The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-03-08
SUFFRAGETTE'S ROUGH HOUSE
PARADE IN WASHINGTON WAS
ALMOST A RIOT.
Progress OF Votes for Women Army
Down Pennsylvania Avenue Was
Made Through Hostile and Jeer-
ing Multitudc-POlice Force Fail
ell to Keep Street Open or to Pro-
tect the Women.

and women marching in the woman
suffrage pageant today. practically
fought their way foot by foot UP
Pennsylvania avenue through a surg
ing mob that completely defied the
washington police, swamped the
marchers and broke their procession
into little companies. The women,
trudging stoutly along under great
difficulties, were able to complete
their march only when the troops of
Fort Meyers rushed into Washington
to take charge of Pennsylvania ave-
nue.. No inauguration has produced
such scenes, which in many instances
amounted to nothing less than riots.
Later lat Continental hall, the wo-
men turned what was to have been a
suffrage demonstration into an in
dignant meeting, in which the Wash
ington police were roundly denounced
for their inactivity and resolutions
were passed calling upon President
elect Wilson and the incoming con-
gress to make an investigation and
the local police for the outrages the
marchers suffered. Miss Helen Keller,
the noted deaf and blind girl, was so
exhausted and unnerved by the ex-
perience in attempting to reach
grandstand where she was to have
oh III
to speak later at the Continental hall
The scenes which attended the en-
try of Gen" Rosalie Jones and her
mixers" Thursday when the bedrag-
gled women had to fight their way up
Pennsylvania avenue, swamped by a
mob, were repeated today but upon a
vastly larger scale. The marchers had
to fight their way from the start and
took more than an hour in making
the first ten blocks. Many Of the wo-
men were in tears under the jeers and
insults from the ruffians who lined
the route.
Although stout wire ropes had been
stretched up and down the length OF
Pennsylvania avenue from the Peace
monument TO the Mall behind the
White House, the enormous crowds
that gathered to obtain points of
vantage overstepped them or crawled
beneath. Apparently no effort was
made to drive back the trespassers
in the early hours with the result that
when the parade started 1t faced at
almost every hundred yards solid
wall Of humanity.
On the whole It was a hostile crowd
through which the women marched.
Miss Inez Milholland, at the head of
the procession, distinguished herself
iy aiding in riding down a mob that
blocked the way and threatened to
disrupt the parade. Another woman
member of the cavalry" struck
hoodlum a singing blow across the
face with her riding crop in reply to
a seurrilous remark as she was pass
ing. The mounted police seemd pow
erless to stem the tide OF humanity.
\ group of hoodlums gathered in
front of the reviewing stand in which
sat Mrs. Taft and Miss Helen Taft and
half a dozen invited guests from the
ming fire of caustic comments. Appar-
emily no effort was made to remove
them and evidently disgusted, the
White House party left before the
procession had passed in it's halting
and interrupted journey towards Con-
tinental hall.
The tableauX on the steps of the
treasury building were begun when
the parade started from its rendez-
vous at the base Of the capitol. Beau
tiful in coloring and grouping the
dramatic symbolzation Of women's
completed long before the head Of the
parade was in sight.
In their thin dresses and bare arms
the players stood shivering for more
tho an hour and finally they were
forced to seek refuge within the build
ing Around the treasury department
the crowds were massed so tightly
that repeated charges by the police
were seemingly ineffective. 1t was as
though the blue coats struck stone
wall. occasionally the mob gave way
in one place only to break over and
under the wire hedge at some other.
When the cavalry suddenly appear
ed there was wild outburst of APP
plausc in the reviewing stand. The
mon in brown virtually brushed aside
thc mounted and foot police and took
charge. I'm two lines tho troops charg-
-