Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-09-11
PRISONED "PICKETS"
SUFFER HARDSHIPS
Mary Winsor's Mother and Sis
ter Visit Suffragist in Wash
ington Workhouse
BY NI'LISS

When sou read about IT in the papers,
il sounds as though the life OF suffrage
picket must be a grand and glorious one,
with the police department of the nation q
capital standing attention and cookbook
Ing collector of the country's largest port
resigning all because Of mere banner
flaunted in front Of the Presidents house.
But when you get the frst-hand story
from some one who has seen the picket after
the police and the Judge are through with
her--wel. you realize that life has its
little hardshlps even for the newspaper
heroines
Miss Ellen Winsor Of Haverford, is back
with her mother, Mrs. James r. Winsor,
from Occoquan, Va. where they visited the
formers sister, Miss Mary Winsor, we'll.
known IN sunragist, sociological and social
circles. Miss Mary Winsor was sentenced
last Thursday. with eleven other pickets.
to serve sixty days in the workhouse on the
charge Of having obstructed the traffic in
front Of the White House.
My mother and | saw Mary" Miss Win
So said. "for about twenty minutes under
the eye of the inatron Of the prison My
sister wore the bulky ridiculous uniform
Of the institution Her underwear was of
thick unbleached muslin. They wear the
same costume in the winter in the sum
mer. The suffragsts were sl.ivering with
cold, because although the clothes are
bulky they do not retain any heat. They
They are starving those suhr3 gists down
there, Miss Winsor continued indignantly.
They do not give them enough to eat and
what they do get H. rotten. Ny sister said
that every morning worms were found in
the hominy and In the cornbread.
Conditions are unmaginable. These
women are housed with prostitutes and
women drunks. The sixty days sentence
that they got Is what Is given women of
the streets for n second offense. Gnjustly
arrested and unjustly sentenced, these
women are forced TO undergo indgnities
that the veriest criminal should not be: sub
iocted TO. could not even talk 70 my
sister alone and she whispered about the
food to me when tho matron wasn't looking
There is no law which forblds the peaceful
carrying OF a banner. Ny sister had to be
arrested on the false charge of 'obstructinG
the traffic.
When Judge Pugh passed the sentence,
according to the incarccratsd woman's sis
ter, he declared that if the women repeated
the offcnsc they would he liable to the
maximum sentence. which is six months
''1f you give me 5000 years " Miss Mary
Winsor, according to her sister said. 81
will never pay an unjust fine"
Miss Winsor's family is particularly con-
cerned for her, because year ago she suf-
Tered nervous breakdown. due to over
work
might dinner will be held in Wash
ington ts celebrate the release OF the first
contingent of pickets whose sentence ex.
ptres today. Mrs. William Wallace Chis-
holm, of Huntington, Pa, and Miss Lavinia
Dock, of Fayetteville. Pa, are among those
who went through the ordeal FOR their
cause.
Miss Mary Winsor, Tho was sentenced
with the second batch, comes from one OF
the most socially prominent Main Line fam
ilies Her mother is the president of tho
Merton township, and her sister is also an
ardent suffragist.