THE WOMAN'S SUNDAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 90

THE WOMAN'S SUNDAY.

By Coxstaxce Clyde

"We are quiet and ladylike only by contrast with the bell-ringers and , raiders," said a prepossessing suffragist j with a smile that Saturday : and this remark shows the curious advance in public opinion. Last year the St. James's i Gazette wondered how ladies could- demean thsmselves by -walking in procession ; now the most conventional journals , are applauding the ladylike behaviour of i these suffragists, as contrasted "with the t exasperated suffragettes. It requires only ' tlat come still wilder suffragettes should '.go further yet to make the ball-ringing, door-knocking damsel in her turn esteemed. Saturday's procession, with its thousands of orderly, cultured women, made a picturesque show. London journalists, artists, and university women took their publicity quietly, and only smiled when the Embankment, crowd made comic references to the banners bearing the Barnes of well-known authoresses.' "Jane Hausten — I see you Jeannie, my girl !" cried j one facetious hooligan. "Which is Char- j lotte Bront, and what raid: -did she take ' part in ?" -was tbe query of another loafer | as the procession swept past. How prim i Charlotte Bronte jvould have shuddered at the dark suspicion o£ having hung to ' a Cabinet Minister's door-bell ! i Very different from this quiet procession was the scene in Hyde Park the following Sunday. Here the organisation was in the hands of the most militant of the women's bodies — the Social and Political Union. Never before. so old Londoners inform' us, has the historic park contained 6-j large a crowd., Men, as well ac j women, surrounded the various platforms j so thickly that on© audience seemed to melt into another. Every platform con- | tamed one or more women who have j figured in militant tactics. Here, for j instance, is Mrs Drummond, who ad- | dressed the M.P.'s on the Terrace from • a steam launch ; here, again, Mrs Pankhurst, round whose platform the crowd press eagerly. Good-humoured banter rather than hostility is the general characteristic of the assembly ; and sometimes even the most blatant, armed with 'bells, etc., for interrupting, are lured into silence. "Our scheme," says one speaker, a woman of university training, "is for tbe education of Mr Asquith. He has passed the A B C Class, and, through our by-election policy, has now learnt that woman is not a nonentity." "Whynottrv Balfour?" asked a Scotchman. "When Balfour gets into power, we'll educate him too. if he needs it!" "Ah! 1 he's too milk-and-water for you," said the Scotchman mystically as he strode away. "Asquith is" our pupil now," continued the lady, "and' if after this .leison he does not give us what we want, he will deserve what-eA-er happens to him." The ereat shout that should have triumphantly ended the proceedings was a failure. It should not have been attempted. Women do not shout well, and, in any case, in so large a space it would have been impossible to ensure unanimity. Many persons did not even hear the bugle that gave the signal. Many : in the gathering made no attempt to get ' near the platform orators, but sat on the grass eating numerous lunches, and admiring such of the banners as came their way. That presented to Mrs Pankhurst, showing a photo of herself, was specially commended. Many women wore suffrage sashes of green and purple, inviting the attentions of the mob. Policemen, mounted and on foot, paraded the grounds . at intervals, and every now and then a Traman "svas led cmt of tlie crowd half | fainting to the trained nurses who were i in attendance beneath the trees. As one i departed out of the great gate after the huge meeting was over it was possible even then to become jammed in the crowd, great streams of people pouring down - to the various train and tram stations. For a particular tram some had to wait more than an hour. jNevertheless this great, crowded de- [ monstration has done more good than all j the quiet reasonableness of Lydia Becher | and her school. With all their weird j blunderings, their queer mistakes, the sufrYagettes are doing more than the suffragists with their well-reasoned arguments and quiet method* 1 . Remarkable, indeed, are thosp blunders. Thus one young suffragette^ a "platform orator, too, informed me that there were three times as many women as men in the British Isles ! Sometimes, ajrain, we pee manifested that curious antagonism between the pcxes which is fo unknown in Australia. Thus one suffrage paper solemnly rejoices at the thought that after the franchise is obtained "such a poem as Mrs Browning's love sonnets of the Portuguese" will become impossible." Those beautiful emanations of devotion from a wife to a husband are in suffragette eves nroof of feminine servility ! Possibly, however, if Robert Brownin<rs, in character, if not in genius, wore less rare, the i beauty of this devotion would be more evident.

- i A serious explosion in a French sugar refinery took place in the part devoted ■ to the breaking and packing of sugar, which was filled with the inflammable dust < formed by that substance, and the officials of the refinery attribute the explosion to : a short circuit which produced the burst : of flame that spread immediately from . one floor of the building to the five ( others. A cold in the noso, a? you'll suppose, • Is a terrible nuisance, goodness knows ! ■ Bat Wood-*' Great Peppermint Cure's a J friend ] Whoso kindly aid will always lend! j You may be sure When colds endure The case lequires a ireatmenf newer — j r Then send for Woods' Great Peppermint (