“A TRACK TO THE WATER’S EDGE”
On March 2, as a result of my pleading to be dismissed from the
hospital, I was put to sleep in a separate cell along the passage of
our ward. This cell had a floor of unpolished wooden boards, contained
a fixed iron bedstead, movable washing stand furnished with tin
utensils, a wooden chair, a square plank fixed to the wall near the
door as a table, and a corner shelf under the window to hold Bible,
prayer and hymn book, prayer card, list of rules, salt cellar, toilet
paper, slate and slate pencil. A small basket to contain my clothes was
kept under the bed. A bell near the door communicated with the outer
passage. The cell was lit by a thickly barred window of small panes of
glass, having in the centre a box-like apparatus, with a lid, opened
by a rope pulley to let in the air without enabling one to see out, as
in church windows. There was a grating ventilator below the window. In
the wall of the cell giving on to the passage was a glazed aperture,
through which the cell was lighted at night from a gas-jet, as in the
“reception” cell. Besides the heavily metalled door, these hospital
cells had iron gates, so that the door could be left open when patients
had to be watched. At eight o’clock the night wardress went her rounds,
lifting the spy hole and shouting through the door “All right?” to
which the prisoners have to answer “Yes.” If they are asleep, the
question is repeated until they wake and answer it. The gas was then
lowered to a light by which it would have been difficult to read, but
not extinguished. It was explained to me afterwards, when I pleaded for
darkness, that I was an “observation” case on account of my “serious
heart disease.” The luxury of privacy after five nights and days of
unrelieved publicity seemed very great, and as soon as this last
“inspection” was over my imagination conjured up into my presence every
friend I have ever had, including my dog who died twenty years ago. I
held intercourse with them, “dreamed true,” and had a happy time. I
then rolled round and gave myself up to perfect sleep.
After, as it seemed, a very short night, I woke with a start and a
feeling of great horror. I supposed I had had a bad dream, but quickly
realised that the nightmare was on the waking side of my existence.
I sat up in bed. There was a sound of footsteps which I could not at
first locate or interpret. They came nearer, clear foot-falls and a
shuffling sound in between, as if some of the feet were reluctant and
were being dragged along. Then a voice in great distress, half shriek,
half groan, that came in broken snatches. The sounds came rapidly
nearer and grew more definite. The massive walls of the building
seemed to become thin and the doors flimsy with the penetrating
noise. I expected that any moment these night-wanderers might enter
my cell, I supposed it was a case of delirium tremens or madness. The
footsteps stopped. A violent scuffle was apparently taking place.
Then followed a jangle of keys, the banging of a gate, more turning
of keys, and I realised that a frenzied woman had been shut into the
cell below mine. She immediately seized hold of the gate and shook it
so that it rattled on its hinges, suggesting almost more than human
strength. The wolf-like barking sounds of her voice turned into a
human yell as she screamed out, “Nurse! Nurse! Let me out.” It seemed
a most reasonable remark. The words broke the spell of horror and woke
instead my intensest sympathy. She was expressing the one desire that
is constantly uppermost in prisoners’ minds, the walls echoed it as
a thought most familiar to them. The gate shivered unceasingly under
her onslaught as she hurled herself against it, and her words came
at intervals, “Nurse! Nurse! Open the gate.” The sounds suggested in
turn madness, fury, despair. I strained to interpret and understand,
but there was no clue. I yearned to console her. Presently footsteps
came outside my door, a rattling of keys and locks, my door was burst
open and a wardress I had not seen before put her head in, saying, “I
thought you might be startled.” Her face was inflexible and revealed
nothing. I threw out questions, “Was it a maternity case?” “Was she
ill?” “Why was she so wild?” but the door was slammed to without any
answer being given. However, even this attention was a relief and
unfroze my blood a little. I wondered if the other prisoners, if the
poor distracted woman herself in the cell below, had been offered as
much consolation.
I was kept in bed that morning until after the rounds of inspection.
The Governor was very civil. He urged me to give the required assurance
and bind myself over “to be of good behaviour,” that I might leave the
prison. He asked if I had “considered” my mother. I have no doubt he
thought it his duty to talk in this way, and probably he was trying
to be kind as well. At the time, however, his insinuation seemed more
like a blow in the face. The words rushed to my lips: “If you knew
my Mother, if you had seen her only once, you would know that it was
impossible to risk causing her anxiety without immensely considering
it,” but I restrained myself and merely said: “I am not the only woman
here who has a mother.” I remembered that when Mrs. Pankhurst had been
imprisoned she had been punished for exchanging a few words with her
daughter. The Governor then brought out a stethoscope to examine my
heart. This was surprising, as I had not realised that he was a doctor.
