New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-20
Hail to the "Waacs"!
II is up to you.

w aaCS is tne newest worn III Ine Wal
vocabulary to-day. This is the merry ap-
pelation which good luck and the alpha
! let have bestowed upon England's soldier
girls. No time was wasted over there In
wrangling and writing to the editor about
the respective merits Of "Susie Atkins
or "Molie- go-to- the War" Women's
Auxiliary Army Corps is the name of the
organization, so "Waacs" they were, with
out more ado.
Prosaic- minded persons cabled to the
newspapers in this country that tine
women are to wear uniform consisting
OF khaki tunic and trousers, high boots
and sombrero hats 1t remained for
Miss Cicely Hamilton in recent letter to
inform a waiting world that the proper
title for the costume is Somewhere in
France" This is reminiscent OF those
strangely faraway days when the Paris
couturiers We'd with each other IN devils
ing poetca names for their creations
and mankins lovely beyond all POSSIBLE
ity OF imitation stroled about clad IN
"Mists Of Morning and "Maiden's
Prayer" Much cheerful news may be eX-
pected from an army of "Waacs' who so
tuoyantly retain their feminine interest
in clothes, even in the responsible hours
Of establishing history for the first women
&c partake in the actual business of max
ing war.
They are a strange contrast to the pitt
full Legion of Death" in Russia. One can
not. of course, imagine Russian peasant
women hunting about for CHEEKY name
for their uniform, any more than one
would expect the tragic soul OF the Rus
sian woman to be content to do her bit
rubbing down an officers horse or typing
lis reports after day in the trenches.
The women of England go about their
warning chuckling. as the men do, and
probably would thank no one to point out
that the chuckle browns out the Sob
Everything that women can do at home
can be done behind the firing line. 1t has
taken the world many thousand years to
discover this, but England having made
the discovery sent her women in a mat
ter-of-fact way TO the war and said no
more about them. They live in barracks
exactly like those provided for the men
and are subject to rigid army discipline.
They perform duties which release thou
sands of men for actual work IN the
trenches. Women as mechanics, automo-
bile drivers, cooks, stenographers, wait
resses. packers and telephone operators,
mixers, haymakers, horsekeepers and
market gardeners are coming to be the
accepted thing in the British army of to-
day. as the nurse was in the army OF yes
terday. Properly housed and fed under
army regulations, it is probably true that
the "Waac" is better off in France than
she was in her London lodgings, and, rea-
sonably well chaperoned, she will be an
excellent thing for Tommy Atkins. We
quote Miss Hamilton on this
Their neat khaki uniforms pervade the
cobbled streets, and, Office hours over, are
dotted on the country roads; and Judging
from the frequency with which you meet
them under escort, they are popular with
the army from q social point OF view.
When I made my visit to the barracks the
evening was typical August There were
deck chairs planted in the open. :. game
of tennis was in progress, and Palf the
camp had wandered out a-walkiDg. Even
so, the hut where you sip your, cocoa and
write your letters, the Y. W. c. A. hut, was
by no means neglected; there was custom
at the counter and tidy atts ndance for a
lecture.