It was not wonderful that the female disfranchisement agitation became
a formidable movement. The No-Votes-for-Women League numbered its
feminine adherents by the million; its colours, citron and old
Dutch-madder, were flaunted everywhere, and its battle hymn, "We don't
want to Vote," became a popular refrain. As the Government showed no
signs of being impressed by peaceful persuasion, more violent methods
came into vogue. Meetings were disturbed, Ministers were mobbed,
policemen were bitten, and ordinary prison fare rejected, and on the
eve of the anniversary of Trafalgar women bound themselves in tiers up
the entire length of the Nelson column so that its customary floral
decoration had to be abandoned. Still the Government obstinately
adhered to its conviction that women ought to have the vote.
Then, as a last resort, some woman wit hit upon an expedient which it
was strange that no one had thought of before. The Great Weep was
organized. Relays of women, ten thousand at a time, wept continuously
in the public places of the Metropolis. They wept in railway stations,
in tubes and omnibuses, in the National Gallery, at the Army and Navy
Stores, in St. James's Park, at ballad concerts, at Prince's and in the
Burlington Arcade. The hitherto unbroken success of the brilliant
farcical comedy "Henry's Rabbit" was imperilled by the presence of
drearily weeping women in stalls and circle and gallery, and one of the
brightest divorce cases that had been tried for many years was robbed
of much of its sparkle by the lachrymose behaviour of a section of the
audience.
"What are we to do?" asked the Prime Minister, whose cook had wept into
all the breakfast dishes and whose nursemaid had gone out, crying
quietly and miserably, to take the children for a walk in the Park.
"There is a time for everything," said the King; "there is a time to
yield. Pass a measure through the two Houses depriving women of the
right to vote, and bring it to me for the Royal assent the day after
to-morrow."
As the Minister withdrew, Hermann the Irascible, who was also nicknamed
the Wise, gave a profound chuckle.
"There are more ways of killing a cat than by choking it with cream,"
he quoted, "but I'm not sure," he added, "that it's not the best way."
THE UNREST-CURE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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