The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-08-22
A GIRL CtNTAUR
OF THE c0SSAckS
BY Riley Allen.

omsk. Siberia. July 7.-~-tBy MaiD
- saw her first here at the big
American Red Cross hospital
slight quiet. brown haired girl. rather
rale of face, and with timidity of
manner which at times seemed
actual nervousness. She was one of
the Red Cross nurses who moved
silently and efficiently about the great
hospital wards. ministering to nearly
a thousand men who had come back,
MANNED and shattered from the cruel
front along the Urai mountains. l.
remarked to another Russian nurse
that the little ''s.stra" with the brown
eyes seemed very frail
Not bit of it, was the prompt
answer. That girl is tough az the
withes of bereyosa fbirchwood) which
the peasants weave into shoes, She has
been a soldier. She rode with the
Cossacks."
Now one who rides with the Cos
sacks must indeed be AS tongh as the
withes of brentwood These horsemen
of Asia are not merely daredevil in the
saddle but their endurance Is nothing
less than a marvel as Is the endurance
Of the stubhy little steeds they be-
stride. Winter or summer. rain or
frost or burning sun---it seems all the
same to them. They drive forward
on whatever mission is abroad, cover
ing long miles by day or night, sleep
ing often in the stiff. cramping saddle
ready TO night or to frolic Preferably,
1t often appears, to night. And this
girl. the other nurse went on to tell
me. had ridden with the Cossacks all
winter
Now winter on the rral front 4. not
tile pleasantly tingling slightly cold
season which we OF New York or Chi
cago or even Portland. Maine, recog-
ntxe as the time for King Boreas Along
the Urals the thermometer goes down
down. down until 1t strikes sixty or
Eeventy below. and the cold cuts in
moment by moment and hour by hour
without respite or mercy Those who
ride with the Cossacks in winter must
tie trimming with the red blood OF
courage.
II took some pnrsuading to get the
hrown-eyed little nurse to tell her
story. The pursuading was done, in
approved Russian fashion. over tall
glasses OF boiling hot "chaI" or tea
from the veteran brass samovar in the
recreation room OF the Russian nurses
quarters. After formaIities had been
exchanged over our tea, little Sophia
Noikovia began to talk A few yards
from us a raucous gramaphone sent
on from Viadivostock. raced it's needle
over records OF American ragtlme
JAZZ bands and the LATEST one step
Its occidental music. familiar and es-
pecially hideous on the records made
strange accompaniment for Sistra
So phia's tale of the Cossacks:
Last September ! was in Simbrisk
! had gone there to visit friends, leav-
Ing my mother in Petrograd. There
was heavy fighting between the Whites
and the Reds ttbe loyalists and the
Rolsheviks) and entered a hospital
because there was such terrible suffer
ing the nurses could not handle all the
cases
Then the First Uiansky OF Cossacks
came TO Shimbrisk. The colonel knew
the regiment would soon be on the
RI arch against the Boisheviks and he
asked the Russian hospital for a field
sher "a feidsher liz male nurse or
at:endanD.
The Cossacks were already suffer-
ing l saw men, badly wounded stay
in the saddle because they did not
want TO leave their comrades They
did not want to be left behind when
the regiment took the neld And +.
wanted TO help So yolunteered-I
asked the commender IL he would take
me
He smiled remember quite well
that smile. II was kind but disheiiey-
irg He laughed and said. You are
child, little sistra. How can you en-
cure to ride with my Cossacks They
lave many weary miles to go without
Pause. they must care for their horses.
take patrol. and often use their sabers.
II is rough life they must lead for
the cause Of reunited and indivts-
ible Russia"
\ said. as stoutiy ~ l. could: I can