THE LADIES'.COLUMN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 33, 26 September 1868, Page 5

THE LADIES'. COLUMN.

TIJE PETTICOAT CAMPAIGN. (From the "Buenos Ayre* Standard. 1 ') Lieutenant- Colonel Margaret Ferreira and Captain Anita Gill arc the female officers in command at the pass of the river Tebieuari, where a very respectable force of girls and women is held uudor arms to dispute the passage of the river by the Allied. Thia is the tenor of the advices that last came down from Paraguay, and every well-informed person «in military matters, knows that they are correct. Brigadier- General Eliza Lynch, with the main body of the female army is encamped midway between the pass of the river and a small inland town. On the road to Villa Itica the right wing of her army under the command of the mother of CaptaM Herroro, has deployed to the left so as to hang on the invaders should they effect a crossing of the river, and cut v]) Mrs. Colonel Margaret Eerroira and her heroic girls, llelays of girls and women keep constantly arriving at the tiead-quarters of the feminine Com-mander-in-chief. From what we gather from letters and statements it would seem that the male portion of the Paraguayan army is very reduced, and are occupied in defending the fortress at Humaita, the positions near Thabo, the encampment at Villa Bica, and the fortification at Lambare. The guerilla portion of the campaign — or what is termed here "tho guorra de recursos" — is entrusted to the women of Paraguay ; and reliable data have been received that the troops to the north, near the Tranquera Loreto are exclusively composed of Avomen. Melancholy indeed, is it to think, that in this, the nineteenth century, a country should be driven to such straits, a race of human beings so hounded that the women must be torn from their homes to fill the exhausted rankts of a worn-oufc army. But let it not be supposed that thero is any exaggeration in the forogoing news; every newspaper in Buenos Ayres has already published tho glaring and awful fact, that Lopez had commenced recruiting the women ! The only difference is that ws give the news more in detail; having the command of superior information from the ' foreigners up tho river. Ab to the exact number of tho women under arm 3in Paraguay .at present it js -impossible to aay, owing to the varied and conflicting statements ; but for years past a great portion of the heavy work attending on camp life has boon performed by the unfortunate daughters of that 9 once lovely country ! Even in the trenches arouud Humaita tho weak arm of women has shovelled out the earth to make a grave for tho' Allied invaders ! IVmle e'>a«que* bavo gono from point

to point over the country with despatches; the steamers and vessels in the port of Asuncion have been alternately discharged and laden by the trembling hands of the women in- the capital. Everything of worth raid valuo that theae poor women possessed has been snatched from them to assist in the defence of the country ! They have toiled in the field for the last three years; they have sown, raised and harvested the crops; they have made clothes for the soldiers from the fibres of plants ; they have maintained the hospitals, cured the wounded and sick ; they have supplied the army — and now, with Satanic power, they are dragged to "the front, and placed in the breach to fight the whole Allied army. It may be obedience, it may be enthusiasm or it may he patriotism which drags the whole female population of Paraguay with muskets and sabres on the hill tops and in the valleys to fight the invading army, but we would despair, indeed, for the cause of humanity did we think for one moment that the unconquered Paraguayan heroines lacked the unequivocal sympathies of the people of this country. If tho new phase which this campaign has taken, affords food for satire and has assumed tho ridiculous, if the grinding despotism of Lopez in forcing the unfortunate Paraguayan women from their homes to defend a cause more personal than national, calls for the imprecations of a civilized woYld, so also the heroism of this hounded-down and unconquered people stands forth in grand sublimity and and attracts an admiration which sheds a halo round their cause. History affords us many instances of very brave female warriors, but the world must be gone over again before we can find a single instance of a heathen or Christian army of women marched out in battle-array to fight an army of men soldiers. We doubt even if the interminable and unrecorded wars of the niggers, in the unexplored fastnesses of Africa, such an inhuman system of warfare was ever known. The great error, now which the Allies committed in allowing Lopez to escape from Humaita is palpable. The power of this man over his people was never properly estimated by the Allies ; in his sending women to fight in the front and withdrawing the men into the interior of the country, he bas placed the Allied army in a prodic.vment far more Berious than if he had defeated Caxias in a pitched battle.^ We, for our part, demand of the foreign Ministers to send Commissioners up to Paraguay to investigate tho real position of affairs and report thereon. If, as the news goes, the Allies, in attempting to cross the Tcbicuari, have to fijjht the girls, then the honor of Europo is at stake in at once stopping this horrible war. The Allies themselves must see the utter impossibility of carrying on hostilities upon such terms. Supposing that it were possible tho Allied army could afford a regiment or a division so mercenary and so base as to fight against the poor Paraguayan women, and if in the battle the Allies were so unfortunate as to win the day, not all the wealth of Matto Grosso, not all the trophies of Paraguay would recompense for the tarnished honor of aucu an ill-starred victory. , If the war is td» be carried on under such circumstances — if the Allies must fight the women of Paraguay to carry, out tho tenets of the triple alliance, then at least let it be on equul terms — let women be ranked against women and men against men. South America is a strange land where such eventualities como to pass ; and when the women have fought it out on their own line and tho men also fought it j out on theirs, then let us take to the /children — send for General Tom 'Thumb and his wife, and thus bring to \ a felicitous conclusion this celebrated and never-to-be forgotten Triple Alliance War,

A lady correspondent of the " Milwaukie Sentinel," wjho, writing under a norn de plume, had attracted considerable attention, received a note from a gentleman admirer recently, in which the writer said that a lady who could put such beautiful thoughts to paper must be equally gifted in person, &c, and wanted to meet her by moonlight alone, to which she wrote a consent. She came to the rendezvous veiled: they walked, he talked, he mado love : finally gained consent to take a little kiss ; the veil was raised for the purpose, and the stricken gentleman gazod upon tho comely Tea- j tures of his own wife. *| A Bill has jmsed tho lowa Senate ■ w'uch will gladden the . hearts of the fair sox. It roads: — "Any person twenty-one years of ago, who is actually an inhabitant of tho State, and who satisfies the district court of this State that tho said person pos- ] sesses tho requisite learning and is of good moral" character," shall be admitted to practise as an attorney in the different courts of the State. A correspondent says the wisdom of Blackstono and Coke hereafter will be j nowhere, and that boautiful lawyer- j osscs " with a bewitching smile and a j sparkling eye," will turn jurymen's j hoads topsy-turvy. Tao only reni3dy j will be to give women a representa- i tiou on tho jury also. It takes a wo- j man to read a woiaaa. — "Toronto! Globe."