Iditarod pioneer., 1914-09-26
SERVIAN WOMEN READY
 TO FIGHT WITH THEIR MEN

NEW 1Olkh, AiS. 10. totlNidS " di strength may be given as 240,000, but that figure must be doubled, for all Servian women can and will bear arms" declared Princess Lazarovitch- h-Hrebeanovich, the American wife of the last descendant of the cd Servian kings.
 Even now l have no doubt they are drilling as the Montenegrin women did dur ing the Balkan campaign, and looking over
 their underground storehouses, for they al ways have had charge of the commissary department of the army. For every Servan soldier who falls there will be a wife or sister to take up his gun.
 "They are wonderful creatures, tall and almost overmusced from outdoor work they have done for generations. They are often very beautiful And always they are aGre with patriotism"
 The princess drew herself up and her blue eyes frightened with pride in her adopted countrywomen. It IS easy to be- lieve that she was very kindly received when she went to them as California beauty fifteen years ago.
 Tn the great wars of the past when the men have fought the Turks in front, the women have fired their guns at the Austri8ns in the rear. They have fought side by side with the men, worn the same uniforms, undergone the same hardships and in the end received the same honors from their country.
 Perhaps 1t is because these women have fought and died beside the men that there Is no need for suffrage in Servia. Long be- fore Magma Charta was thought of the queen sat in the Servian parliament with her husband, and when the king issued proclamatio nhe began it: I have taken council with my dear wife, the council of state and the national assembly, and do hereby decree
 To-day if woman is considered the most ebla member of one of the great family groups CT Zadrugas into which Servia is organized she is unhesitatingly elected its head. Then it is her business to over see the work of the fields which belong to the family and it's branches in common and the work of the household as well. The men obey her unhesitatingly.
 "When man Is head of the family his wife oversees the househCli work. There is the great central house, with its i'm mense never dying fire in the middle of the central room. Oxxen and sheep are often roasted whole over the oak logs and hams and pieces of sheep meat are smoked in the great chimney which overhangs the fire Ike an extinguiShor above a candle.
 There is much cooking to be done for the sons and cousins and their wives come in from their little cottages CT voy ats scat tered round about for the evening meal. The women do the work in groups a week at time Afterward they sit about the great fire and someone plays on the one stringed fiddle of the country while an other sings enc of the cid ballads of Servian victory At intervals the young people dance. For refreshments there is a great cauldron of green corn boiling on the fire.
 Tt is these songs and dances, with the stories Cf the old days tcld to the chil- dren around the fire, with the good food and the free education, that make the Serv- i iens the wonderful, indomitable people they are The upright lives they lead may con tribute something to their moral fiber for | there is practically no illegitimacy in the country. while just across the border, where the Serbs are crushed under Austrian tyr amy it amounts to 40 per cent of the population.
 Not 500 Serbs have left their country, but they emigrate from the Austrian ruled provinces by thousands every year. These are the men who are croWding the boats the men who want to see Bosnia and Her zegovina and Croatia free once more. And the women will follow them if they fall, How many of them l wonder, are brighten ing up the daggers they wore from child hood to preserve themselves from Turkish and Austrian soldiers