Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1912-11-23
WOMEN ACTIVE IN
THE FOREIGN WAR
Montenegro, Greek and Bulgarian
Princesses Do Hospital Work
Some Fighting With Men.

LONDON, Nov. 19-One of the very
interesting features OF the present
war Is the part women Is playing in
IT, Hitherto sending her men folk
OFF to the fray and nursing them when
they returned I'll or wounded have
been the tasks allotted to her. Now
the feminine element has chosen more
numerous and onerous duties for her
self in time Of battle.
To be sure she still plays minis
tering angel, but she goes into the
field as qualified doctor, as well as
nurse. She acts as war correspond
ent. She organizes relief funds for
the families bereft of wage earners
and she even takes place in the fight
ing line and shows courage and pres
ence of mind.
The woman war correspondent was
inevitable at the present rate of fem
mime progress, and that she has made
good in her work is beyond question.
Miss Mary Durham who is sending
dispatches to the London Daily Chron-
icle is an Englishwoman who has liv-
ed In Montenegro for IL years. She
went there in poor health and with
shattered nerves. "A thorough
change" the doctors recommended.
She got it in sunny Montenegro
among those picturesque people who
garb themselves like characters in a
comic opera and who live in white
huts in their mountain Businesses,
with pretty village in a strip of
green valley for their capital
Call Her English Mother"
She grew to love the place and its
people. She learned their language,
lived their life, and won their hearts.
English Mother they call her, for
she has taught ind tended them in
good times and bad
She has written books of merit and
value on Montenegro, Servia and
Albania. Then when the war came
she took up work as a correspondent
and has been sending interesting stor-
les from the front. but more than that,
she has also acted as doctor and nurse
She has dressed wounds, made band
1 ages and cooked food for the brave
men who are fighting for freedom,
and she has endeayored to enforce
some simple rules of hygiene and
cleanliness in the sheds which serve
as hospitals
Miss Durham is tall and sturdily
built, with a strong kind, intelli-
gent face. and has indomitable cour.
age and will, and she has a ringing
laugh that puts heart into every sol
der, no matter how he is suffering.
A Swedish Journalist.
Another woman war correspondent
halls from Sweden She is Miss Ezra
Helberg. a well-known journalist in
Stockholm. She is % years of age,
very handsome and exceedingly at
tractive. She takes her present du-
ties most seriously and has donned
male attire and obtained a permit ad-
hitting her to the very thick of the
fighting. She is quite an adept with
the small ivory-handled revolver
pen that also forms part Of her equip
ment.
The royal ladies have come forward
nobly to help their country people
Queen Milena, of Montenegro, is fire.
quent visitor to the hospitals, while
her daughter Princess Xenia, has
enrolled herself as a nurse. and has
worked hard in that capacity and
against great odds, for Montenegro
hospitals are primitive, and there is
inadequate provision for the care of
the wounded. The very sight of their
beautiful Princess in her nurses un.
form rouses the loyal and emotional
soldiers to a frenzy of enthusiasm.
The Bulgarian Queen, Elenore, is
playing similar part and is very use
full, for her knowledge of nursing and
ambulance work is most thorough.
Princess Nurse; Husband Warrior.
Princess Andrew of Greece has gone
to the front as a nurse. while her
husband is in the fighting line. She
is not an amateur either, for she has
studied nursing and medicine She
is so timid, modest and retiring that
no one believed she would take a step
like this, which means facing the hor-
rors of war without fiinching, and her
action has brought her very close to
the hearts of her people, who never
before have felt her one of themsel-
YES, for like most English princesses
tshe was Alice of Battenberg) she has
chung to British speech and ways ever
since her marriage at Is to the son
of King George of Greece.
Princess Nicholas of Greece is or
ganizing relief funds and giving pub
lie talks to the women of her coun.
try, urging them to sacrifice and brave
deeds, and Princess Ivan Constantine
witch, the daughter of King Peter of
Servia. is also collecting money for
the wounded and bereft of her father.
land.