Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
From prearranged sources I was receiving messages and notes each
evening, and reports on Ethel’s pulse and temperature. Thus I learned
her vision was becoming affected and her heart was beginning to miss
beats, due to lack of liquids. “Going without water was pretty bad,” she
said herself. “At night the woman whose duty it was to go up and down
the corridors to give the prisoners a drink if they wanted it stopped
right by my cell and cried, ‘Water! Water!’ till it seemed as if I could
not stand it. And on the other side of me was the sound of the river
through the window.”
Nobody was allowed to visit Ethel but J.J., who, as her lawyer, could
not well be refused. But reporters have their own mysterious ways of
getting what they want. The _World_ man succeeded in reaching her. It
was not on the whole a successful interview, because she did not know
who he was, but it did have one important result—it confirmed at first
hand our statements as to the seriousness of her condition.
In the midst of my anxiety over Ethel, my own trial opened January 29th
in the same bare, smoky, upstairs Brooklyn court in which she had
appeared. Justices John J. Freschi, Italian, Moses Herrmann, Jewish, and
George J. O’Keefe, Irish, sat on the bench. Judge Freschi, a rather
young man, presided, and on him we pinned our hopes. We did not expect
anything of old Judge Herrmann except that, because he was Jewish, he
might be broad-minded. As to Judge O’Keefe we had no illusions.
No less than thirty of the mothers of Brownsville had been subpoenaed by
the prosecution, but about fifty arrived—some equipped with fruit,
bread, pacifiers, and extra diapers, others distressed at having had to
spend carfare, timid at the thought of being in court, hungry because no
kosher food could be obtained near by. Nevertheless, all smiled and
nodded at me reassuringly.
Formerly, a few women of wealth but of liberal tendencies had been
actively concerned in the movement, but now some who were prominent
socially were coming to believe on principle that birth control should
not be denied to the masses. The subject was in the process of ceasing
to be tagged as radical and revolutionary, and becoming admittedly
humanitarian.
In this room, side by side with the ones to be helped, sat new helpers.
Among them was Mrs. Amos Pinchot, Chairman of the Women’s Committee of
One Hundred, formed to lend support to the defense. Her reddish hair
betrayed a temper quick and easily aroused in the cause of justice.
Aristocratic of bearing, autocratic by position, she was one to command
and be obeyed, and was easily a leading personality in the philanthropic
smart set of New York. Among her valuable services was the bringing into
the fold of the mothers and aunts of the present active Junior Leaguers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account