The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-06-26
OF Interest to Women
BY wInona Evans Reeves.

at PetrOgTaQ the OTBduiZdtlou u
womans regiment which bears the
grim title, THE Command Of Death"
The regiment was raised by a twice
wounded girl officer, Vera Butch
kareff. The regiment has been re-
viewed by the minister Of war and
will leave in fortnight for the front
and has been assigned to the Minsk
sector. The women wear soldiers
khaki blouse, short trousers and or
binary women's black stockings and
heavy shoes. The women range In
years from Is to 25 years, the great
majority are unmarried. Mothers are
not eligible to enlistment. Most OF
the recruits are from the higher edu-
cational institutions, with few
peasants, factory girls and servants.
The most rigid system of discipline
is exacted, to eliminate those who are
physically weak. The smallest breach
of discipline Is punished by expul-
sion in disgrace. They carry the
cavalry carbine which is five pounds
lighter than the regular army rifle.
The regiment is fully differed and
is entered in the list OF regiments
in the Russian army.
There has recently been placed in
Lle dlAlh COllSSIlOA dI IAV poDiAS
library Jane Adams latest book,
The Long Road of Woman's Memory.
The book, as the author explains,
was called into being by remarkable
experience which came to the resi-
dents Of Hull House in a period OF
several weeks in which they were re-
ported to be <harboring within It's
walls so called Devil Baby One
day three Italian women came run
ming in breathlessly and demanded
to see the Devil Baby. This was
the first knowledge Of the story OF
his existence which came to Miss
Adams, and no amount Of denial
could convince the Italian women
that there was no such baby. The
three women were the forerunners OF
veritable multitude; for six weeks
from every part of the city and SUI
burbs the streams of visitors to this
mythical baby poured in all day and
far into the night, SO that the regu-
lar activities of the settlement were
OF necessity almost abandoned. The
Italian version of the story, which
pious Italian girl had married an
atheist. Her husband in rage had
torn holy picture from the bed
room wall, saying that he would
quite as soon have a devil in the
house as such thing, whereu2on
the devil incarnated himself in her
coming child. AS soon as the Devil
Baby was born, he ran about the
table shaking his finger in deep re-
proach at his father, who finally
caught him in fear and trembling and
brought him to Hull House Where
the story originated no one has been
able to find. The visitors to the
mythical Devil Baby included per-
sons of every degree of prosperity
and education, even physicians and
trained nurses, who assured Hull
House residents of their scientific
interest, came. The story travelled
by that primitive method "by word
of mouth" for the newspapers did not
carry any mention Of it until the
fifth week of its reputed existence.
Now all is grist which comes to
Jane Adams mill. and it is to oe
expected that from this flood OF Wis
an impossible, improbable story, she
should draw sociological deductions.
The visitors who interested her most
were the old women whose road OF
memory is long. The tragedy of the
young wife in the story of the Devil
Baby, and of the swift punishment
which came to the cruel, wicked hus-
band, satisfied their sense of Justice,
which In their own hard lives had
been long delayed. In the book she
has set down the stories told by these
old women work worn, and hardened
to poverty and into whose lives sor-
row in it's most hideous form has
come. Out of it she learned that
memory in some subtle fashion
changes these experiences and SO
makes the most wretched life accept
able and in rare moments even
beautiful.
No one writes more intelligently on
the social evil than does Jane Adams
as evidenced by her book, A New
Cons cience, and an Ancient Evil. In
The Long Road Of Woman's Memory
she devoted most Of one chapter to
the spirit of the women who have In
herited from generations of good
mothers, multitude of obscure wom
en-, tendency to rise in rebellion
against that which brings evil and
impure surroundings to their chill
dren. These mothers who would |
safeguard the purity and integrity OF
their homes, by instinct recognize
those people and those things which
are enemies to it.
In one chapter she gives the men,
DRY of her experience in Europe in
the first year Of the great war. She
met in Germany the mother of the
man who was required by the mill
tary authorities TO make the formula
for the death dealing gas which has
been one Of the horrors Of the war.
This woman with whom she talked,
had been identified for years with
the care Of delinquent children and
had done much to establish the chill
dren's court and. her work had been |
recognized and commended by the |
imperial government. Her son held |!
a state position as professor of in !!
dustrial chemistry in the university |
and his research work had done much |
to better factory conditions. He had
found in his Investigations that the |
fumes released in a certain indus trial
int 70 no