Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-08-01
WOMEN REVEAL SELVES
As HERO|NEs OF FRANCE
Even More Than Men, They Have
Taken Up Cudgels In Behalf
OF Their Country.
SOCIAL LINES ARE LEvELED
Social Favoritcs, Countcsses II
Scullery Maids Work Side by Side
on Terms Of Perfect Equality Tor
Victory Over Germany.
nv C. +. BertclIi.

NEW YORK, July 31.-The French
women as we'll as the men. perhaps
more than the men. have revealed them.
selves as of the stuff of which heroes
are made. The men fight; the men
die. Since tho fateful August, 1914.
all the men. duke and street sweeper
have shared equally In the ~l-kill
d%rudgery of trench warfare; But inc
remained out OF action. have OF their
| own free will taken VI the cudSel TO
aid in the terrific struggle.
For them no fashionable show Of
prettily cut uniforms, for them no
| street parades with f~ambouyant PEN
nants. no displays of fireworks. no vul-
gar society journal advertisement-as
n matter OF fact society journals no
longer exist.
Every village in France holds a hos
| pital. every railroad station has its
canteen and frst-aid posts: every army
corps. every regiment. every brigade
its own sanitary organization. Most
of the latter are not only within sound
all these hospitals. all these canteens.
all these Red Cross hnts planted in
the mud and snow or under the scorch-
ing sun are manned by the women of
France.
SOCIAL RANK AND WEALTH
MEANING NOTHING VOW
Social rank and wealth count no
more. L nave personally come across
a countess very popular with the WASH
/ inGton diplomatic set and we'll known
for her fastidiouSt tastes ana urr dainty
elegance, working as an auxiliary nurse
in a hospital in the north of France.
| She was attired in rough overans with
out sleeves which revealed her arms.
once SO admired in the salons of the
fashionable world. ~roughened and red
dened by her mental labors. This wo-
man has been at her post since octo-
her. 1914. and has had three narrow
escapes when German long range guns
CURED shells and high explosives near
or on her hospital. This l. only one
instance out of thousands but heroism
is by no means shown only in deeds Of
personal valor within the war zone.
Most of the women who. for some rea-
son or other are not engaged in Red
Cross work. are devoting their energies
In some other manner 10 1.-The same
great cause. Hundreds of thousands of
them are working nine and ten hours
a day in she'll factories or have taken
the place of men at the pillow al.
the reaper SO that the army may be
fed. others are doing mems work driv-
iRS street cars or as conductors in
w as postmen. telegraph OPP
orators and in innumerable other ways
are insurinG the more or less regular
internal life of the nation.
together with these. other women.
VINO before the war were known the
world over as arbiters of elegance and
fashion,. are now the essence of sim
plicity and self-sacrifce. paraEons Of
domestic economy. 1t is an unwrit-
ten law among them that no money
more than is strictly necessary shall
ne spent on frivolities., Life has sim
mered down to its simplest expression.
Every cent that can be saved is set
ASIDE and as soon as SEQ is collected a
victory bond is purchased.
TWO REAT AcTopS
STAND IN WAR
Two great new factors stand out IN
tnls war; the submarine and the air
plane. AS we allies have command of
me sea We do not need a great fleet
OF SUBMARINES; we rather need brains
10 nnd the means of rendering harm
Tess the underwater pirates.
But America can help most 10 COM
naho victory by turning the utmost OF
ner energies toward aviation and in
tensive agriculture. That America ia
oolns 80 is proved by the great prepa-
rations made in France to receive
thousands of machines and to train
thousands of aviators. Without re-
Nealing any secret. | can saw that
aviation training camps of immense
proportions and huge plants for the
'lhishins of machines are aln,ost
ready 10 begin operation.
|