hloodcd sister Of the long line OF ANA
IONS whose pedigree is lost in the
mists Of historical dawn. And there
We're Jumps in the throats Of the men
Of Yorkshire, and tears in their eyes,
as they reverently bowed their heads
around the grave where they placed
her. with all the honors Of war.
The wives and mothers Of the
soldiers who now confront the British
are the descendants OF those stout
hearted women who loaded the guns
~ their husbands and boys while
Savages rushed upon the brush heaps
that We're the sole protection around
their laagers. Perhaps no women in
the world have changed 50 little in
TWO generations. The women OF the
i'ucr farmsteads now are just what
their grandmothers were when the
Matabtles sought their lives The
bible is still their only book, they still
prefer a quiet sedentary life and the
simple duties of their modest homes.
and they have scarcely risen in any
respect above the plane OF Intellectual
cultivation which their grandmothers
occupied; and they are Ike their
grandmothers, too. in the courage,
ronstancy. and sublime devotion with
which they are facing the awful trials
~ another crucial period i'm the history