SOME SUFFRAGETTE SNAPSHOTS.

NZ Truth, Issue 358, 4 May 1912, Page 5

SOME SUFFRAGETTE SNAPSHOTS.

LONDON'S fEMALE fOLLY fAITHfULLY FEATURED. NATION Of SHOPKEEPfRS UPSET BY HYSTERICAL WOMEN. Sights Seen m London Streets— Stories and ..Incidents-— The "Hard Labor" Cure— Conspiracy Scare— The Flight of Christabel. fFpom "Troth's" London Correspondent.]

London is thoroughly seared about its. suffragettes. It is impossible to grasp at si distance how this nation of shopkeepers is aroused and alarmed and furiously angry by the qntrages perpetrated on i\s plate-glass windows by frantic, women. The London shopkeepers are like a swarm of angry bees "that have been disturbed m their occupation cf robbing flowers of honey (the "flowers" being the customers whom the London shopkeepers spend their lives m fleecing), by somebody knocking over their hive. Business hats been lruch interfered with, and the British shopkeeper i IS SO EXASPERATED that ho can hardly ' contain himself. Since I wrote last week there have been

a scries of frash suffragette outrages. — and the British shopkeeper has had his anguish added to by the decision of the j insurance companies not to payfor the da,pnages. Coiis.equcntly, Londpn is not unlike a pesiiged city just now. The \ big shops m, such fashonable quarters as Bondr-streoto QxEord-s^reet; the Strand, and Piccadilly k<?ep their iron shutters outside, ready at a moment's "jiotice to go up, . Most of the shopkeepers ..... .EMPLOY SPECIAL. "BULLIES'' to stand outside arid watch people who pause at the windows to peer at the srobds within. This is preety rough on the vast army of home and f ore ign females whose highest idea of earthly happiness is to press their powdered noses against the big plate-jrlass windows of the Bond- 3treet millinery shops and ecstatically dream of granting any amount of favors to the man who would be fool enough to buy them one | of the 100-giiinca "creations"' within, j But, alas! now they are startled from their sweet' womanly dreams of "fit-ting-on" by a rude gruff masculine j voice' ejaculating m their ear: "Pass j on, madam — PLEASE!" Any woman { pausing outside, a window with a 'T>or- j othy" bag m her hand— the suffraget- i tcs carry their wintiow-broaking ham- ! yners concealed m "Dorothy" bags — : is : liable to a sudden assault by a large, i i'at, i INFURIATED .TEW SHOPKEEPER. Most of the West End trade m London . is m the hands of Jews, and at this present crisis they lurk about near, the < front of their shops like large, black, ! iie,ady-reyed spiders, watching for the i lca^t sign of hostility on the -piiFf of ! any passing female. When that hap- . pens, they are apt, like the landlord ■ who pursued his lady lodger 33 times , round the sofa, to forget they arc gen- j tlemen. j Indeed, jC the "Sporting Times" is to < he believed, one West End ."shopkeeper ! c'id so far forget himself as to apply to j one of the stiffragcttes a word used by \ Chaucer, Fielding, Swift, Congreve, ! Wycherley, S;trne, and Byron, and j other early English writers; but an ; i-pithet which, unfortunately for those • who love ! A VIRILE AXGLO-SAXON TONGUE,, ; has almost, completely gone out of use : |or recent yeiirs. As the expensive : j plate-glass window crashed m, this | particular shopkeeper bounded out ! v.Mth a roar — to confront a big, mas- : culine- looking woman armed with the ■ inevitable hammer. i 'Twas then the shopkeeper forgot j his chivairy. "You — yoib — bitch!" be •: 'oared. j '•Sir, she replied, coldly, "how dare • you address a lady like that?" * , London mob feeling' has been arous- '

