Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
There were distinguished men present at the trial—men who also fight
for their ideals. There was Frederic C. Howe, then Commissioner of
Immigration of the Port of New York, Frank P. Walsh, International
labor leader, Dudley Field Malone, then Collector of the Port of New
York, Amos Pinchot, liberal leader, John A. H. Hopkins, then
liberal-progressive leader in New Jersey who had turned his
organization to the support of the President and become a member of the
President’s Campaign Committee, now chairman of the Committee of
Fortyeight and whose beautiful wife was among the prisoners, Allen
McCurdy, secretary of the Committee of Forty-eight and many others. One
and all came forward to protest to us during the adjournment. “This is
monstrous.” . . . “Never have I seen evidence so disregarded.” . . .
“This is a tragic farce” . . .
“He will never dare sentence you.”
It was reported to us that the judge used the interim to telephone to
the District building, where the District Commissioners sit. He
returned to pronounce, “Sixty days in the workhouse in default of a
twenty-five dollar fine.”
The shock was swift and certain to all the spectators. We would not of
course pay the unjust fine imposed, for we were not guilty of any
offense.
The judge attempted persuasion. “You had better decide to pay your
fines,” he ventured. And “you will not find jail a pleasant place to
be.” It was clear that neither he nor his confreres had imagined women
would accept with equanimity so drastic a sentence. It was now their
time to be shocked. Here were “ladies”—that was perfectly
clear—“ladies” of unusual distinction. Surely they would not face the
humiliation of a workhouse sentence which involved not only
imprisonment but penal servitude! The Administration was wrong again.
“We protest against this unjust sentence and conviction,” we said, “but
we prefer the workhouse to the payment of a fine imposed for an offense
of which we are not guilty.” We filed into the “pen,” to join the other
prisoners, and wait for the “black maria” to carry us to prison.
We are all taken to the District Jail, where we are put through the
regular catechism: “Were you ever in prison
before?—Age—birthplace—father—mother—religion and what not?” We are
then locked up,—two to a cell. What will happen next?
The sleek jailer, whose attempt to be cordial provokes a certain
distrust, comes to our corridor to “turn us over” to our next
keeper-the warden of Occoquan. We learn that the workhouse is not
situated in the District of Columbia but in Virginia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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