The Prescott daily news., 1907-06-01

(Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee Is the one woman in this country who has held a commission as an officer of the United States army During the Spanish Amer ican war, as director of the hospital corps organized by the Army and Navy chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo- luton, of which society she was vice pres ident- general. pr, McGee was regularly appointed assistant surgeon of the army. During the war she was constantly on duty. visiting hospitals and battlefelds In her capacity of director and supervisor of the armys trained nurses. She was prominently connected with the Japanese hospital service during the late war with Russia. Dr. McGee studied abroad at Cambridge and the University of Geneva She was graduated from Columbia uni versity of Washington in 1889. Later she took a special course at Johns Hopkins hospital She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Soience)
 An army has always two parts. One part is the actual fighters, who work, suffer and die and at the end receive all the glory. The other part is those who provide for the fighters. They also work and suffer and die. but at the end they are ignored and afterward forgotten.
 There are naturally very few wom. en who have achieved glory in the fighting part of an army. though the amazons are well known and Semira' mis- Zenobia and Jeanne d Arc were commanders of armies. In former times, however, many woman con cealed her sex and took her place in the ranks as a man, though, from the nature of the case, not many of their names are known. Among those who enlisted in our revolutionary army were Deborah Sampson. Elizabeth Canning and Molly Macauley, and the last-named won the grade of sergeant before being discovered. It has been estimated that during our civil war no less than 400 women contrived by some means or other to enlist as sol diers. The most recent instance of fighting women was in the Transvaal war when many burgher's wife han dled a weapon at his side and many were taken prisoners, some of them being dressed as men. It is quite common for the royal women of Flu rope today to hold honorary commits. sions, generally as colonels, and al. though not expected to take command in time of actual war. they do wear their uniforms and ride with their troops on occasions of ceremony.
 But, after all, the true story of women in armies relates to their part in providing and caring for the fight. CTS The present elaborate organiza. tion of armies is of comparatively re. cent growth. and originally the greater part of the cooking and of the nursing of soldiers was done by their hardy female relatives. who were as well able as themselves to bear the fatigues of the campaign. It is al ways easier to procure a new soldier than it is to cure one who is sick or wounded, and the humane medical corps, as one of the departments of an army. was a growth of the last care of the sick was largely left to the great catholic order of knights and the orders of sisters who were af1liated with them. On the continent ol Europe today, although large majority of army nurses are men. yet sisters of catholic orders who not only continue to follow the troops in time of war, but who serve as head nurses an large army hospitals in time of peace.
 About the beginning of the last cen.