The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-08-22

! Niie"s 1nAhahE itSe VI w diSS'
| (C) Underwood e. Underwood
ride I will leearn to swing the saber.
| ! will learn to shoot And / do not
fear the hardships l volunteer for
your regiment"
He Strengthened up and saluted me.
! You shall GO.
! They gave me horse. feet as
| deer. They gave me Cossack uni
| form. They also offered me Weapons
! shining SAT Der and an ugly black re-
| volver but / refused For l said TO
| myself Sophia you are a Cossack in
uniform but at heart you are a nurse,
! and your work is to relieve suffering,
| not to fight SO ] carried no weapons.
| but otherwise. when the regiment rode
out of simbrisk. was Cossack war
f, rtor.'
| She drew another steaming cup Of
| tea from the samovar. The grama-
| phone was staggering through a par
| ticularly damaged rendition of"Smiles."
/ She went on:
We were fighting soon. And after
| our first clash with the 'Krasnies'
| fReds) we were fighting nearly all
| the time. The regiment was usually
outnumbered, We had many casual
ties and during the winter our poor
Cossacks, falling from the saddle.
| sometimes frozen to death in the snow
! Il was with them through the win
! ter | took care OF my own horse,
my own things--what few things I
| could sling to the saddle. 1t was moth
ing to ride so xersts t33 miles> in a
day. Sometimes we covered IS, twice
Llore than a hundred before camp was
! made. We used to attack the Reds
| when they least expected us circling
behind them with forced marches and
! striking sudden and terrible blows.
! then galloping away. to melt into the
country and elude all pursuit,
The worst was at Agratiamsk. The
Il Reds had far more men than we. and
| some heavy guns which hit our horse
men hard. We fought and held them.
waiting for the White infantry to come
up, then were surrounded. Our
| horses reared and plunged and bled
under stream of. FIRE. and men rushed
in to stab upward at their bellies or
hamstring them Many a Cossack was
| missing when finally we broke through
: the circle and got away.
II was busy, yes, always busy. Even
the unwounded soldiers came TO me
| with their troubles. But we had
plenty of wounded.
I'm the field we slept often on the
ground, or on snow. lucky IL we could
find a barn with a hit of hay, rarely
fortunate II had a bed in which to
i rest.
!, Tn the late spring our colonel re-
ceived word TO give his valiant Co.'S
sacks rest. BY this time the nghting
was west of Ufa. We went by train
to Kurgan and the regiment has been
!, there for some weeks. l nursed my
friends the soldiers until they needed
, me no longer. then ] came to 0msk
and hearing about the good work of
the American Red Cross. / desired to
. Join their hospital"
asked her il she had received any
. official recognition of her work.
RI She drew from her bosom a white
Cross of st George. OF the fourth class
surmounted by the black and Yellow
ribbon - the decoration awarded to
o:hcers for conspicuous personal bra> :
~. She held II proudly in her hand.
!. After the battle at Agratiams SIX she
explained.
. And now you muat find it very quiet
. here-no excitement. no rides at light
, into sleeping enemy camps. no hiv-
ouacs on the Ura1 line. Do you not
find 1t monotonons.
| She smiled at this in fact. she
1aughed---if I were not talking Of a
Ccssack warrior maid should have
said she giggied-and answered me-
Il am tired Of being a man. l want
| 10 De a girl dEdln---aNu always,
And yet next day. when q Russian
cfficer casually left a coal bleck Orion
saddle horse standing at post few
yar ds from the hospital. saw little
Sophia yolkovia, passing near. hesitate
and succomb to temptation. She
locked around. saw no one apparently
observing her. ran to the horse and
swung into the saddle. skirts and all
: And second later the stallion gal
loped across the brown fields that
/ stretched. unfenced and inviting for
miles along the silver OF the Irish
river. Her slender figure and the
magnificent lines OF the racing horse
blended into one unforgetable i'm
preston Of beauty and strength
united and harmonious. A minute
liter she drew rein sharply at the crest
OF a long slope. and there outlined
; against the horizon. the Eirl-centaur
of the Cossacks swung one arm along
in gestue of superb challenge. and
y i thought OF thousand Crssack
swords flashing from sheath to sir as
that reverberating cheer OF defiance
rolls from thousand Cossack throats,
Yes, Hazel. man is supposed to
be landed when he owns real estate