He urged tonics, but did not insist. Eventually I consented to take
maltine and a banana after the mid-day meal, as they were distressed
that I was so thin.
The shrieks and cries from the cell below had grown less towards
morning, but they were renewed at intervals throughout the day. When I
went into the general ward the horror of the night was still hanging
over my companions. A wardress told one of us that the woman had killed
her child and been put into the condemned cell after being sentenced
to be hanged. After my release it was officially stated that the woman
who had been sentenced to death for baby-murder had been perfectly
quiet and that the “condemned cell” was in a part of the prison far
removed from the remand hospital. The shrieks we had heard were those
of a mad woman, under remand for larceny, who had since been removed
to a workhouse infirmary. The distressful cries went on intermittently
for several days, after which they lapsed into groans like those of
the dying. My longing to communicate with her became at moments almost
unendurable. I hoped she would die; she seemed too far gone in distress
for any other remedy. One morning before it was light I thought I heard
the throaty sound of the death rattle from her cell. After that she was
removed, whether dead or alive I could never find out until after my
release.
I went into the general ward for the greater part of the day. I made
my bed and dusted my cell, but was not allowed to wash the floor or
clean the tin utensils because of my “heart disease.” The quieter
nights enabled me to eat more food, and I think I gained in weight
and became generally restored to quite normal health. It was obvious
that no ordinary prisoner nor Suffragette prisoner would, in my state
of health, have been put in hospital, and that I was being kept there
either to give me a soft time or for some other impenetrable reason.
I told the Senior Medical Officer that unless I were allowed to the
“other side” I should feel obliged to protest by means which he would
probably regret when it was too late. He looked very much alarmed,
but my threat produced no practical result. I then asked leave to
petition the Home Secretary, a right allowed to all prisoners. Blue
official paper, ink and a pen were brought to my cell, only one sheet
of paper being allowed, but it was a large one. I forget the wording
of my letter. I stated that I had been rather severely knocked about
by the police while on a peaceable Deputation to the House of Commons
to petition that, when the accepted conditions for which voting rights
are granted have been fulfilled the vote should follow, in the case
of women as of men, a claim which he, the Home Secretary himself,
and a majority of the Cabinet and House of Commons had recognised as
just. That I therefore was grateful for the privilege of being placed
in hospital during the first few days, where the careful and kindly
treatment of the officials and excellent food had quickly restored
me to my normal health. I told how I had asked permission to join my
companions in the cells, but hitherto had asked in vain. I explained
that the cell routine of floor scrubbing, tin polishing, etc., would be
no exceptional exertion in my case, since I was an amateur scrubber,
having patronised that craft in much the same spirit in which other
unemployed women took up water-colour drawing or hand-embroidery.
I found that my fellow prisoners were kept in the cells when much
more seriously ill than I was, and I was driven reluctantly to the
conclusion that the preferential treatment meted out to me was for no
better reason than that I had influential friends whose criticism, if
my health should suffer in prison, was feared by the authorities. I
resented such favouritism on the part of officials, both as a Liberal
in politics, as a believer in the teachings of Christ, and as a woman,
and if the special treatment of my case continued I should feel bound
on my release to make it known from every platform of our campaign
throughout the country. I found there was a tradition amongst prisoners
that petitions to the Home Secretary were always in vain. As I put
forward a moderate and reasonable request, consistent with the prison
regulations, I hoped it would serve as an instance for proving this
tradition to be false. This letter, perhaps, gave a slightly coloured
version of the hospital _régime_, but I knew that, in spite of their
aims to the contrary, officials are human, and that if I could express
some sort of praise that was fairly justified, my letter would be more
likely to reach the higher dignitaries and be attended to by them.
Perhaps, I thought, the combination of a very reasonable request with
an allowance of judicious flattery might even result in the request
being granted.
