amounted
to a race with death, and the Italians won it.

Correspondents agree that the thing which most impresses the visitor to
the mountain fronts of the Italian army is the immense patience which
it has shown in the face of the difficult tasks of this astonishing
campaign. Italians usually are regarded as temperamental creatures, but
"dogged" has been the word which has meant most in this campaign.

Some of the movements of troops across exposed snow-covered spaces have
been marvels of incredible patience. To escape observation the soldiers
have been clad in white clothing, but in addition to this it has been
necessary for them to lie flat upon their faces in the snow, moving
very, very slowly, accomplishing their transfers from point to point
literally at snail speed.

With regard to such work, as with regard to the Italian wounded, one
thing is remarked by all the officers and those who have been privileged
even for a short time to share the hardships of the Italian "common
soldier." He never complains. Healthy or hurt, weary or fresh, he takes
war with a smile full of flashing teeth and with eyes glittering with
interest and good nature.

CHAPTER XVI.

WOMAN AND THE WAR.

SHE HAS WON "HER PLACE IN THE SUN"--RICH AND POOR IN THE MUNITIONS
FACTORIES--NURSE AND AMBULANCE DRIVER--KHAKI AND TROUSERS--ORGANIZER AND
FARMER--HEROES IN THE STRESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES--DOING MEN'S WORK FOR
MEN--EVEN A "BOBBIE."

If it were ever really necessary for woman to "win a place in the sun"
she has done so by her activities with relation to the war. We have
regarded woman with a high degree of sentimentality, and to her pleas
for recognition in world affairs have shrugged our shoulders and
intimated that she was fit to bear children, nurse the sick, do
household chores and cook, cook, cook; but physically, mentally and by
training she was unfit to perform the greater world duties.

But the world war has proved that all the tasks which men claimed women
were unfitted to perform can as well be done by what we have been
pleased to term the "weaker sex."

The war has proved a truism that old saying, "The hand that rocks the
cradle rules the world," and also that the burden of war falls upon
women. It is they who give up their sons to their country and send their
husbands and boys to the front to serve as fodder for the cannon.

In England the work of women in the war secured for them a degree of
recognition in Parliamen