Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
The doors were locked and this Mrs. Margaret Whitehurst and other
plain-clothes members of the vice squad—used to raiding gambling dens
and houses of assignation—began to demand names and addresses of the
women, seeing them with babies, broken, old, worried, harrowed, yet
treating them as though they were inmates of a brothel. Always fearful
in the presence of the police, some began to cry aloud and the children
on their laps screamed too. For a few moments it was like a panic, until
I was able to assure them that only I was under arrest; nothing was
going to happen to them, and they could return home if they were quiet.
After half an hour I finally persuaded the policemen to let these
frightened women go.
All of our four hundred and sixty-four case histories were confiscated,
and the table and demonstration supplies were carried off through the
patient line outside. The more timid had left, but many had stayed. This
was a region where a crowd could be collected by no more urgent gesture
than a tilt of the head skyward. Newspaper men with their cameras had
joined the throng and the street was packed. Masses of people spilled
out over the sidewalk on to the pavement, milling excitedly.
The patrol wagon came rattling up to our door. I had a certain respect
for uniformed policemen—you knew what they were about—but none
whatsoever for the vice squad. I was white hot with indignation over
their unspeakable attitude towards the clinic mothers and stated I
preferred to walk the mile to the court rather than sit with them. Their
feelings were quite hurt. “Why, we didn’t do anything to you, Mrs.
Sanger,” they protested. Nevertheless I marched ahead, they following
behind.
A reporter from the _Brooklyn Eagle_ fell into step beside me and before
we had gone far suggested, “Now I’ll fix it up with the police that you
make a getaway, and when we reach that corner you run. I’ll stop and
talk to them while you skip around the block and get to the station
first.” It was fantastic for anyone so to misconstrue what I was doing
as to imagine I would run around the block for a publicity stunt.
I stayed overnight at the Raymond Street Jail, and I shall never forget
it. The mattresses were spotted and smelly, the blankets stiff with dirt
and grime. The stench nauseated me. It was not a comforting thought to
go without bedclothing when it was so cold, but, having in mind the
diseased occupants who might have preceded me, I could not bring myself
to creep under the covers. Instead I lay down on top and wrapped my coat
around me. The only clean object was my towel, and this I draped over my
face and head. For endless hours I struggled with roaches and
horrible-looking bugs that came crawling out of the walls and across the
floor. When a rat jumped up on the bed I cried out involuntarily and
sent it scuttling out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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