Newspaper Page Text
I
American magazine
Ancient Amazon* in Battle with the Greek*,
the Women Equal the Men in Size.
Section
of
Ream’s
Sunday
American,
Atlanta,
August
Co mpany.
Great Britain Rights Reserved.
From Ftesco in the Hall of Colors M Athens.
Dating from 460 B. C.
Inspired by the Brilliant Achievements of
Warring Women in All Ages, Madame
Dieulafoy Organizes a Fighting French
Female Brigade, with a Seductive Uniform
Designed by a Charming American Girl.
Sophie Govanovitch,
the
• Servian Joan of Arc,
Who
Won Victory for the
Balkan
Allies at the Battle
of Kirk Kilisseh.
Heroic Mol) Pitcher Directing the Artillery at the Battle of
Monmouth in the American Revolution.
(From t!he Painting by D. McCarter.)
but we have scanty records concerning them.
America is likely to have a hand in organizing the new
French force of women warriors, for Madame Dieulafoy and
her comrades are considering the wisdom of adapting the
uniform designed by Miss Grace Washburn, the pretty Amer
ican dancer, now in London. Miss Washburn is partly of
Indian descent, and has good fighting blood in her veins.
The uniform designed by her is dashing, warlike and im
posing, yet also seductive and entirely worthy of feminine
taste. It is supposed that such a uniform would produce a
very crushing effect on the enemy. Some doubt is expressed,
however, whether the enemy would flee or rush with irre
sistible ardor upon a force uniformed in thla attraotftm
manner.
Recently Englishwomen orgstolzed a force of uniformed
women to assist the regular army In time of war. They are
drilled like a regular military force. In authorizing this
organization the British Government hoped that some of the
ferocity of the suffragettes might some day be turned against
a foreign enemy.
During the recent savage war in southeastern Europe
many women greatly distinguished themselves on the side of
the Balkan allies. Prominent among them was the Servian
woman Sophie Govanitch, who fought with desperate bravery
and turned the tide of victory for her side at Kirk Kilisseh.
The Dahomeyan Amazons offer about tbe most conclusive
proof of the warlike ability of women. They flourished within
the memory of many persons now living, who give unques
tionable evidence concerning their ferocity. Frederick Mar-
tyn-, an Englishman, who fought with the French Foreign
Legion against the King of Dahomey, says in a recent book:
“These young woman were far and away the best 'men 1
in the Dahomeyan army, and woman to man were quite a
match for any of us.’’
a terribly hot day in June. At the opening of the engage
ment Captain Molly was busy carrying water to her husband
and his assistants at the gun. At a critical moment in the
fight her husband was shot dead. She took his place and
handled his cannon very effectively until the Americans won
the fight.
Washington made her a sergeant on the battlefield, and
she was afterwards placed on the list of half-pay officers for
life, with the rank of captain There were doubtless many
other women who fought well for America in the Revolution,
Madatne Jane
Dieulafoy,
Who Ha* Organized
France's
New Military
Force.
She Has Performed
Perilous
Exploring W«rk.
0
JLL over Europe women are preparing to do military
service for their country.
The latest country to take part in this move
ment is France. There the women are making
more serious and formidable military preparations than any
where else, which is perhaps what we might expect in the
countrywomen of Joan of Arc.
Madame Jane Dieulafoy, one of the most distinguished
women in France, a great explorer, who wears trousers with
perfect dignity, has planned to raise a whole brigade of
women soldiers.
She intends to supply 2,672 officers, 5,000 non-commis
sioned officers and 20.000 female privates. She has already
gathered 800 officers, and there is no doubt that the num
bers she asks will be furnished many times over.
The primary object of this force is to do duty in the ad
ministrative service, and thus release a certain number of
men for active fighting. There are, however, a great many
women who are eager for combatant service, and it is gen
erally believed that the new plan wilt end in gratifying this
desire. ;
The French Amazons will furnish a number of daring
military aviators. There are scores of French women, like
Helene Dutrieu, who are as reckless of their lives as any men
who navigate the air.
In the past French soldiers on campaign have enjoyed the
company of women called "cantinieres," who supplied them
with drinks and attended to their wants in other ways. To
day Frenchwomen demand an employment more worthy of
the modern position of their sex.
It is settled that France’s new Amazons shall wear mili
tary uniform, carry arms and be drilled like men.
Madame Dieulafoy as a scholar and historian knows well
that women under certain circumstances can become fiercer
fighters than men. She herself is noted as the excavator of
ancient Persepolis, the capital of King Darius, burnt by Alex-
ander the Great at the suggestion of the beautiful but scan
dalous Thais. In her scientific labors she has shown strength
Of endurance beyond that of the average man. The French
Government has authorized her to wear man’s clothes. She
is the only woman at present enjoying that privilege in
France.
It is, however, the emotional qualities of woman that will
make her terrible in war, rather than the possession of such
unusual physical qualities as Madame Dieulafoy’s. What
makes woman so terrible Is that she fights with her emotions
rather than with her head.
From the dawn of history women have given evidence of
their fighting ability, and there is no reason to believe that
they have lost it to-day. The Amazons were a nation of
women in Asia who gave great trouble to the Greeks in early
times. They made visits to a neighboring country once a
year in order to keep up the race, and afterwards killed all
male children.
Achilles, the great Greek hero, killed Penthesilea, the
beautiful Queen of the Amazons, in battle, and was thought
to have performed a praiseworthy feat.
France has had fully as many Amazons as any other
country. There was the immortal Joan of Arc, who drove the
English out of France when all the men in the country could
not do it. In addition to her France bad Jeanne Hachette,
tvho fought at Beauvais; Margaret of Anjou and many others.
Whenever women take a hand in war it becomes more
cruel and savage. In the French Revolution the women led
the uprising that seized the King at Versailles. From that
moment the Revolution assumed its sanguinary character.
Again in the Commune of 1871 Parisian women were the
great instigators of violence.
America has not been without her martial women, al
though we seem disposed to minimize their deeds. Moll
Pitcher rendered great service to the American revolutionary
cause at the battle of Monmouth and on other occasions.
Moll Pitcher was married to a cannoneer in the Continen
tal army. Her military career began early in the Revolu
tionary War. She was beside heT husband, who was serving
a gun in Fort Clinton, when the British took that place by
storm in 1777. As the British came on in overwhelming
numbers her husband, using his head no doubt like a man,
thought it best to leave his gun. His wife took his place and
discharged the piece right into the midst of the onrushing
enemy. HeTS was the last shot fired in the fight. It did ter
rible execution.
It was in the following year that she performed her great
feat at the battle of Monmouth. This battle was. fought on
Miss Grace Washburn, the Dashing Dancer, Wearing
Her Suggested Military Costume.