Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-28
|l[IV PRAISES
LEGION OF DEATH
1eta Childe Dorr Declares
Nomen's Worth in Actual
Fighting Is Proved
COFFED AT AT FIRST
yneering Reception of Soldiers
suggested Early New York
Suffrage Demonstrations
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD


Akx PETROGRAD, July rs.
Drilling daily through rain and mud
q tSuartered no whit better than the lowliest
I. peasant private, asking no favors but 10
n9m on equal terms against the enemy
4 ereving at first the sneers and jeers Of the
male lighters, Russian women in the 81 a.
{ ~ oi Death nave proved In the supreme
lest there is place for women in the fight.
ing line.
Ihis is the opinion Of Rheta Childe Dorr,
& american suffragist. newspaperwoman and
4 writer She returned II Petrograd today
xtter having gone TO the front and spent
two weeks with the first women fighters who
x ever were attached to a modern army
When left they had been demanding
TOT many days that they be taken 20 the
ughting zone" Miss Dorr said as she
proudly read dispatches telling Of the spien.
oid heroism of the girl troops in their first
action u-Fe- f~c
II spent two weeks with these girls
peasants intellectuals, doctors stenop -a =
piers telephone operators and pan girls"
sne continued. "and am convinced tl re
y place for women on the fighting line as
result of that experience
Leaving Petrograd we Travelled in
wooden hunks in regular trains All along
our journey station platform crowds greeted
us with ridicule.
why are you going to fight" they would
3eer
Because you men are cowards," the girls
would shout back
I'VE had n forty-hour trip to headduar.
ters near Wilma. There we were conducted
10 long wooden huts half buried in the Garth
ana with shelves for beds.
"a 'Thousa nds of soldiers gathered to greet
gs and their shouts reminded me of New
xorkers watching a suffrage parade in the
carly days when suffragists were taunted
and ridiculed.
''On our very first night at the front
We heard great pounding on the door to
the building. Jewess sentry challenged
Instantly.
Aren't there girls here?' demanded a
voice without.
Not girls. but soldiers the Jewess
sternly returned, and if you don't leave
We will shoot
The disturber or disturbers went. too.
y The next day the girls bathed in the
river. Girl sentinels were statohed in a
wide circle about the banks while n number
of of1cers-all gentlemen-assisted in keep
ing away intruders
IL rained every day. but the girls
drilled just the same. They lived just
the same. They lived just as the men
did, except that Nine Botchkoreva the
commander, was more strict than the mems
commanders. The girls called her Mister
Commander
II asked why.
"'oh.' she replied. all military terms are
masculine. and IT is much too useless a
work to go through the list femlnizing the
nomenclature of war
OPINIONS SOON CHANGED
ut was natural that MANY men thought
the girls were of evil intention But their
minds were very soon dsabused.
MANY soldiers told the girls they never
would be allowed to get to the front be-
cause the Bolshevikis would kill the girl
lighters. The Legion of Death did receive
q refusal of their request for front service
fromsa meeting Of Bolshevikis the explana-
tion being that superior officers felt the
uvok haI at haap i1fa la tra;p
when word finally did come that the
Legion was to be sent nearer the front. the
girls cheers and hurrahs lasted many min.
utes.
"The women's Legion OF Death has over
thrown every convention. The girls in II
have forgotten everything they were ever
taught women. and you've no idea how
nice women can be when they are absolute
~ natural and unselfish.
"The girls did their job in dead earnest.
There was nonsense. When there was
akylarking, Mister Commander Botchkoreva
used to shout Don't be silly you may be
dead in five days
II never before thought women ought
20 60 10 war. But / am convinced that in
any country under such conditions as those
now facing Russia the women ought to step
into the breach. gun in hand,
"It is their country as much as the
Taen's"