The following day I noticed a peculiar and welcome expression on the
faces of various officials as of a smile hidden behind the mask,
plainly indicating that my letter had been read in Holloway, however
much the valentine might be destined for waste-paper basket furniture
at the Home Office. I piled on my good behaviour and ate as much food
as I could, to conciliate the prison authorities. On the third day
following I received a written answer, a formal statement that my
petition had been received, but that the Home Secretary did not see
his way to granting it. This led to further altercations with the
Governor and doctor. They insisted that the cell _regime_ would be too
severe for me. I replied that unless they allowed me to experience it
for myself I should probably carry away an exaggerated version of the
hardships imposed on my companions. They pleaded that my exceptional
physique and heart disease required “rest.” I answered that prison
was not a “rest cure” and that in the case of my fellow prisoners,
more especially of Miss Lawless and Mrs. Meredith Macdonald, no such
reverend attention had been paid to their physical needs. Every day I
put forward the request and argued the point, always in vain. I felt
that the time had come to carry out my threat. My mind brooded on what
form it should take, but for various reasons it had to be deferred. I
had contracted the cold which was rampant in the ward. The prisoner’s
handkerchief, a duster hanging from the waist of the skirt which did
service for a week, was an inevitable conveyer of infection. This
forbidding form of handkerchief became doubly a trial with a cold in
the head. I used when at exercise to hold it out as I walked, in the
style of a bull-fighting matador, in order to dry it and shake it out,
and I used toilet paper in its stead whenever opportunity offered, but
no efforts could counteract the disgusting overuse and exposure of the
duster. I determined not to press my request to go to the cells while
there was any rational excuse for keeping me in hospital. When my cold
was wearing off I had the misfortune to meet with an accident and cut
myself with some broken crockery. This necessitated bandaging, and
again I put off my threat. The days went by with unvarying monotony.
Although I had known for several weeks of my decision to go on the
Deputation and had full time to prepare for a likely imprisonment, I
was continually remembering some concern of my home life, the wheels of
which would be getting clogged in my absence. At first these thoughts
were very worrying and kept my mind continually on the fret at my
inability to communicate with the outside world, but the realisation
of one’s helplessness gradually subdued these desires. One day,
however, I heard from a more experienced “gaol-bird” that permission
to write a letter was sometimes granted if “on business.” I promptly
determined to try for this privilege, since it had been granted to
other Suffragists. I chose a matter connected with the village in
which I lived, so that the fact of my being “all right,” as the cell
inspectors put it, might be conveyed to my mother. I asked leave to
write to the Rector’s wife about a flower show committee of which
I was secretary. Leave was granted. I was asked to confine myself
exclusively to the “business” for which permission had been given;
the luxury of writing it was nevertheless very great. Later on I was
allowed to write a second letter to a friend on the Stock Exchange who
manages my money affairs. I wanted some money for a prisoner friend
who was to be released before me. Cheque books were, of course, not
available in prison, and although a letter to my banker would probably
have been sufficient, I thought a personal friend would be more likely
to let the news of my continued “all right”-ness filter through to my
mother, although I was not allowed to send a definite message. There
seemed, too, something attractive in addressing a letter direct from
Holloway to the Stock Exchange, as I did not know my friend’s private
address. This letter, of course, required an answer which I was allowed
to receive and keep. The rule for prisoners is that letters addressed
to them by a spontaneous correspondence from outside are forbidden,
but if permission is granted to a prisoner to write a letter which
requires an answer, that answer can be received and kept. This answer
was about the money I had asked for, duly enclosed, and contained also
a casual reference to a remote relative. “I suppose you have heard
that X. has been down with influenza.” Evidently the writer assumed
that I had been carrying on my correspondence as usual. I ungratefully
wished that if I was to be allowed news of the outside world it might
have been an item connected with my more immediate belongings. But the
letter gave me a pleasure difficult to describe, bringing, as it did, a
ventilating whiff of ordinary human, free existence into prison life. I
clung to every particle of it, envelope and all, and generally carried
it about in my clothes for fear it should be destroyed while I was
out of my cell; no love-letter was ever more watchfully guarded by a
girl of sixteen. It, of course, had been opened and read before it was
delivered to me.
