The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-03-02
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obtain a sufficient supply. l should judge that
Russian ponyskin coats, which have often been
so popular in America, ought to be cheaper than
ever this season if there has been any way of
curing and transporting the skins of these glossy
coated animals of the steppes.
Women's army kitchens are adequately sup
piled with horse meat, and from ladies of rank
to serfs the women soldiers have learned how to
prepare ~palatable food. They have also learned
not only to draw their field pieces, but actually
carry them.
All women are enrolled in the infantry division
of the army, so that theirs are machine guns,
which three or four women can carry together.
Some of these guns are light enough to be borne
on the shoulders of one woman.
While Russians are not good marksmen they are
expert at bayonet work, and there is nothing the
Germans fear more than a Russian bayonet en-
counter, when the sturdy dwarf of the North not
only sticks his enemy through, but has an appal-
ling habit of lifting him up on the bayonet. 1
saw one victim of this shocking act slide off the
keen blade, dead.
And if the Germans fear such attacks of unin-
splred Russian men, they dread the savage charge
of fiery Russian women, and when they succeeded
in capturing three in battle they tortured them to
death by way of satisfying spite against those
hundreds of young women who lay slain-martyrs
to patriotism.
1 watched women soldiers dig o., their own
trenches, where rain or bombardment had caused
tnSu " Iull III pun dTOullu lllel neuNy dililluul-
ton wagons and guns, as well as their field kitch-
ems, and set up their barbed-wire entanglements.
Many of them were ~noblewomen and wealthy men,
bers of the upper froth" of Russia quite a num-
Der were wives and mothers whose husbands were
fighting in another sector on the line; and every
one was a volunteer.
With courage went cheerfulness. In the midst
of the h~ardships of trench life-and they can
scarcely be Observation-Disclosures women sang bal
lads and catchy songs as they Worked at the bust
ness of death. Some played on musical instru-
ments that they had brought into the trenches,
while. most of them found time to attend to the com
fort of their pets, especially the battalion mascots
"a parrot and a cat.
All were short of clothing-simple as was their
uniform. 1t consisted of a grayish khaki colored
material, like washed-out khaki, made in overalls
and jumper, with a tight-ftting high collar and
belt. They wore the same boots as were used by
men, and some had their feet encased in shoes and
puttees. One of the chief difficulties in e~quipping
women has been to fit the upper froth" with
boots, and to the rigors of trench life has been
added the discomfort and, l fancy, pain of dainty
feet in coarse, heavy unaccustomed boots, stand
ing often In a mire of mud and water.
Women soldiers had shifts of ten days In first
line trenches of the enemy, with four hours on and
four hours off duty. At the least unusual noise
or sudden skirnish the whole $500 women were
out and in readiness for battle.
Every thirty feet in the womens sector stood a
post" or sentry, who fired without ceasing. 1t
was her duty to call out. on occasion, the soldiers
who rested in their malodorous dugouts on shelves
that protruded from the walls along each side.
Mere children were many of these modern ANA
zous, for their ages vary from fifteen TO thirty-fve
years, aud for ten days on a stretch they had no