Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-03-08
WASHINGTON ILLTREATS
MARCHING SUFFRAGETTES
FIVE THOUSAND WOMEN FOUGHT
THEIR WAY THROUGH MOB.
Troops of Cavalry Called to Their
Aio-Miss Inez Miholland Rode
Down Rioters.

Washington-Five thousand women,
marching in the woman suffrage pa
geant Monday, practically fought their
way foot by foot up Pennsylvania ave
nue.. through a surging mob that com
pletely defied the Washington police,
swamped the marchers and broke
their procession into little companies.
The women, trudging stoutly along I'M
der great difficulties, were able TO
complete their march only when
troops of cavalry from Fort Myer
were rushed into Washington to take
charge of Pennsylvania avenue. No
Inauguration has produced such
scenes, which in many instances
amounted to nothing less than riots.
Later. in Continental Hall, the WON
en- turned what was to have been
suffrage demonstration into an lndlg-
nation meeting. in which the Wash
ington police were roundly denounced
Tor their inactivity and resolutions
were passed calling on President-elect
Wilson and the incoming congress to
make an investigation and locate the
responsibility for the indignltes the
marchers suffered. Miss Helen kell-
er, the noted deaf and blind girl, was
so exhausted and unnerved by the eX-
perience that she was unable to
speak" at the Continental Hail.
The scenes which attended the en-
try of General" Resale Jones and
her mixers on Thursday when the
bedraggled women had TO fight their
way up Pennsylvania avenue, swamp
ed by a mob with which few police
men struggled in vain, were repeated
Monday, but upon a vastly larger
scale.
The marchers had to fight their way
from the start and took more than
one hour in making the first ten
blocks. Many of the women were in
tears under the jeers and insults
along the route.
Although stout wire ropes had been
stretched on Pennsylvania avenue
from the peace monument to the Mall
| behind the White House, the enor
nous crowds overstepped them OF
crawled beneath. Apparently no eli
| fort was made to drive them back in
| the early hours, with the result that
! when the parade started it faced al
almost every hundred yards solid
wall of humanity.
On the whole it was a hostile crowd
/ through which the women marched
| Miss Inez Milholland, herald, distln
guished herself by aiding in riding
/ down mob that blocked the way anC
| threatened to risrupt the parade
! Another woman member of the petit
! coat cavalry" struck hoodlum
/ singing blow across the face will
her riding crop in reply to a scurril
Gus remark as she was passing. The
mounted police seemed powerless t.
stem the tide of humanity.
A group of hoodlums gathered il
front of the reviewing stand in which
and a half dozen invited guests from
the White House. They kept up ;
4 running fire of caustic comment. Ap
parently no effort was made to re
move them and, evidently disguised
the White House party left before tn
procession had passed in its haltini
and interrupted journey toward Cont
mental Hall.
The tableaux on the steps of tn
| treasury building were begun whel
the parade started from its rendeZvou
at the base of the capitol. Beautiful
in coloring and grouping, the dra
matte capitalization of women's as
pirations for political freedom wa
completed long before the head of tn
parade was in sight.
In their thin dresses and bare arm
they stood shivering for more than a
hour and finally they were forced t
seek refuge within the building.
Around the treasury department tn
crowds were massed so tightly tina
repeated charges by the police wer
seemingly ineffective. OCCASIONAL
the mob gave way in one place, onl
to break over and under the wiz
hedge at some other.