The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-04-03

London, April 3-NTre. EmmeIine
Pankhurst, the leader of the militant
suffragettes, was, today, found gull
ty and sentenced to three years penal
servitude at the Old Bailey sessions
on the charge of melting persons to
commit damage.
The trial had lasted two days, and
when the judge, Sir Charles Montague
Lush, pronounced sentence. his speech
was received with loud cries of
shame from the militant suffrsa-
gettea who crowded the court and
thus expressed their horror at the Sc
we're time Imprisonment inflicted on
her.
The jury when it returned its YER
dict of guilty added strong recon-
mendation for mercy and when the
judge pronounced the heavy sentence
of three years the women rose in an
cry protest. AS Mrs. Pankhurst stood
in the prisoners enclosure her sym
pathizers cheered wildly and then
filed out of court singing March On,
March On to the tune of "MarseiI-
leise.''
1t was the sixth time that the leader
of the Women's Social and Political
union had been in the prisoners dock
since, with the cooperation of her
daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, she
inaugurated the campaign of mill
fancy seven years ago.
An exciting feature of the session
was the lighting of the fuse of an
unexploded bomb, found in the Lloyd
George home, at the border OF the
court, to determine how much time
elapsed between the departure of the
criminals and the explosion
The charge against Mrs Panlz-
hurst was having "counselled other
persons whose names are unknown to
certain Gunpowder and other ezplo@
sive substances with intent thereby
to damage David Lloyd-GSorge's
country house at Walton Heath Mrs.
Pankhurst. yesterday, pleaded mot
guilty and early today, the govern
ment closed it's case.
The only interesting development in
the evidence, today, was contained in
the declarations made by the police
who had tried to take Miss Forbes
Robertson's fingerprints in order to
ascertain her real identity. She was
imprisoned under the name Of Mar
garet James and sentenced to six
months in Jail on Feb. 5, on a charge
of wrecking a number of windows.
Mrs. Pankhurst, today, informed the
court that she did not wish to testify
or to call any witnesses. Her only
desire was to address the Judge and
jury. She spoke for so minutes at
times wandering so far from the mat
ter before the court that the judge
severely censured her.
Mrs. PankhurSt denied any mallcl~
Gus incitement. She said that neither
she nor the other smilitant suffra-
gettes were wicked or malicious. She
complained that women were not
tried by their peers and that these
trials were an example of what woIll-
en- were suffering in order to OBJ
tain their rights. Personally, she con-
tinued she had had to surrender a
large part of her income in order to
be free to participate in the suffrage
movements. Speaking with much
feeling, Mrs. Pankhurst fiercely cri-
ticized the man-made laws and said
that the divorce law alone was suf-
fcient to justify a revolution by the
women.
In impassioned tones she declared
that wha might be her sentence
she would not submit. From the very
moment when she left the court she
would refuse to eat and would start
a hunger strike" She would, she
said. come out prison, dead or alive,
at the earliest possible moment.
Justice Lush. in summing up to the
jury, said that Mrs. PankhUrst's
speeches. were an admission that she
melted the preparation of illegal