The evening world., 1918-02-26

49, my clenched right hand, j said, ii the name OF
49, American womanhood-for all that tortured women
In Europe have suffered from you!' A moment later saw the shells
which my gesture had discharged exploding in the Bulgarian trenches.
81 like to think that /. an American woman. struck my country's
first blow in tho war" sergt Farnam added, with a quiet smile And
I believe that the war will be decided by American women. II neces-
saryt they must give their las. penny their last man or IN deteat o
Germany
7 HAD found sergt. Farnam at her desk at No. 11s East 57th Street,
L where she is conducting her campaign for Serbian relief and writ
ing a book about the three wars-the present one and two Balkan
wars-through which she went with the gallant little people who
share with America in her heart. For her heroic services. Crown Prince
Alexander OF Serbia personally decorated her with the order of 81.
sava, and she also wears the Kossovo Medal and the Royal Order Of
the Serbian Red Cross. She holds the commission of Sergeant in the
crack Serbian cavalry, and was the nrst woman to enter rcconquered
Serbia, spending six hours in the midst of one Of the hottest battles
OF the campaign.
Il am a chndloss widow" she told me simply. "and when the war
began l was dreaming my life away in my beautiful home near Win
chester, in England. I simply have tried to do what my dead husband
and the sons never had would have done. could they have entered
this war
81 told New York club women the other day. and IT is my message
10 all American women everywhere. that they can win the war II they
choose. Victory or defeat rests with them. because it is America who
will decide the conflict and 1t Is American women who hold in their
hands the destiny of America and of American men.
Not yet do the great mass OF women realize this war, although
the record of half a dozen casualties a day from verse; is helping.
We must give our men. give and give them; urge them to go II the ,
urging is needed. When recruiting was going on in Serbia the women
rushed out of their houses and thrust into the hands of sluggish men
their own dhstans. Take these and spin said the women. we will go
and fight That is the spirit which must animate TIE women of
America"
But sergt. Farnam doesn't believe that any American womcn's
Regiment OF Death will be necessary. Haven't we got our men to
hight for usY' she challenged proudly. Nor does she think American
women should conduct n drive in any capacity on European battle
Acids. In fact, her advice to women on how they an help most in
winning the war is so sane and sensible that shall not hold It back
from you any longer.
" "Tho first thing American women shout, do after they have given
their men to the country is to stop criticslng" she began. The
women who fuss about the way the war is being conducted. who pick
rout some Washington official and say on every occasion, oh, cant
bear that man so-and-so'-these women simply are giving aid and
comfort TO the enemy, They are talking about what they don't under
stand. There are plenty Of Informed critics in Washington who are
watching the conduct of the war and know what TO blame aud what
constructive suggestions to OFFER.
Women had better keep still. II they have any military nforma-
ton, then especially they must not discuss the conduct Of the war,
even with their best friends. How do We know what spy Is listening
or tho ferryboat, in the subway or behind us at the theatre?
Every woman should pick out some one form of war work and
.aynta haraoIft 70 ~ 7 don't Nuant IN gcnldo r to- rJIciso I, ~ nI
Is that many women ire trying to do too many different things. In
the two years since my return from Serbia must have been asked to
Join one thousand things. Women must not nt reshessy from one
kind of war relief to a newer and moro picturesque variety. The
how much time and labor,
"hIoR do I think that any large number OF American women should
go abroad. There is no room for unframed women, for in all
the countries at war there ar thousands of these whose men have
been killed or incapachated and who need work to support themselves
Our unframed women, II they were given any work at all. would be
taking the bread out of the mouths Of the victims Of war. Even the
teined wome-he nurses. the canteen workers, the helpers in re-
Mobilization work-should not pull strings to 20 to the front. They
should register their willingness to serve and then wait til the job
calls them.
1.-THE fact that they are crazy to get over there has nothing to do
with the case In this war the thing for an American woman to think
Of is not what she wants but what wants her, 1t viii be the duty at
home, in the great majority of cases.
"she can work for the Red Cross. She can take a mans lob in
the industrial world II necessary, although she will be doing an un-
patriotic act and a disseryice to her country If she accepts less than
a mans pay And she can write letters to her men at the front
nice, cheerful letters, with all the sobs left out. Imagine the effect on
the morale of a boy who's a Bit sick and discouraged when he gets a
letter from his mother saying I think OF you every night and cry
mycslf TO sleep
"a JOB for American girls in war time is II to make Themselves
- worthy Of the men who are fighting for them. Those men
who marched down Fifth Avenue the other day, metamorphosed from
the hoselipped, sallow, indolent youths Of a few months ago, want
WOMEN for their wives and the mothers of their chldrop|no ,hc
hgh-heeled, short-skirted, painted and powdered butterflies they
smiled at before the war,
I'VE haven't really begun to fight" finished sergt Farnum grave
~. "rhe closer you get TO the war the longer you think it must last
We must not think that Germany will turn tail because we have a
few hundred thousand mon over there But even II every ally is de-
Seated re must fight on. In the names OF sefpreservaton and com.
mon sense-to mention no loftier mohves-we must fight TIL Ger
many is defeated"