Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1918-03-14


line of trenches with $500 of these Russian women
warriors. 1 studied them close quarters-there
are no intrepid soldiers in all this world
Were those women of a 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 hell fire to shame the of
Russia into sense of patriotic duty. To lack of
training and of officers is ascribed humiliation
OF TINS hrst battalion of women warriors in the
modern world They failed in their object-the
eliminating OF compatriots 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 well 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 are great walk
ers skaters, horseback riders and devotees to
shedding, games that require vigor and furnish
element, and to their summer and winter carni-
walls and pageants, which occur several times
year AT these times it is their pleasure to in
dulge in native folk Dances and dancing the
ice is a pastime to which they devoted. and to
which, 1 believe, they owe much of their muscular
. development and rapidity and of action The
life of the Russian woman has bred her to wars
service; she does not for afternoon teas
any form of indoor amusement during the daytime.
Instead you will find her engaged in active sports
the frozen Neya, beside the trolley tracks that
link icebound towns in chain of gay activity.
more bustling than when boats ply the river
In summer and fetch and carry between Russia's
capital and the Neva's outlying villages
And you will find the switches
along the shining miles of iceioored single track
of the Neva's winter trolley lines
In singular contrast to 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 highbreeding.
seem. also to become weak and efeminate.
Not only in trench work, but in the ordinary
cations of finds Russian women
Streetcar conductors and motorwomen handle the
traffic with efficiency Conductors call out the
streets. and from the second belt the mans coat
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 passenger
expects to travel One fare now costs fifteen ko-
pecks, or and half cents Under ordinary
conditions fifteen kopecks were worth five cents
But two and half cents is lot of money in Rus
STA today. On the other hand while women iii
places railroads and street cars. there stin
be found many men driving motortrucks-
Another avocation of women is the driving of
draskeys-Russian dumpcarts-a fiat, two-wheeled
wagon drawn by one or 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 harnessing is car
ried out in ambulances the front, and wound
ed man transported this fashion usually has the
life bounced out of him his way TO the hospital
Sometimes indeed. such nakeshift ambulances
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 cook their good bread made
of wheat and rye flour; their soup. horse meat and
vegetables Russian horse meat is ot-half bad.
and that is their principal army meat Horses are
plentiful but very small. and they do not furnish
much beef. SO that numbers are slaughtered to