I pleaded that as the cell prisoners were allowed a change of
vegetables, cabbage, onions, haricot beans, succeeding each other
in turn at the midday meal, the hospital patients might be allowed
the same, anyhow the bed patients, to whom the daily cabbage became
extremely distasteful through monotony. The medical officer who took
the inspection rounds that morning was not favourable to petitions of
this kind. He answered gruffly, “If you were given the variety, depend
upon it you’d be petitioning before long to be put back on one kind
only,” and the daily cabbage continued. But one gets used to snubs in
prison and before long I tried again. For three days in succession we
had been given salt butter of a rather rancid kind, instead of fresh
butter as had been supplied before. I kept a small sample of it in a
saucer and showed it to the Senior Medical Officer when he came round.
This man, according to my experience, was uniformly obliging, just as
if he had been an ordinary man and not a prison official. He did not
scoff, but took the saucer in his hands and marched out of the ward
with it, saying: “I think I had better see to this myself.” We were not
given salt butter again. Emboldened by this success when next he came I
put the vegetable question before him. He said nothing, but from that
time forward we were given a change every day.
One day there was a stir in the atmosphere owing to an unusual event,
the fortnightly visit of the Visiting Magistrates was due. This was
an opportunity for prisoners to air their grievances. Experience had
taught us that, at any rate as regards Suffragettes, prison officials
and Visiting Magistrates were one and the same authority, indeed
prison officials, Prison Commissioners, Home Office, police, and
police Magistrates, all played to the same tune as conducted by the
attitude of the Government, and we knew that there was no tribunal of
an independent character to which we could make appeal. Nevertheless,
as a matter of principle, we left no stone unturned to get injustice
redressed by constitutional means. Among the hospital patients there
were several cases of glaring injustice. The false charge before
mentioned on which Mrs. Duval (Freedom League) had been arrested and
sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment. Mrs. Pethick Lawrence’s sentence
of two months when other second offenders in the same Deputation
were given only four weeks and some six, and when Mrs. Despard, also
a prominent leader, had been sentenced to only one month (second
imprisonment) and released after one week “on medical grounds,” her
health at the time being excellent. Finally, the disgraceful medical
diagnosis and treatment of Mrs. Macdonald after her accident in the
yard. Mrs. Macdonald and Mrs. Duval were unable to leave their beds to
appear before the Magistrates. Mrs. Macdonald decided not to appeal
on her own behalf. The Magistrates were not medical men and an appeal
against the doctor would have been useless and perhaps would have
aroused fresh prejudice against her. She was allowed to send a written
communication suggesting some excellent reforms on general lines for
prison management.
That afternoon, when I was locked into my cell, at an unexpected hour
a wardress ushered in a gentleman, apparently an official, whom I had
not seen before. I expected him to order my dress to be opened and
to begin stethoscoping my heart--that was the usual procedure when a
male official appeared. Instead he stood before me and said with some
dignity: “I am Sir Alfred Reynolds.” The name conveyed nothing to me,
so I did not answer, but merely bowed. He went on to ask if I wanted
anything, to say he might be seeing Lord Lytton soon and did I want any
message conveyed to him or to my home. The sense of bewilderment which
prisoners feel when the unusual happens, breaking into the monotonous
routine of their lives without explanation, overcame me. I did not
know with what object the stranger put these questions, the wildest
interpretations rushed through my mind--that the authorities were
seeking some fresh excuse to release me, that my home people had heard
some untrue report and were in a panic, that there was some underlying
purpose connected with my fellow prisoners, to which I had no clue. My
instinct was to be on my guard, and to shield myself against intrusion.
I answered coldly that I was “All right, thank you,” and that I had no
messages to send. That evening I was told that this gentleman was one
of the Visiting Magistrates. After my release I realised that he was a
neighbour in our county of Hertfordshire and knew my brother. It was
very kind of him to visit me in that considerate way and I much regret
that I did not respond to his friendliness at the time.
Mrs. Lawrence put her case, guarded by a wardress, standing before the
seated board of Magistrates. They had nothing to say in explanation or
defence of her sentence, but offered no redress.
