Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1914-06-18
II WILD

What to do with the militant suffrag-
cites is a pressing-not to say a burning.
smashing, hacking, shrieking, sobbing
and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. The latest
tendency of the wild women to-
ward the destruction of masterpieces of
architecture and art, which are really
the property of the civilized world and
not alone of the British nation. gives the
problem an international twist. To pre-
serve for the benefit of ourselves and
posterity the achievements of the past
from Wanton destruction is quite as
much the concern of civilization as to
settle the agrarian question for the bene-
fit Of the poems of Mexico. Perhaps we
shall have to intervene in England to put
a stop to this massacre Of the ancients
which is going merrily on.
Within a few days in the Dore gallery
a female fend was engaged with a hat
chet in the destruction of engravings
which represent a part of what has been
lett TO us by a master workman lOnS
since dead. The work cost days and
hours of the most painstaking endeavor
on the part of the artist, but it's de-
struction cost only a blow of the Ratchet
in the excited woman's hands. When
an attendant tried to stop the lady she
hacked him fearfully about the body.
That day a residence was set on fire, a
medical official was assaulted by a
couple of women armed with horse-whips,
feeding women in prison who insisted on
starving themselves, two editors We're
attacked in a cowardly manner, and a
screaming creature in court dress created
a scene while the King and Queen were
trying to hold an impressive ceremony
1t was only a day or two ago that mill.
tants burned to the ground an ancient
church which had been the pride of the
country round for centuries. The at.
tempt to blow up the old stone chair ir
Westminster Abbey is still more recent
Recently two women chained themselves
to the gates of buckingham palace and
raved and shrieked about the cruelty
the government which actually tries tC
prevent them from starving themselve:
when In prison.
The women are vastly in the minority
and utterly without reason in their con
duct. Their Importance as a problem
springs from the fact that they ar,
desperate. The proper method by which
a majority may escape persecution at thu
hands of a desperate minority and We
not brutalize itself in the process il
something which the world will have Il
learn.
The problem Of What, to do with thu
Wild women is complicated by the fac
that, for all their mania, they ar
women. The British government ha
quite obviously been at a loss what t.
do with them. 1t has put them IN jai
and when they have sulked themselve
sick has taken them out again. Whel
they regained health 1t has put then
back in jail. Thus 1t has .horded then
Just the publicity likely to infame thei
mania, and Just the constant inconclusiv
s~tirrinG-up likely to keep them excited.
What would be the sane, scientific wa
Of handling them? What are these OF
fenderso Any dispassionate view of thes
over-wrouGht women will disclose tn
fact that they are not normal. Ner
vously and mentally they are unbalanced
Their standards differ from the stand
ards of sane people. The dominance c
: the single idea has upset the poise c
$ their reason. The excitement of a
emotionally urged cause has driven theI
into a condition bordering on Mysteries
e Their acts are the outrages of ma
e women. Surely then the proper trea'
ment of these crimes Is to bring the pc
petrators before a commission to pas
Upon their sanity, give them the retire
d ment and quiet which will bring thei
back to health and In the meantime II
. llieve tho public OF their attentions.