The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-28
GIRLS CAN FIGHT
Legion of Death Gets No Fa-
vOrs Amid War Hardships.
American Woman Spends Two
Weeks in Russian Camp.
CH|DED LIKE SUFF PARADE
Drilled and Hardened for Front
Drilled and Hardened for Front
Same as Men.
Men Soldiers Soon Find Femi-
nine Army Not Triflers.
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD.


Petrograd, July 2S.-Drilling daily
thru the rain and mud, quartered no
whit better than the lowest peasant
private, asking no favors but TO 1lgnt
on equal terms against the enemy,
Drawing at first the SneerS and JeerS
of the male fighters, Russian women
in the LEGION of death have proved
in the supreme test they have a place
in the fighting line.
This is the opinion of Rheta Childe
Dorr, American suffragist. newspaper
woman and writer. She returned to
Petrograd today after having gone to
the front and spent two weeks with
the first women fighters who ever
were attached to a modern army.
when 1 left they had been de-
handing for many days that they be
taken to the fighting zone" Miss Dorr
said as she proudly read dispatches
telling of the splendid heroism of the
girl troops in their first action under
fire.
All Types of Girls.
81 spent two weeks with these girls
peasants, intellectuals, doctors,
stenographers, telephone operators.
and plain girls" she continued. And
1 am convinced there is a place for
women in the fighting line, as a re-
suit of that experience.
Leaving Petrograd, we Travelled in
wooden hunks on regular trains. All
along our journey station platform
| Why are you going to fight?' they
would jeer.
Because you men are cowards,'
the girls would shout back.
I'VE had a forty hour trip to head
! quarters near Wilma There we were
conducted to long, wooden huts. half
| buried in the earth and with shelves
| for beds. Thousands of soldiers gath
cred to greet us and their shouts re-
minded me of New Workers watching
/ Il orIxv Ia We
when suffragists were tainted and
ridiculed.
"On our very first night at the
front, we heard a great pounding on
the door to the building. A Jewess
sentry challenged instantly.
Aren't there girls here?' de-
| manded a voice without.
Threaten to Shoot.
''Not girls, but soldiers the Jew
ess sternly returned, and if you don't
leave we will shoot
THE disturber or disturbers went,
too
The next day the girls bathed in
| the river Girl sentinels were sta
toned in a wide circle about the
banks while number of officers
all gentlemen-assisted in keeping
1 away intruders.
Z ut rained every day but the girls
y drilled just them same. They lived
just as the men did-except that
Nine. Botchkoreva, the commander,
was more strict than the mems COM
manders. The girls called her Mis-
ter Commander
Il asked why.
"'Oh,' she replied, all military
terms are masculine and it is much
too useless a work to go thru the list,
Terminating the nomenclature OF
war
'It was natural that many men
thought the girls were of evil inten-
ton. But their minds were very soon
disabused.
MANY soldiers told the girls they
would never be allowed to get to the
front, because the boleshevikis would
kill the girl fighters. The Legion OF
Death did receive a Refused of their
request for front service from a meet
ing of boleshevikis. the explanation
being that superior officers felt the
women had not been sufficiently
trained.
Believe Women SOldiers Efficient
When word finally did come that
the legion was to be sent nearer the
front, the girls cheers and hurrahs
lasted many minutes.
THE women's Legion of Death has
overthrown every convention The
girls in it have forgotten everything
they were ever taught as wonderland
you've no idea how nice women car
be when they are absolutely natura
and unselfish.
THE girls did their job in dead ear.
nest. There was no nonsense Wher
there was skylarking. Mister Com
8 mander Botchkoreva used to shout
Don't be silly, you may be dead il
five days
Il never before thought womer
!. ought to go to war. But 1 am con
4 WINGED that in any country under sucI
conditions as those now facing Rus
4 $40, the women ought to step INTO tn,
v HTeaCh. in hand i,
try as much as the mems"