“By this time her fame had spread and rewards began to shower upon her. She got the Cross of the Legion of Honor, and some time later the War-Cross. In spite of all she had gone through, she persisted in staying in the Somme country and continued to work for the cause of France. For fifteen months she remained, despite shot and shell, in her little Somme village, taking care of wounded soldiers. Also among her charges was a woman of 90, too feeble to travel to a safer place. Marcelle looked out for her night and day with unflagging devotion. “Everywhere soldiers knew and admired her. One English General ordered his soldiers to salute when she passed and refrain from addressing her unless she spoke first.” Under the strain of her volunteer work she finally came near to a breakdown and was persuaded to go to Paris. There she entered a nurses’ school to qualify for the care of the wounded, work being necessary to her to shut away her personal sorrows, as everything she possessed or held dear the war had taken from her. All this and more was told at the Sorbonne Conference, and then, says the _Times_ correspondent, the narrator made a dramatic gesture and exclaimed: “‘This little heroine of Picardy, this admirable girl, this incarnation of the qualities of the woman of France, this girl of simple origin, flawless dignity, of serious mind, and gentle ways, this girl of indomitable will-power, is here, ladies and gentlemen, here among you, in this room! And I feel that I am the spokesman for every one of you when I now extend to her the expression of our respect, our gratitude, our admiration!’ “The auditors, every man, woman and child of them, leaped to their feet, mad with enthusiasm. They craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the heroine. Unable to escape them, the young girl stood up, blushing. Through the great hall of the Sorbonne, where the most famous people of the world had been honored by France, swept a storm of cheers. A reward more splendid than the Cross of the Legion of Honor, than the War-Cross, than the salutes of soldiers at the front, had come to Marcelle Semmer.” GIRLS OF THE “BATTALION” Russian Women Who Gave Splendid Proof That Soldierly Valor Knows No Sex When first reports of the Battalion of Death—the regiment of Russian women—were read in the western world they were regarded as the fiction of correspondents hard pressed for material. Fighting Amazons belonged to the legendary past. But the authentic confirmations of the story and the official recognition of the battalion’s services presently roused a curious interest in these women doing heroes’ work, and there was demand for information concerning the redoubtable “Madam Butchkareff” and the circumstances leading to the organization of the regiment of which she was given command. The story when told more than gratified the expectant interest. The London _Daily Telegraph_ was the first to give the particulars as they are here presented.