El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-24
THE HECKLING "VOICE"
CROWDS BREAK UP POLITICAL MEETINGS
IVATThe English Elections

large estate, to speak to his neighbOrs
about the issues of the day. The neigh
bOrs booed him. He tried for 20 min
utes to speak, but made no Roadway
Then he sat down the chairman's
table, lit a eigaret and waited for the
noise to cease. 1t didn't cease, and as
there were more neighbOrs than there
were earls of Denbigh, the noble earl
finally gave it up as a bad job and
liked away from there.
Lord AshbOurne, on the same night
in London. was greeted by an enthusiast
tic crowd of hecklers with a genius for
fun. Every time the noble lord said
anything serious the crowd groaned, and
every time he said anything allegedly
funny the crowd grOaned. Finally they
got tired and broke UP the meeting by
turning II into a saengerfeSt.
Polite Women
As a rule the hecklers are very pO-
lite to women speakers, and seldom
throw things at them They make ex-
ceptions in favor of the sex The
sex is not so condiserate, and the suf
fragettes never miss chance to heave
brick through window at some
cabinet minister who is explaining TO
the dear people how the government
have provided for the country" (The
/ government have is correct in Eng
land.)
But this brick heaving, is not consid-
J cred heckling. and, therefore is not pro-
! tected by the constitution and British
| etiquet- Hence. just before a political
meeting, the police arrest all women in
the neighborhood suspected of a mill
| tant desire to exercise the right Of suf-
frage and its concomitant privileges Of
| heckling and booing.
Mrs. Fletcher. wife Of a member of
parliament, essayed to make a speech
/ in behalf Of friend of her husband who
RIM rir1or %In
lers were provided for her, and the
first part of her address was made to
the accompaniment of a grand chorus
of baby rattlers. She is a tariff re-
former, and when she came to explain
how much better the laboring man in
protected Germany lives than his fellow
workman in free trade England,
! genial heckler threw a live puppy dog
at the lady, exclaiming: That's what
the Germans eat"
RothschiId on Stump.
Lord Rothschild, who has more money
than Carter had oats has always made
it a practice never to speak except in
the house of lords and in the city Of
London upon purely financial or munic-
ipal affairs. But the threatened social
ism of the Lloyd-George regime aroused
him to action. and he took the stump
for tour around the country. He went
TO one town to tell the people the rea-
sons why he had been converted from
a free trader TO a tariff reformer. The
audience amused itself by interrupting
every few minutes with three cheers
for Lloyd-GeOrge. This annoyed the
baron, and he finally gave up without
finishing his speech
Nearly all of the heckIing> of the
unfriendly sort has been directed
against Conservative speakers. All dur
ing the campaign the newspapers com
fxx-f<I DOT
bias. The Radical papers were inclined
70 think that 1t showed how unpopular
the Tories We're with the people. The
Tory papers charged that the rOwdyism
of the Liberals was the desperation
bred of foreknowledge of certain de-
feat. Liberal leaders and candidates
were charged with hiring men to make
a business of breaking up Conserva-
tive meetings
Speakers Are Patient.
Occasionally a Liberal speaker would
be heckled, and then the Radicals would
cry out that the liquor trade was ply
ing rowdies with free drinks TO get them
to interrupt Liberal speakers. But
usually everybody seemed to credit all
the trouble to "the vOice"-that is TO the
British elector in action as an audi
tor.
Every speaker, of course, tries to be
patient under the strain Of the heck
ling. Sometimes a clever speaker can
turn a question to the discontinue OF
the heckler and that makes for peace
and order. Again, speaker is given
an opportunity to turn pretty point
by the aid of a chance remark of the
voice" Sometimes, it IS whispered,
speakers have been known to arrange
with some free and unterrified heckler
for few Interruptions at just the psy
Geological moment. For had as it is to
be heckIed, it is infinitely worse to be
ignored.
But when lord Cheylesmore and lord
DonoughmOre attempted TO plead the
case of the peers 10 an audience in
Coventry. the heckler reached his eli
ak He announced in tuneful song that
he collectively considered, did not in
tend TO go home until the following
morning. The only local supporter OF
the peers was hustled off the stage, but
the two noble lords were forced to stay
and hear the singing for several hours +
Lords VIII Taboo Heekling.
The British eleetOr, with a taste for &
exciting run. has his inning at election +
time. And if a peer is his particular 4
diversion. as seems to be the case, the +
heckler was happy during this Jcam- :
,airn for never before were there so .
many peers on the stump in England
If the house of lords ever gets COM
nlete control of the British constitution
If certainly will knock out the clause
protecting, the booers and the hecklers.
Tomorrow. V-The British SpeeIbind- i
ers