The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910Pankhurst, E. Sylvia (Estelle Sylvia)
History
The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910
Pankhurst, E. Sylvia (Estelle Sylvia)
Women -- Suffrage -- Great Britain
By this time the House had resumed its ordinary, humdrum appearance,
and the Members who had come in during the disturbance had all drifted
away, but, as the Division bell rang and they came trooping back to
vote, a man in the Strangers' Gallery shouted, "Why don't you do
justice to women?" and was dragged out by a number of policemen, and
within ten minutes afterwards a second man shouted, "Why don't you
give votes to women?" and flung a shower of leaflets down amongst the
Members.
At the same time several women were attempting to hold a meeting in the
Lobby. The police flung them outside but they immediately climbed up to
speak from the pedestal of the Richard Cœur de Lion statue, and whilst
the constables clambered up after them, pulled them down and placed
them under arrest, other Suffragettes made dash after dash to re-enter
the House. Crowds quickly gathered and the confusion grew and fourteen
women and one man had been taken into custody before the people were
dispersed.
[Illustration: Mrs. Pankhurst in Prison]
Next morning the prisoners were brought up at the Westminster Police
Court before Mr. Hopkins. The first to be charged was Mr. Arnold
Cutler, the man who had been arrested in the fray, and it was alleged
that he had protested against the action of the police, crying, "Shame!
Leave the Women alone!" and that when dragged away he had taken off his
belt and "assumed a threatening attitude." He was fined 25 shillings.
The women were more heavily punished, being each fined £5, and on
refusing to pay were sent to Holloway for one month.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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