The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-03

on. PETERSBURG, August 2.-(spe
cial)-Irene Schischmanoff an inn
~ passioned Bulgarian girl of "a, is
the Jeanne dare of Peace. She is touring
Russia as a lecturer in the cause of human
fraternity. and she hopes later to visit
West Europe and America. She is preach
ing the horrors of war as she has seen
them on Thracian battefelds Everywhere
she meets with uneXampled success. Mos
COW high school girls got SO enthusiastic
that they formed a Universal Peace
league, each member of which vowed to
marry no man who has been soldier or
. approves of war. The Jeanne d'Arc of
Peace, who is creating this tremendous
effect, is simple, unpretending little per-
son. and, like the first Jeanne dare, she
ascribes her miraculous success to di-
vine call and to the Intervention of Prov
idence.
Trina schischmanoff is the only
daughter of an illiterate farmer of Tir-
novo. She has had no chance in life eX-
cept what she made for herself. Her
father wanted her to stay at home and
plough tSe rye fields, but Trina rebelled.
When aged 10 she made alone for Phflli-
poppolis, where there is good girls school
ing, and set hard to work She had then
no notion of turning out a peace prophet.
Her "calr' came later when the Russo
Japanese war broke out. Trina was then
49, and from that day on she has never
forgotten that she is called to serve the
cause of peace.
Mile. Schischamanoff describes how the
CALI came 'T was sitting" she re-
calls ''in my bedroom, just after sunset,
when it suddenly grew pitch dark This
frightened me, ana took it as a precur-
sor of fainting fits, such as l have some
times had. But a sudden wind blew
through the window, and instead of feel
ing faint I felt extraordinarily awake,
and with all my senses concentrated, It
seemed, on one thing. Soon afterwards
in the darkness of the room an irregular
white background formed. and on this
saw what must have been a battle
field. All I could make out were occa-
sonal heaps of dead and dying men, and
many hills. from which l guessed that I
was looking at battlefield,
which may have been Port Arthur. A
moment later I heard a droninS sound; a
blue cross rose over one of the hills, and
q hand above the cross beekoned to me
imperatively. The droning sound ceased,
and heard the words ''Voina protiv
voina"- bulgarian for war against
sswar') Next moment the battlefield
faded the white background grew grey.
the room became lighter, and found N.Y.
self sitting again in the after-sunset twi-
light"
Trina took this vision as summons
from heaven to make war upon war. me
chance of obeying the summons seemed
remote, as Trina was penniless student,
and she had no money. and none of the
political and military knowledge necessary
for peace campaign. Brooding on the
vision, she completed her studies at Phil
lipoppolis, and next went to Berne, where
she studied further. She got the degrees
of doctor of philosophy and of medicine.
When she returned to her Tirnovo homo
she found war with Turkey brewing Hop
Ing at last to fit herself for war against
war. she Joined the Bulgarian forces as
a nursing sister
The Jeanne dare of peace found her
self first with the army of Ivanoff before
Adrianople and next with the army Of
Kutincheff which marched on Tchatadza.
She dressed hundreds of wounded from
the Adrianople trenches, and hundreds
more who were wounded during the first
abortive assault of Tchaltaldza. The ex-
perience of real war confirmed her pas
sion for peace She describes how at one
time she desired peace so strongly that
she was willing even to forego part of the
Bulgarian success After the second
batch of wounded came from AdrianopIe
had another call I felt innpeled to
rush to the 'front.' to dash in between the
combating armies and plead for peace.
And vowed that as soon as l was freed
from my nursing work I would travel all