The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-12-30

| "A manned the same-quiet, easy,
| touched here and there with
humor. She did not stop to
explain that the heckling
methods adopted by the mill
tants were in line with the English custom long
maintained by in political gatherings. She
doubtless assumed that her listeners were familiar
with it She nj ght have made it excuse, if
she had cared to make any excuses beyond the
assertion that the women driven to militancy
| by masculine stubbornness and narrow-minded
conventionaiity. Often, she said, the militants
would receive encouragement in high places. you
ladies must go on Fostering people" said Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman to group that sound
ed him out.
At political meetings where there were fire,
quent references to Liberty" and freedom" and
equality" the militant woman was likely to lift
her voice. "Yes sir, women believe in liberty too"
Audiences must have been highly entertained.
Here a diversion. But the politicians
showed themselves to be woefulIy lacking in
humor. Elaborate attempts were made to keep the
women out. Then the women would find adroit
ways of smuggling themselves in, sometimes for
many hours before the meeting. A favorite method
was concealing themselves among organ pipes.
Miss Kenney was very amusing in her account
of the way the women used to overhear hand
somely dressed, fine hammered gentlemen, pillars
of the State, greeting one another and congratu-
lating themselves on their success in foiling the
militants. Then, when one of Them in a splendid
rhetorical fight would refer to Freedom" shrill
voice from among the pipes would exclaim, 1--WE
women believe in freedom, tool" There would be
shouts of laughter from the audience and conster-
nation among the politicians. After considerable
difficulty the voice would be traced to its source
and the woman would be dragged out and carried
off to the police station.
Miss Kenney casually remarked in passing that
she had been imprisoned thirteen times. Like
other militant women who had been sentenced she
found the first experience the most trying. But it
was plain that no matter how severe her hardshps
might have been, she remained intensely alive to
everything that was going The hidcous prison
clothes she described with curious blend of
pathos and satire. Some OF the food was good
of it scarcely fit to eat The sight of
pudding left in her cell gave her an almost ire
sstible desire to throw it against the wall see
whether it would bounce. A half hour each day
she was allowed to escape from the cell in order
to take exercise. The remaining twenty-three and
half she spent in the cell. What she and the
llOSl ICSSHlCu Was inc ICluSdl OIL
the government to treat them as political Of
tenders
At first the English authorities according to
Miss kenney, gave rather short sentences. Then
the sentences were increased. At one time it
looked as if Mrs. Pankhurst might have to spend a
half dozen years in prison. The prospect of such
catastrophe the militants could not endure. One
of them. happened to think of expedient tried
by Russian revolutionist-a hunger strike. Miss
Kenncy did not go into the details of its philoso-
ply. She contented herself with describing the !
way it worked. On the English authorities it must
have had terrifying effect. They could not let
these women sanctify their cause with death, and
put the government in the wrong, hold it up to |
the execration of the world barbarous in its
treatment of highly civilized women, superior ex-
amplcs of their Sex, fighting for what they be-
leved to be just cause.
No wonder, then, the hunger strike worked
successfully. OF the many women who tried it
not one failed, and yet they were constantly
tempted to eat by having special food placed in
their cells, much better than the prison fare With
the hunger strike some of the women combined |
thirst strike, refusing to take any liquid a
little water in the morning to brush their teeth
and to wash their mouths. Under normal condi-
tons Miss Kenney remarked, going without
food for several days need not be great hard /
ship. But the conditions in prison were alb
normal the suffering of the strikers was intense.
The tongue would swell, the throat would be-
come parched and frightened, the body would be
tortured with burning sensations, like the flames
of purgatory." AS the doctors became used to
the symptoms, they naturally grew callous.
On of the latest of her hunger strikes she was
kept in prison eight days. Then she was carried
out a stretcher, and it took her six months to
recover. Outside the prison there were always
militants guard by day and by night ready to
aid those who might be released
In prison the miltants were by no means con-
cerned about themselves alone, their cause.
They like visiting inspectors. and they must
have brought great deal of tribulation on their
jailers. Unlike most visiting inspectors content