A SUFFRAGIST’S IMPRESSIONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2050, 10 April 1907, Page 1

A SUFFRAGIST’S IMPRESSIONS.

Miss Constance Clyde, the \e v Zealando" who, as tho res lit of participating iii a suffragist demonstration in London, had to go to gaol for some days, contributes an article to the Sydney Daily Telegraph, giving

her impressions of a peaceful procession in London of agitators for suffrage reform. She admits that the first few moments of procession walking is certainly a little trying, and that she felt as if the eyes of London were upon her. The comments of men on the footpath were not always complimentary. “Go home and do housework,” is a favorite admonition. “What is England coming to?” asked a “Johnny,” who looked as if he was incapable of doing anything to stop the descent to ruin. The policemen who walk by the sides of the agitators are not quite certain whether to be proud or ashamed of their position. “You nuisn’t point at' the ladies, but you can make remarks,” was one constable’s advice to the onlookers. On the whole, however, the attitude of the crowd is not unfriendly. “As wo pass Pall Mall there is, I must admit, a little inward shamefacedness. These interested faces at the men’s club windows are known to some of us; we have dined with this one, or gope fp the theatre with that. We move on, however, consoling oursolves with the reflection that we are braver than Cleopatra ; she died rather than walk in a procession; we would die rather ( than not do so!” Miss Clyde plaims that the agitators have the sympathy of middle-class women, which is the best omen for success. That women of the aristocracy should walk beside mill hands in procession is not surprising, for these women are accustomed to publicity. “It is when we see timid bourgeois daughters, prim teachers, staid middle-class wives in the ranks that we think enfranchisement may be really at hand.” We hope M'ss Clyde spfiakg (if ]lp acc demonstrators. \Vo would not like to think that English middle-class women sympathised with the suffragists’ conduct in the disgraceful affray outside of the Houses of Parliament. Not that Miss Clyde spems to sec anything wrong in this conduct. Blip writes of policemen “in that hysteria to which that class pj men are liable,” and accuses the police of making unnecessary arrests. A shv novelist, who three days before had complained that life was dull, obeyed the historic injuction to ask a policeman, and as a result Jound herself in Holloway, and under such circumstances no agitator now attends a meeting without making necessary arrangements for a fortnight’s involuntary absence. London, notes Miss Clyde, has erected })ut PPP statue to a woman, Royalty excepted. Is the statue of Boadicea, opposite Parliament House, an emblem and prophecy ?