Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.Sanger, Margaret
History
Margaret Sanger: an autobiography.
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control -- United States -- Biography; Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
At Montreal I found comfort and refuge. In fact, on any road I took men
and women who knew about the _Woman Rebel_ came to my aid. I shall never
forget the generosity of the Baineses who met me at the train and
welcomed me to their home. They had been friends of Walt Whitman and
still honored “his” memory. I sat at the table where “he” had sat, and
in “his” chair. Among their many kindnesses they gave me an introduction
to Edward Carpenter, also mentioned in awed tones, leader of the Whitman
group in England and author of _Love’s Coming of Age_, which was then on
every modern bookshelf.
Since I was charged with felony I could be extradited. I was obliged,
therefore, in buying my passage, to choose a new name. No sooner had I
selected the atrociously ugly “Bertha Watson,” which seemed to rob me of
femininity, than I wanted to be rid of it. But once having adopted it I
could not escape.
I boarded the _RMS Virginian_, laden with munitions, food, Englishmen
returning home for war duty, and Canadians going over. Even before the
printing of _Family Limitation_ had begun in August, I had arranged a
key message which would release all the pamphlets simultaneously
whenever it should be received by any of four trusted lieutenants. In
case one should be arrested, another ill, or a third die, still
everything would go forward as provided for. Three days out of Montreal
I sent a cable and shortly had one in reply that the program was being
executed as planned. My soul was sick and my heart empty for those I
loved; the one gleam in this dreadful night of despair was the faint
hope that my efforts might, perhaps, make Peggy’s future easier.
The government official examining credentials at Liverpool said sternly,
“England is at war, Madam. You can’t expect us to let you through. We’re
sending back people without passports every day, and I can’t make an
exception in your case.”
But I had Good Luck as an ally; she comes so often to help in
emergencies. A shipboard acquaintance telephoned and pulled wires, a
procedure not so common in England as in the United States. On his
guarantee that I would get a passport from the American Embassy
immediately on reaching London I was allowed to enter.
I wound through dirty streets in a cab to the Adelphi Palace. It rained
all day, the wind blew, its howling came through the windows and crept
down the chimney. Homesickness swept over me worse than ever before or
since. I knew it would not do to “set and think” as the Quakers say, so
I wandered about in the business district, trying to adjust my mind to
the prices marked in the store windows in order to have some idea of
what they were in dollars and cents. I viewed church architecture and
the Cathedral, which was not expected to be finished for fifty years. It
did not look so splendid, but since everything about it was closed I
really could not tell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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