Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
My letter of instruction told me what train to take, to walk from the
station two blocks straight ahead, then two to the left. I would see a
sedan parked in front of a restaurant. If I wished I could have ten
minutes for a cup of coffee or bite to eat, because no supper would be
served later.
I obeyed orders implicitly, walked the blocks, saw the car, found the
restaurant, went in and ordered some cocoa, stayed my allotted ten
minutes, then approached the car hesitatingly and spoke to the driver. I
received no reply. She might have been totally deaf as far as I was
concerned. Mustering up my courage, I climbed in and settled back.
Without a turn of the head, a smile, or a word to let me know I was
right, she stepped on the self-starter. For fifteen minutes we wound
around the streets. It must have been towards six in the afternoon. We
took this lonely lane and that through the woods, and an hour later
pulled up in a vacant space near a body of water beside a large,
unpainted, barnish building.
My driver got out, talked with several other women, then said to me
severely, “Wait here. We will come for you.” She disappeared. More cars
buzzed up the dusty road into the parking place. Occasionally men
dropped wives who walked hurriedly and silently within. This went on
mystically until night closed down and I was alone in the dark. A few
gleams came through chinks in the window curtains. Even though it was
May, I grew chillier and chillier.
After three hours I was summoned at last and entered a bright corridor
filled with wraps. As someone came out of the hall I saw through the
door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses. I waited
another twenty minutes. It was warmer and I did not mind so much.
Eventually the lights were switched on, the audience seated itself, and
I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak.
Never before had I looked into a sea of faces like these. I was sure
that if I uttered one word, such as abortion, outside the usual
vocabulary of these women they would go off into hysteria. And so my
address that night had to be in the most elementary terms, as though I
were trying to make children understand.
In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished
my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were
proffered. The conversation went on and on, and when we were finally
through it was too late to return to New York. Under a curfew law
everything in Silver Lake shut at nine o’clock. I could not even send a
telegram to let my family know whether I had been thrown in the river or
was being held incommunicado. It was nearly one before I reached
Trenton, and I spent the night in a hotel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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