The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-20
Davis Tells an Interesting Story of His Trip From France With a Kings Messenger
HARDER WORK TO GET OUT OF FRANCE
 THAN TO GET IN
Widows Veil Is Passport That Always Brings the Officers to Their Feet in Difference
By RICHARD HARDING DAVIS.

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 London, February 4.--(Specia1 Cor -respondence.) Jon returning to London for the fourth time since the war be- gan, but after an absence of months. one finds her much nearer the field or operations.
 A year ago her citizens enjoyed the confidence that comes from living on an island Compared with Paris, where at Claye the enemy was within 5 miles and at the Forest of Montmorency within 10 miles. London seemed as far removed from the front as Montreal.
 Since then so many of her men have left for the front, so many of the ene- my's airships have visited her, that she seems a part of it. A year ago an officer entering restaurant was con- scious of his uniform. Today, any where in London a man out of uniform. or not wearing & khaki armiet, is as conspicuous as a scarlet letter box.
 A year ago the lamps had been so darkened that it was not easy to find the keyhole to your street door. Now, you are in luck if you find the street. Nor does that mean that you have lin- gered long at dinner. For after s:30 nowhere in London can you buy drink; not at your hotel, nor even ae your club. At 9:sO the waiter whisks your drink off the table. What happens to it after that, only the waiter knows.
 EVERYONE HAS UNIFORM
 A year ago the only women in Lon- don in uniforms were the nurses Now. so many are in uniform that to one .iafto- 4ba,, r,rasa,+aa @t.e .,, .,..+ ing change the war has brought to that city, Those wao live in London. to whom tl,e change has come gradual Iiss. are probably hardly aware how sig nificant 1t Is.
 Few people. certainly few men, guessed that so many positions. that before the war were open only to men. could be filled quite as acceptab1y by women. Only the comic papers guessed it. All that they ever mocked at. all the suffragettes, and "equal rights women ever hoped for. seems to have come true-even to women policemen. True. they do not take the place of the real. immortal London Bobby neither do the special constables." but if a young girl is out late at night with her young man in khaki, she is held up by policewoman and sent home. And her young man in khaki dare not resist
 Tn Paris when the place of a man who had been mobilized was taken by his wife. sister or daughter. no ons was surprised French women have for years worken in partnership with men to a degree unknown in England They helped as bookkeepers, shopkeep- CTS, in the restaurants they always handled the money, in the theatres. the ushers, box openers were women. the government tobacco shops were run by women. That French women were capable, efficient, hard-working was as trite a saying as that the Japanese are a wonderful little people. So. when the men went to the front and the wo- men carried on their work, they were only proving a proverb.
 GAVE WOMAN HER CHANGE
 But in England, careers for women, outside those of governess, typist. bar maid or show girl, which entailed mar tContinued on Page Two)