The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1918-03-01

For eighteen days / was quartered in the first
line OF trenches with $500 of these Russian women
warriors. l studied them close quarters-there
are no more intrepid soldiers in all this world than
were those women of Il divided and bewildered
nation.
The Battalion of Death is no more. They were
wiped out by German shells and German bayonets,
and only four wounded survivors remain Of 200
who fought through he'll fire to shame the of
Russia into a sense of patriotic duty. To lack of
training and of officers is ascribed the annihilatio
of this first battalion of warriors In the
modern world. They failed in their object-the
stimulating of compatrots TO defense of their
country.
That free Russia fears the power of women is
Indicated by the fact that those who connect
ed with the imperial circle of the former court are
confined in the prison of Peter and Paul, guarded
by barriers of water we'll by walls of stone
while minor offenders have been banished from
Petrograd
The Russian woman warrior is the product of
outdoor life and simple wholesome food. In the
ranks one finds the majority Of soldiers from the
upper class of Russian society, and by their sides
are serfs and peasants accustomed to working in
the fields of Siberia and Russia with the men of
their households.
Ladies of Russia are noted for their proficiency
in outdoor games and sports; they great walk
ers skaters, horseback riders and deyotees to
seudlhe games that require vigor and furnish
citenent, and to their summer and winter carni-
walls and pageants, which several times a
year AT these times it Is their pleasure to In
dulge In native folk dances, and dancing on the
ice is pastime TO which they devoted, and to
which i believe, they much Of their muscular
development and rapidty and ease of action. The
life of the Russian woman has bred her to wars
service; she does not care for afternoon teas
any form of indoor amusement during the da ytime.
Instead you will find her engaged in active sports
the frozen Neva, beside The trolley tracks that
link icebound towns in a chain of gay activity,
even more busting than when boats ply the river
n RuSSiaS
capital and the Neva's outlying villages.
And now you will find women at the switches
along the shining miles of ice-loored single track
of the Neva's winter trolley lines.
IN singular contrast the sturdy, muscular build
Of Russian women, stocky of form and short Of
stature are Russian men of the upper class, who,
when they acquire refinement and high breeding,
seem. also, to become weak and effemnate.
Not only In trench work. but in the ordinary
cations of finds Russian
Street-car conductors and motorwomen handle the
traffic with efficiency. Conductors call out the
streets, and from the second belt the mans
that tops their blue skirts they draw checks Of
varying colors and hand them out in receipt OF
fares These colors represent from to five
fares and also Indicate the distance a passenger
expects to travel. one fare now costs fifteen ko-
pecks, two and half cents. Under ordinary
conditions fifteen kopecks worth five cents.
But two and half cents is lot of money in Rus
sa today. On the other hand. while women fill
places railroads and street cars there are still
to be found many men driving motortrucks.
Another avocation of women is the driving Of
draskeys-Russan dumpcarts-a fiat, two-wheeled
wagon drawn by two horses. In the latter
case one horse is always harnessed outside the
shafts. leaving the burden to be borne by the ami
NAL inside of them.
This peculiar method of harnessng is even car
ried out in ambuances at the front, and a wound
ed man transported in this fashion usually has the
life bounced of him on his way to the hospital
Sometimes, indeed, such makeshft ambulances are
drawn by men, for life is accounted so cheap in
Russia that the Russian will not use horses when
men can the purpose of draft animals.
Not only men, but women. take the place Of
horses. They often draw their field kitchens
about and bivouac to cook their good bread. made
of wheat and rye -four their soup. horse meat and
vegetables Russian horse meat Is not half bad,
and that is their principal army meat Horses are
plentiful but very small, and they do not furnish
mucb beef no that numbers are slaughtered to