WINDOW SMASHERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 85, 10 April 1912, Page 3

WINDOW SMASHERS.

HAMMERS IN MUFFS. ARREST OF THE SUFFRAGIST LEADERS. CELL WINDOWS BROKEN. LONDON. Ist March. The suffragist* have brought their cause lo a crisis: the great meeting of "Antic" held last week in Albert Hall has provoked a violent response from the militant Women's Social Political Union. The body organised a crusade of win-dow-smashing, which was begun on Fiiday night, contirued Monday night, and again attempted on Tuesday night, whereupon the Government shook off it 3 lethargy, and put its foot down upon the intolera-ble state of terromni. Last Friday night the demonstration ' took the police by em-prise. At 6 o'clock the brigade of militant 6uffr?,gists scattered along tho Strand, Haymarket, Piccadilly, Bond-street, Oxford-street, and Regent-street, and made simultaneous attacks on the shop windows nearest to each of them. Some drew hammers from muffs ; many had handbags filled with heavy weights, which they swung against the glass. The few moments that followed saw an extraordinary scene. From every p?rt oi" the crowded and brilliantly lighted streets came the crash of splintered glass. Shop assistants came running out on the pavements : traffic wac {.topped : policemen sprang this way and that. Fivr. minutes later the streets were full of excited, groups, each surrounding a woman wrecker being led in custody to the nearest police station. SHOPS CLOSED. Meanwhile the shopping quarter of London had plunged itself into a sudden twilight. Shelters were hurriedly fitted, gratings were fixed ; the rattle of iron curtains being draw came from every sido; guards 6i commissionaires and', shopmen quickly mounted at every doov, and any unaccompanied lady in the streets especially if she carried a handbag, became tho subject of menacing suspicion. But the destruction waswrought. Bond-street on tho east side specially was a ruin. Piccadilly shop fronts were- starred on every side. Tho Strand, Haymarket, and Regent-street migtit have been bombarded. Many hundreds of pounds' worth of plate-glass had been utterly destroyed. It was 1 a. r,aid which little could have been donoi to prevent. PREMIER'S HOME ATTACKED. While the great shopping streets of London were being thus reduced to desolation, Mrs. Pankhurst. with Mrs. Tuko and a Mrs. Marshall, drove to Downing-street in a motor-car which they hired earlier in the afternoon. They rang the bell of No. 10, and handed to the servant a letter addressed to Mr. Asquith, They then hurled two stones through the door into th« hall, and broke two of the small square panes of oldfashicned windows on the ground' floor. Tho constables on- duty had by this time seized 1 the women and hurried them towards Cannon Row Police Station. On the way past tho Home Office, Mrs. Pankhurst wrenched her aim fiee from the constable who held it. and threw another stone through one of ths windows there. Other women had meanwhile- damaged the windows of the Colonial Office. Every builder and carpenter in the West End was besieged with messengers and orders, and by 7 o'clock barricades of boards were being nailed across the gaping windows. All the evening the streets were thronged with people looking .at the curious spectacio offered by the long lines of wrecked windows. Whole rows of shops in Bond-street had na\i an uncracked window among them. The. damage to property, exceeded £5000. ' • sfc j& ARREST OF 150 WOMEN. "*$ During tho excitement 150 women were arrested and taken to tho .lockup. Next morning 134 were placed* before the Magistrate at Bow-street.. Mrs. Pankhurst, Mrs. Tuke, and Mrs. Marshall were charged with damaging Mr. Asquith's official residence. Mrs. Pankhurst, addressing *the* Magistrate : "What we have done is paltry 'compared with 'the miners paralysing the whole life of the community. If you send -me to. prison I ©ballSigo, further.'* , The Magistrate : "Youthave resorted to methods which cannot be allowed to continue in any civilised country. (Loud applause.) If the law as it 1 stands at present is unable to cope with such movement*, it must be amended. I sentence each of you to two months'* imprisonment." The sentences were received by., an outburst of applause. Mrs. Pankhurst turned to the crowd. ■at the rear and warmly retorted. Mrs. Marshall was sentenced to twentyone days' imprisonment, in addition, fcr breaking another window. "Have+you any more? Have you any more to ■give?" she enquired. "Not at present," the Magistrate tartly replied. Mrs. Take's sentence was afterwards reduced to twenty-one days' imprifonment, because she was a, firstoffender. SCENE IN PRISON. About 100 of these women were locked up in Holloway Gaol on "Saturday night, having heen remanded for Monday's sittings They were exercising: in the prison yard on Sunday morning. Mrs. Pankhurst, who received her two months' sentence, was not of- the num/ber. Suddenly there ■ was a cry -among •the women walking round the^yard, "Where is Mrs. Pankhurst? W«.inean to see our leader. Mrs. Pankhurst, Mrs. PankhursL" They began singing tho"Marseillaise." and were with difficulty" induced to return to their cells. They followed systematic window-smashing in everycell of on© corridor, the prisoners, shouting "Votes for women." -and singing the "Marseillaise." Many of the prisoner* waved handkerchiefs throughthe broken panes. That same Sunday night a young woman named a Pit field, fiom Buckinghamshire, carried a, hamper filled with shavings and paper saturated with pardflin into the telegraph hall of the Central General Post Office. She sot fire to them. Tho flames rose six feet. A policeman kicked the burning miss into the street, and the woman then hurled a biick wrapped in paper through on© of the office- windows. The paper bore the words. "Vote for women. Down gees the show." Pitfield was arrested, and afterwards committed for trial. Strange tis it may seem, this woman was found at the police office to be far advanced with an> incurable disease. CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY. Monday's and Tuesday's newspapers contained- many proposals for ending this public scandal. Tki» suffragists were no longer a nuisance — they had become a danger. Many lawyers writing to the papers suggested that proceedings should be taken against the leaders of thp political ■union under the Conspiracy Act. The Home Secretary decided to adopt thai course, and in the evening a descent was made by eight or ten detectives on tho offices of the union. Clsmenfs Inn, and en an adjoining flat occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence. Mr. and Mr*. Lawrence, both' of whom have financed the union, were armtcd, and a tabload vi' BR>pe-r>.,jra,s, taken away.

Miss Ohristabel Pankhurst was wanted, but she was not at the ofh'ee, and up to the present she hits concealed her whereabouts. On Wednesday Mr. and Mrs. Lawience- were placed before a Magistrate, and Mrs. Pankhurst and Mrs. Tuke were sent from Holloway Prison to stand beside them to answer tin offence for conspiracy. Their case was adjourned. There was more window-smashing yesterday morning. Before 7 o'clock fivo well-drested women broko the wellknown windows of Jays, Borringes, and half a dozen other shops. The offenders were immediately arrested.— Sydney Herald's corresoondenfc.