The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-10-13
|WOl Nan SOLDIE *
IS NOTHING new


rather remarkable name sue
had, judging from the size OF the
roll II made.
Clipped Hair.
The women that enlisted In the
Battalion of Death" had their
hair clipped close TO their heads
This woman and others I s&w
afterward in the ranks still held
to their long locks.
She marched up and down the
platform exactly like the mao
soldier patrolling the other ends
and was utterly indifferent to any
staring attention she might ~.
ceive from passing trains. Il was
evident she was used TO the ssrv-
ice and its duties.
l asked a Russian officer with
us on the train about this appari-
tion and he said IL was q commons
place sight. He said there were
hundreds OF women serving In the
Russian ranks as regular soldiers.
They had offered themselves for
enlistment, making no attempt to
disguise their sex, and the gov
eminent had willingly taken them.
Without exception they made good
soldiers and many OF them had
been decorated for acts Of con-
spicuous courage.
Want To Fight.
asked him what induced them
to enlist.
Apparently" he said, ut Is be-
cause they want to fight. They
seem to be interested In the war
and want to take part In II. I
SUPPOSE with some II ia sheer love
of adventure. but with the most
IL is a patriotic impulse. Some
have lost their husbands In the
war and enlist to take their hus-
bands places. Some, think, are
aroused by the falsehood that
Russia Is to stop fighting and
want to show that the old Russian
spirit Ia not dead. That was what
brought out the Battalion OF
Death, you know.
Eyes. they are trained exactly
like the men, go thru the same
course Of instruction and have
the same duties to do IN the field.
No distinction Is made. In fact,
when they go into the army they
drop every consideration Of their
sex. As a rule they are serious
minded persons. There is no sky
lark about their performance.
They are In the army to fight"
Mostly Peasants.
asked him what class they
came from. He said they were
mostly peasant women, but there
were women OF all classes In the
army.
He said the only weakness the
woman soldier developed was
usually about her feet. She could
not stand the long marches so
we'll as men. Otherwise. she
could march, fight, dig trenches
and handle machine guns AZ well
as any of them. There were au-
thenticated cases. he said, where
women had chung to dangerous
positions after men had retreated,
and he told me the story OF one
woman soldier who, finding all
her company officers had been
killed, assumed the command,
rushed the company forward and
took q trench.
This, I found afterward, was an
incident In the life of the woman
that commands the Battalion OF
Death"
Runs Cars.
The Russian woman has often
found more to do In this war
than to sit at home and knit
socks. or course. she ID now the
conductor on all the street cars
Of Petrograd, Moscow and other
cities. This is not SO remark
able, because women are doing
such work in other belligerent
countries OF Europe. In Russia
she is working in the factories.
laying pavements In the streets,
building railroads, booming q
carpenter and machinist, and
learning other unusual trades.
At the town Of Zima, in Siberia,
switch engine on an adjoining
track came down past us as we
were in the dining car for lunch
con and revealed the fact that the
firing person on 1t was a woman.
She was dressed in greasy over
alls and wore an old black cap
above her hair. which, ~ in the
case of the woman soldier, was
done up In some kind OF a knot
at the nape of her neck. She
handled the coal shovel with neat
ness and dispatch; also, | Judge
with skill, for we were at that
station about an hour. the engine
kept steadily at It's switching Job
and she furnished all the firing.
Old Hand.
When she wasn't handling tho
shovel she was sitting on The
seat at the fireman's side Of the
machine and contemplating thu
world with that air of professional
unconcern that the sexperienced
railroad man always has; 90 I
gathered she was no new hand.
In fact. know she wasn't, be-
cause no one around the station
paid any attention to her. Aft.
lerward we found that she was not
the only woman firing person, and
no one In Russia now was aato<(-
ished to see woman engaged a
any kind OF work that men could
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