RUSSIAN DEATH LEGIONS.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14546, 26 October 1917, Page 2

RUSSIAN DEATH LEGIONS.

WOMEN IN ACTION-

CAPTURE GERMAN PRISON&KS

The members of the Russian women's legions, which have now been disbanded, tell strange stories of their experiences in action. One peasant girl lying in hospital had a German helmet beside her. "I saw a German in front .of,me,"' she told me, "and. stabbed him withs my bayonet, ,-;nd pulled the trigger,at the.same, time. I killed hire,. and took, his hat as a souvenir,'" she smiled, delightedly.'-, ' ;

: "What Vifd battle look like?" I asked .another girl. "It was nervous -work just before ive charged. 1 knew the order to charge was coming, and I think I got a little frightened, but as soon as the order canie I forgot I everything and ran forward and heard fiots of girls yelling and shouting to ! advance. None of us "was afraid v> hen we started .shooting. Terrific- shells were breaking; all round. The first dead man I suw frightened me a little, { but we had to jump over corpses, and \ soon forgot them."

1 talked to a third girl, who described the taking of German 'prisoners. "We could not £ell "what'was going'on' anywhere," she said. "BotchJkarera;; (the leader of the battalion) was every-; where . among us, calling upon "-us to 1 fight and to die like Russian soldiers... .Suddenly we saw a bunch of -Germans - : , right ahead of us. Then' suddenly-"' they were in oia1 midst or we were ail ■ i, around them. They threw down their rifles, lifting up their hands." '

Another" girl said the German wound- ■ ed raised themselves on their elbows,' shooting at them. "We forgot our-< selves entirely. We were not ourselves. Wo were Russia fighting for her life " !lhe loss of Lena, a most popular member of the companj^ ,was< keenly felt, i. PV? the "battle she heard that-' Lotchkareva had been killed, and she dashed forward saying, « 1 am Agoing ito find her." She went, across a-space where shells were flying. A shell blew Her to fragments. Sonia Romanoff, a concert singer, was killed by machinegun fire The exact death list is not yet, published. It appears that at least a. dozen shells toll amono- trivia killing perhaps a dozen and wounding I ■ ~ ' — :—:

.25 before they captured ,tlie prisoners. 1 Five of the captured Germans were j women in men's uniforms. ; A thoughtful and kindly act was performed last week by nine railway men (says the * "Wanganui "Chronicle-). , ihey visited the home of a late fellowemployee (who recently returned from .tjie front i --~', „,.•..* b v ; ll!? i n g wit^ them garden tools and seeds. They set to work - . . !,<,:, and pJant " and belore £be evening closed in the greater portion of the soldier's quarterjacre section was -■•transformed into .rows and/beds of seeds, plants, etc.

An iron bedstead is not dangerous in a thunderstorm. The electric current would, chose it m preference to the human body. Feeling aroused amjng some youths by the friendly relations between white girls, and coloured men led to a riot in tho East End of London, in which stones, sticks, knives, and firearms were used. Several men were brought before the Magistrate and charged with insulting language. i n dismissal the ' case against one coloured man &-the Magistrate remarked that British iustice.was the same for the black man as v for ths white.- • *