ftd against the suffragettes by the blti.er articles that all the London press, without- exception, have published against their precious "crusade." This nation of shopkeepers is furious at the damage done to its property, make no mistake, and the mobbing- of suffragettes has already commenced. This is also due to the newspapers, which huA-e one and all declared that if these women ■ ' BKHAVB AS HOOLIGANS, 'hey must be treated, as hooligans. Th: suffragettes have not a iriend m this vast , city. I was down m Oxford Circus the other day, and witnessed the , truth 'of this. A pair of suffragettes drove up m a little trap, with sufCra-g-ette ftags flying from the seat, and j "Votes for Women" decorating: the horse's head. They pulled up the cart to deliver some suffragist papers to a local n'ewsvendor. As they did so. some of the people on the. sidewalk made a rr>sh for the horse, and tore the "Votes for Women" placard from its head. Then they seized the papers, j antl tore them up m the street. This I was too much for the suffragette who ■ | had just dismounted from the vehicle, j i She-drew her whip, ami began TO LASH AT THE CROWD. A placid, elderly gentleman, who was watching: the little, disturbance with a. smile, took the lash of the whip on A rather bulbous nose. In an- Instant his merriment changed to wrath. He seiz- { ed the suffragette — she was a stout, fair woman— and administered several hearty smades to her with his ur- I brellaA— administered them m a plac-s ' where they were doubtless calculated to do the nw»st good — and the crowd cheered him on! It was queer to see a ' woman receiving rough handling: at the bauds of a man, with the approval of «-n English-speaking mob. The two ' females were taken charge of by the police, antl then drove away amid the- | v beers -of the crowxi. - I 1 'P7VT T'3 ffcvg B'V-St r."?T Cotf* I . n»4j^.o i (jsf vr-.rt* «f j I" 7 . «?". JAi:O.BS". 'I'H*: "SOV-'Mi.W. ; m jaw. She twM the magistrate that she deemed it her duty to her children to smash the wirtddv/s, as a protest against the action of the Government. On this statement, the magistrate expressed his intention of remanding her for medical treatment, but a little I j later Jacobs rolled up. and informed the court that his wife was all right m her mind-^ronly led astray' by the suf- ! fragette leaders. . Jacobs, who is a slim, dreamy-eyed sort of ,cihap — the last man m the world who should have a. militant wife — pleaded very hard for leniency for his lady, but the magistrate gave her a month's hard. The whole incident seemed very like one of JACOBS'S HUMOROUS STORIES, j There is no doubt about it that the sudden determination on the part of all the magistrates trying the window- ! smashing cases, to serve out doses of hr.rd labor, has had a very curative ef- j feet on the suffragette nuisance. It's one thing to bs a martyr m the "second . division" of a gaol where you are al- I lowed to receive visitors and .write, let- I ters and read books^ but it's quite ant.ither thing to be bathed -by a ward- j ! ress, and compelled to take exercise . with street-strollers, strumpets, and DIRTY DEBAUCHED DRUNKARDS. i j Nearly ali these suffragette women | find girls belong to what is known as ! the gentltr class. They have been j well-brought up, and educated m re- | lined surroundings. The common rou- ' 'tine of ga-jl life must be hell to them, ' j and one wpijld be inclined to pity them ; if they had not brought the punish- ' ment entirely on. Lhemselves by their foolishness and waywardness. Reports . irom Holloway Gaol, where most of the suffragettes arc confined, bear out the i > statement that the suffragette business , ; is crumpling up under the hard labor ' i regime. One of the wardresses says ' >he never saw a more cowed lot of , girls and womtn. Formerly they used ! to shout out "Votes, for Women," and "Are we downhearted?" but" under ,the j new hard labor, treatment they | I ARE RED-EYED, TEARFUL, AND j HYSTERICAL. i The routine for the gaol day is as fol- ; | loas-s: — ; G a.m.: Tlise, clean cell and coll | utensils. 7 a.m.: Breakfast, 1 pint ; of tea and Soz of bread. Dinner, Boz of brown suet pudding, Sos ol! pqta- ; toes (cooked m skins), and 6ox of ! bread. Tea or .supper consists of fioz '. of bread antl 1 pint of cocoa. ; Except for one hour's exercise and : half Mil lioui chapel, they arc ii'oni fined m their cell the whole of the i 24 hours, during which time they ar-> : employed at such la.«k« us monclin?of prtson clothing' and hemming • handkerchiefs. •: "Mrs Pankhurst broke clown when she j was before the magistrates, and PethI ick -Lawrence was very nervous. The i conspiracy charges (which I explained | hist week) have frightened the life arid { soul out of the leaders of ".he suffra- '■ fe'ette movement. It wa.s hcuipthine;- --; they didn't bargain for. And Christa!be I Pankliurst — the bright, uiercuria! ; Chrissle, who is the life and soul of \ the movement — is jn hiding- at the i time of writing. She is not game ! TO FACE THE MUSIC. , Seven years' hard has an ugly sound. ' And everywhere this poor silly .sunxsi- ' gettes are dk-heartened. The law has .shown its teeth to them with un ugly, snarling s>jund