The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-12-02

NOW vOTks
foremost of the famous English militant
suffrage party-the woman who has been
turning England upside down and making
its prime minister's life q burden by her
efforts to get the right to vote for Eng
fish women.
Whether you are a believer In woman's
suffrage or not / am sure you will be IN
terested to meet through me a woman who
believes in her cause SO thoroughly that
she has not only gladly gone to prison for
The sake of It but also has inspired many
other prominent English women to do the
yame.
When you read the cabled reports OF
Mrs. Pankhurst as leading a tremendous
crowd Of $1,000 people in a wild attempt to
rush the house of and present a
suffrage petition, or as being dragged out
Of a political meeting for trying to ask tne
speaker If he believed In woman SUI
frage, or as being luge ID off to jail by a
squad of burly policemen, you probably
think OF q hard featured Amazon-most
tikely with short hair n cowhide boots
don't you?
/ did.
Sweet Little Woman.
Imagine my surprise then when ] found
at the New York Women's University club,
| where l met her, a slender little sweet
faced woman with beautiful grey hair that
really CEllhlcu Nv way ~ OSe -
ture. grey eyes with crinkly lights In them
that no picture could possibly show, and
q general air very much more motherly
than militant.
Naturally the stories that she told Of
what the women in England have done
under her leadership to get the right to
vote for women, seemed the more start
ling as coming from this sweet personality.
In the first place Mrs. Pankhurst ex-
! p,ained to me the question that so many
people wanted answered-why the women
of England thought 1t necessary to re-
sort to such very unique :
For about 80 years women In England
have been trying to get a bill to give wom-
en- the right to vote, before the English
narliament." she said. "To do this 1t was
necessary to- get the prime minister and the
cabint to take the necessary steps to let
The bill come to q vote. They tried to do
this but were refused on the ground that
all the time of parliament was pre-empted
for more important matters and that wom-
en- suffrage. though undeniably just. was
not yet a question Of practical politics.
s'Then some Of the women went to ex-
Premier Balfour, who is a suffragist, and
asked him how they could make 1t a
question of practical politics.
".Kick up a row, answered the states
man laconically. Try first one way and
then another. AS soon as the public gets
used to one way, invent another
1.-THE women remembered the remark
of a distinguished Englishman, that re-
,orms never get put through In England
till the people begin to tear down the park
ratings, and they decided that the ex-
premier was right. They acted on his adj
vice in a way that doubtless astonished
him.
was the first really militant thing done in
| GpoIaudo 90 r aakod an perly
Mrs. Pankhurst remembers that all too
well.
She told It with a fullness of dramatic
detail that I have not space to give COM
pletely.
First Militant Act.
Th skeleton of the story Is this.
A political meeting at which one Of the
liberal candidates for office was to speak
was the occasion chosen for the first dem
onstration. The women decided that the
form the demonstration was to take was
that two of their number should get w
and ask the liberal candidates what he
proposed to do on the matter of woman's
suffrage.
Annie Kenney. a working girl, and
Christobel Pankhurst, Mrs. P~ankhurst's
Oldest daughter, who was at that time
studying law, were chosen to do the deed
After the speaker had finished his speech
they stood up and tried to ask the ques.
ton. They were requested to put 1t or
paper and did so, and 1t was sent up to the
speaker. They waited for an answer
Several questions put from the floor wer.
Unanswered, and several written on pape
like theirs. They waited and waited unit
finally the speaker rose to go. and ther
seeing that he intended to pay no attention
to them, the two girls got up and triet
to put their question from the floor.
They were promptly and roughl.
dragged out by the officers.