The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-29
WOMEN SOLDIERS
THEY SERVE IN ARMY IN vE1rn.
 ZUELA AND ELSEWHERE.
Whole Families Enlist Sometimes in Central and South American Republics-Women and Chil- dren Often More Savage
 Fighters Than Men.

When patriotic citizens are called to arms in the United States and other highly civilized countries the girls are left behind. It is not so everywhere. In Venezuela, Hayti. Colombia, Santo Do- mingo. Bolivia, Nicaragua and some of the other less advanced Latin American countries the entire family sometimes goes to war. says the New York Sun. It happens this way A revolution Is in progress, and there Is an urgent de. mand for troops by both sides. A group of half-civilized Indians are tilling the fields A band of soldiers comes along. surrounds them and march, es them all on to fight for cause about which they know and care nothing,
 But my wife, my boys. senor!" walls the peon to the commandante who has captured him. What is to become of them?"
 The family troops up. weeping, and Segs the officer to let the man 70. The officer looks at them thoughtfully and sees that the boys are strapping lads of twelve and fourteen, and that hls wife is a fine, strong woman.
 10. I must take your man." he tells her, but if you like, you and the boys can come, too. They are strong though to march and carry rifles, and ydu can help do the cooking for us and look after the wounded"
 So it comes about that the entire fam fly marches off to the front happy and cheerful again. There are no harder people in the world than the Indians of Central America, Colombia and venexue- la. Even the women think nothing of marching thirty miles a day over rouga mountain tracks. carrying a rifle, a heavy cartridge belt, a machete and a packload of miscellaneous baggage,
 Sometimes @ guerrilla band will enlist all the members of family, from the youngest boy of ten to the grandfather of seventy. And they will march and fight side by side-husband, wife, mother and daughter, father and son, unciee, aunts. cousins and grandparents During the recent civil war in Colom- bia, when the government was very hard pressed for troops. 1t was a common prac- tice to surround country churches on Sunday and forcibly enlist the entire | congregation, except old people and in- fants unable to march.
 The armies with which President Cas- tro has made his great fight against the Matos revolutionists in Venezuela com prise large proportion of mere boys | whose ages range as low as 8 and 9, and every company of his soldiers has from dozen to twenty women attached to it. They are generally Indians or mulattos nAtU thCy AAdAOh With tIO U666hB6 tEdiH When Castro's army marched home to Caracas last January in triumph, after defeating the revolutionists a few days before Christmas, foreigners had a good chance to study it's makeup. First came the fife and bugle band, composed of half a dozen ragged Indian boys, blowing a triumphal march for all they were worth. Behind them, riding proudly on g stolen mule, a copper-col- ored general carried a huge Venezuelan flag, its gaudy stripes of red, blue and yellow Haunting proudly in the sunlight. He was dressed in a pair of tattered red trousers, with a broad gold stripe, a blue service blouse like that of the United States army. an old palmleaf hat with a ribbon of the Venezuelan colors twisted around 1t, and a pair of alpargattas-the native canvas sandal, which exposes the toes and heels
 A Mauser rife was slung over his shoul- der, an Andino maehete, with a gayly colored scabbord, hung on one side and brass-hilted regulation sword on the other, while the belt around his waist contained a heavy revolver and enough cartridges for a Maxim gun.
 The army followed in single file, gen. erals and colonels marching along on the Hanks in generous profusion. There was field officer to every half dozen men, but you could hardly tell the field offi- cers from the rank and file.
 The officers were dressed in odds and ends of uniform from nearly every army in the world. The rank and file with no pretense at uniform, but wore anything they happened to have picked up. Some went half naked.
 The Indians, who made up the bulk of the army wore their favorite alpargat- tas: but few negroes and the mulattoes went barefooted. They all marched along sturdily at a swinging quickstep- almost a trot-although they had cov- cred thirty miles that day and gone through a fortnight's hard campaigning.
 Each man carried a mauser, a belt full of cartridges, a machete or sword, and perhaps a blanket, mess kettle and tin pan. The Venezuelan soldier has to be his own commissariat service, or go without.
 There were scores of little boys, 6 or 10 years old carrying cut-down Mausers, and stepping out as bravely and sturdily as the rest. An even stranger sight to foreigners eye was company of Indian and mulatto women, well armed, who marched at the rear of the army with the baggage train.
 Alere and there whole family marched together-women and men. boys and girls all mixed up. There was no at tempt to enforce military order. If the soldier liked to enjoy the society of wo- men folk and children on the march, the general didn't think 1t was up to him to interfere
 Indeed. it was good business for the re- public, as all the members of the family were quite ready to fight whenever the need arose. They cost nothing to feed. for the army had no official commissa- riat It lived on the country.
 The soldiers foraged for themselves, with the help of their children and wo- men folk. Nearly every man in the force had A little loot to show, if 1t was only A skinny fowl or a Nnall bunch of plan tains swung on his /Iauser rife.
 The fortune of war often brings men to the front with surprising rapidity fin these republics The family that goes to war ragged and shoeless may, in a few short weeks or months, become one of the greatest in the land. A man may be A ragged Indian peasant one year and distinguished general the next.
 When President Castro fought his way to supreme power in Venezuela. many men went up on the crest of the wave with him. One of them, Gen. Louis Ota- lora, used to be the village barber at Cas- tro's home in the Andes. He still slaves the President. as part of his military duties.
 Another friend of CastnO's, an old In- dian who had fought well. was made minister of war. He immediately pur- chased a gorgeous uniform. with lots of gold and silver lace on it. and then walked into his wlfes room to show her hia finery. She died on the spot. Her heart was weak. and the Joy of seeing him so magnifcently arrayed was too