HALF CIVILISED.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12401, 17 November 1908, Page 4

HALF CIVILISED.

It is not so long ago since at a Devon election a brutal crowd as-' saulted two defenceless" women speakers. Another disgraceful incident occurred a few weeks ago at Maidstonc, in Kent, where the whitehaired Mrs Despard and Miss Margaret Scdley, who were touring .the country on a "Votes for. Women" van, were brutally assaulted by a. crowd. When the two ladies tried to address a meeting from the van, gangs of youths and boys greeted them with hisses and groans, and commenced to fling stones at them. Mrs Despard obtained a chair, and stood upon it, thus making herself an easier target for the hooligans. Several men present. «tried to put an end to the riot, but the ringing of bolls, blowing of whistles and shouting prevented any protest being heard. Then a big stone struck Mrs Despaird on the forehead, causing blood to flow, and inflicting a nasty wound. "Someone," she said, in the temporary silence which, followed, "threw that stone. I don't care who he is, for . I don't suppose he meant to do any harm, but I do say it is a. most diseraceful thing that there should be this horseplay in a town like Maidstone. I have come here for the first time to speak, and I am surprised at your behaviour. I lived in Kent when I was a little girl, and I thought I had come to my own country. These boys here .will never make decent men. They don't know how to . respect a woman." At this point the crowd surged forward, and Mrs Despard was knocked from her chair. The van was smashed, and only the "efforts of a. Few decent men saved the women from further brutality. Eventually the police dispersed the mob.