The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-05-09
COULD WOMEN FIGHT?
Only Living Englishman Who
Has Opposed AmaZOns in
Battle Says eyes"


ton, Should Women Fight?" or
Would Women Fight?" would
have told him that he could get a
more authoritative answer to the first
question from those bishops who have
decided that curates should not
fight" and for information on the
second point I would have referred
him to any one of the half dozen po-
Hcemen saw keeping back a crowd
of would-be purchasers at a. West
End drapery sale the other day.
He has knocked at the right door,
however for an answer to the ques-
ton, Gould Women Fight?'' for
have had practical experience of wo-
men behind rifles. I have fought
again or side by side with men of
pretty nearly all nations, and of all
shades of butter, snuff or ebony color,
and I am firmly convinced that as a
fighter, "the female of the species is
more deadly than the male among
humans, as among animals.
Better Than Some Men
Yes, women could fight, believe me.
feel as If my tongue is too big for
my mouth, and as If my throat is
lined with crinkly paper, when I think
even now of women as fighters. That
is a memory Of the Camp Of Thirst
in Dahomey, where a battalion de
marche' of the Foreign Legion, con-
sisting OF picked men, battalion of
"Marsouins,'' or colonial infantry,
composed of long-service soldiers, and
other French troops, were kept away
from the water for three days owing
chiefly to the prowess of the Anna
IONS, who led and encouraged the
male warriors.
! These Amazons were black women,
and it may be thought that their abil-
ity to fight is no proof that civilized
white women could do SO. But my
experience goes to show that all wo-
men are pretty much alike under
their skins, and that the only doubt
as to the ability of white women to
fight is the doubt as to whether the
softness of civilization could be train
ed out of them.
I thing this could be done in the
case of almost any healthy, well-de-
yeloped young woman. and am alb
solutely certain that battahons Of wo-
men could be raised in this country
that would be far and away more wall
liable as a military asset than many
of the battalions up and down the
country at the present time.
'The Golden-Legged Lady"
There are several very interesting
cases in this war of individual wo-
| men having distinguished themselves
as fighters, but, so far as I know,
there is no really authentic record of
| white women having fought in train
ed and disciplined bodies. It is true
that in certain chronicle of the
= 80 Of
noble French women fought gallant
~ in Palestine under leader who
was called 1.-THE Lady with the Col
den Legs, but I have never been
able to find any sober historical war
rant for belief that this dame and
| the damsels ever existed. It is also a
fact that during the French revolu-
ton a brigade of Amazons was form
| ed, but here again cannot find any
| trustworthy record of their having
| done any fighting. AS to the ANA
IONS Of antiquity, there Is hardly any
| room for doubt that they were purely
| mythical, notwithstanding the circum-
stantial accounts Of them to be found
in many of the early Greek writer's
VIII Germany Use Them
1t is possible that this war will
| provide the first authentic case of the
| employment of regiments of white
women in war. I do not think we
shall fall back on our women, what
sver happens, but speaking from an
intimate knowledge of German charac-
| ter, am inclined to the opinion thai
| our men may have to face organized
bodies of German women If we even
| get SO far as the invasion of Ger.
| many, Sentiment would prevent III
| from utilizing women as soldiers, ever
| If our national existence were threat
ened, but there is no sentiment il
| Germany when it comes to war to the
knife,
IF reports speak truly, both Ger
| many and Austria are already util
izing women in quasi-military employ
| ments on the lines of communica
tiens, and it is but short step from
that to making real soldiers of them