New-York tribune., 1908-07-30
FOUNDERS OF THE "SHRIEKERS.' y
The Pankhursts Who Started English SUI
fragette Movement.

Under the head of "A shrieking Sisterhood OF
Suffragettes'' the August number of Current bt-
erature' gives careful analysis of the tnreo
Pankhursts, mother and two daughters, VINO are
responsible for the whole sufra fury in Eng
land Like Lucy Stone Elizabeth Cady stanton
Dr. Mary Putnam Jacob and many another ie-
male rebel Mrs Pankhurst had husband VINO
aided. abetted and gloried in her rebellion
Mr.. Pankhurst well known barrster OF
Manchester who drafted the married womens
property act" by which the men OF Englaho
passed the control of more than fSOODWo OF mar
ried women's property over to the women theIn-
selves. 1t took a vehement agitation 10 secure
the law in which Mr. and Mrs. Pankhurst TOOK
a leading part. When Mr.. PaTkhurst died ne ieit
his wife with four young children Two OF these
are young women. and give definite eViuehce
that their mother has trained them, whether III
the way they should go the way they shoud
not go remains for the observer 70 say Ii aohitS
TO be graduated from a university with honors'
to pass every examination for the practice OF Ia"'
to tramp for mile on mile in street parades ana
never show fatigue to hitch ones self 10 parh
ratings with an iron chain in effort TO annoy
a policeman and to go cheerfully to jail De resafo-
ed as evidence of good training, then the youhs
Pankhursts must have had II.
The mother who trained these female terrors Is
a slight small woman. with gray eyes and brown
hair as yet scarcely touched with gray Sne was
educated in Paris, where she studied art ana IAN
guages. She speaks French almost Ike mother
tongue is a total abstainer and woman or ter
rife working power. 1t is said she never sleeps
more than six hours night, frequently not more
than four The British government, II Is sald'
wishes that she would sleep longer
Mrs Pankhurst is not what is known in America
as good mixer" She extremely reserved
woman with "a certain aloofness of dsposltoh
and notably deficient in magnetic personal qua'i-
ties" Yet this reserved, silent woman mas uohe
something with her that no woman ever
did before. She has sent them 10 prison. hundreos
them. delicately nurtured women. to live on
prison fare and herd with prison outcasts ohe
has set them marching inthe streets. thousands OF
them titled and working girls ahhe' 70
breaking windows and harangung moos women
have done such things before. They did them IN
the French Revolution in the long fight for Italian
freedom but always for leaders-never Tor
woman What is the secret of this little. quiet
womans powerf
The answer seems TO be- viii and brains" Mrs
Pankhurst is a great organizer Her Offices to-day
fill thirteen rooms in Clements Inn. and there se
keeps busy twenty young women typeVriters'
every one of whom works without pay There Mrs-
Pankhurst sits, day after day, and at any moment
Of anv day shs knows just what suffrage meetings
are in progress in every city in England and just
what speakers are speaking at them. She is In
continuous telegraphic communication with every
part the kingdom, shifting speakers. changing
arrangements attending to the thousand details or
a national campaign which is a continuous per-
formance. 1t is she who orders all those street
parades all that blocking of traffic. all those Illegal
assembIages. She tells women to go out and break
the windows OF the Prime Minister of England. and
thev go and do it. She tells women 10 go and get
themselves arrested, and they do it. Then she
brings distinguished lawyers to harass the court
and turn ''man-made laws into ridicule- The
other day Isabel Logan, daughter of Member OF
Parliament Leicestershre, got herself arrested.
and Lord Russell came nto court her counsel
OF course these people do do these things for
Mrs Pankhurst. They do it for the cause" but
thev accept Mrs Pankhursts instructions This is
what makes it an organized campaign, and not
series of sporadic Outbursts.
Of the Young Pankhursts Christabel Is the more |
terrible She is the barrister trained. university |
bred armed with all the diplomas imaginable, |
whom they won't admit to the bar because she is
3 woman. That makes her angry. She is trained
public speaker. with a voice that carries far over
a F5vde Park mob She can walk miles or
winter and never feel it, She is the most bitter
of the Pankhursts. She talks about ''tyrant man.
and rails at and ridcules him. With the dreadful
proficiency of those athletic English women she
can box like a man, and more than once she has
knocked off a London ''bobbys'' hat, and even
wrenched off his and dangIed it derisively in
his face She presides at large meetings, wearing,
by the way most elegant clothes She speaks TO
audiences of thousands
Sylvia Pankhurst. the younger sister. cannot do
these spectacular things She is not speaker or
an organizer but only a shy young girl, who wins
and peases with her gentle ways. So, since Sylvia
can't do anything else she goes and gets arrested
Many weeks she has spent in solitary confinement
with only dry bread and potatoes to eat. and de-
MED pen and paper 1t was she who set the fash
ion of going TO Jail in British society
The three Pankhursts most conventional in |
dress nor they tinged with any revolutionary
ideas concerning marriage tie They concen-
trate all their radicalism in demand: Votes
for women"