On Friday, March 12, I had an unexpected and altogether delightful
surprise. In the afternoon I was summoned out of the ward and taken
across the yard. Was I being changed to the other side? A deliriously
joyful thought suggested itself, could it be a visitor? I had already
had my due in this respect, but several visitors were occasionally
allowed to prisoners. Since privileges towards me were the order of the
day it was a possibility. I was shown into the same “solicitor’s” room
as before; this time it was empty. I was left in charge of a wardress
I had not seen before; she was very amiable. I felt quite distraught
with the unusual excitement, and with the torrent of questions that
ramped through my brain. Although I had had no reason to expect
another visitor, I had recently longed for one with accelerated zest
because of the patient with the injured leg. I had grown daily more
exasperated over the attitude of the authorities towards her case, and
felt that the seeming brutality on their part was probably due to an
official inability to realise all that it entailed to this suffering
woman, that if only one could get the facts known outside the prison
a reconsideration might bring about the granting of some of the very
moderate requests she had made with regard to her release, and also
by exposure of her treatment make it unlikely that physically injured
prisoners should be subject to the same hardships in future. She was
a woman of abnormal courage, and in spite of her crippled condition
was planning to go straight home by rail to Marlow on the day of her
release. She did not keep a servant; her three children who had been
cared for by friends were to return with her. It seemed to me she was
unfit for her ordinary life and I was most anxious that she should see
a surgeon before attempting the journey by rail. I urged her, too,
to make some arrangement for being nursed in her own house or to go
for a while to a “home” or hospital. For all these matters it was
imperative that she should see her husband and discuss possible plans
with him. She asked leave of the Governor to write to him. This was
refused unless she obtained a permit from the Home Secretary. It took
three days to write to and obtain an answer from the Home Office. When
the reply came, permission was granted to write to her husband, but no
mention was made as to his visiting her. The prison authorities would
not allow this without a further permit from the Home Office. There
was no time to receive and act upon this before her release. When I
compared such treatment of an urgently needful situation with my own,
the ease with which I obtained leave direct from the prison authorities
to write two letters, one of them of no particular importance, and the
ease with which two of my relatives had been allowed to visit me, I
felt exasperated. The action of the authorities made no pretence at
inflexible, even-handed justice, and the partiality shown was all on
behalf of the prisoner who needed it least.
After a few minutes, to my surprise and intense delight, my eldest
brother was shown in. He gave me good news of those at home. Before
long I was pouring out to him the facts and my pent-up commentary
concerning Mrs. Macdonald, in spite of frequent protests from the
wardress, who exclaimed from time to time that it was against the rules
to make communications to outsiders about fellow-prisoners or the
prison authorities. This time I was careful not to reprove my loved
visitor for anything, and before our all-too-short interview came to
an end I was able to send a message to my sister to make good my
regrets about her visit.
The variety of leniency of the different officials, and of the same
officials on different days, gave a certain savour of adventure to the
dreariness of prison life. Here are two instances of the brighter side.
Mrs. Lawrence and I were one afternoon allowed to walk up and down
the length of the ward side by side talking in low voices. She told
me about the early days of the militant movement and supplemented my
book-study of that miraculous fairy tale in which I was now privileged
to take part. As I listened and reproached myself continually with
the thought, “Women had all this to face and I was not helping them,”
there seemed a positive charm in the trials of imprisonment--the
suffering about my home people, the grim sights and sounds of our
surroundings, the rudeness of prison officers, the physical discomforts
of unaccustomed clothing, thunder-stuffed pillows, etc. Now that I
passed the nights in a cell and came into the ward only for meals and
part of the day, I noticed with keener insight how remarkably the
atmosphere of leadership clung round Mrs. Pethick Lawrence. Her clothes
and the disciplined routine were exactly the same in her case as in
ours, she conformed to all the rules and seemed to adapt herself to
the life as if it had been of her choice and not imposed upon her. Yet
the authority, and above all, the wisdom in her personality seemed
to shine out more prominently even than they did in free life when
she was controlling the many departments of the office at Clement’s
Inn for which she was responsible, or of the public movement from a
platform. Everyone came to her for advice, even the prison officers
seemed instinctively to refer matters to her. It was, for once, quite
intelligible why they had separated her from the bulk of the Suffragist
prisoners by putting her in hospital. It was obvious that her control
over them would far outweigh the authority of prison rules and rulers
should she choose to exert it. The reason given, however, was that
she too was suffering from heart disease, but this medical verdict
did not prevent her being sent to the cells, where the full prison
labour of floor washing and tin polishing was exacted of her, as soon
as our shorter sentences had expired and she was left to finish her
unjustifiably longer term in solitude.
Another unexpected privilege had been carefully planned so that the
joy of it was spread over several days. The Freedom League prisoners
were soon to be released. We schemed a jollification to take place on
the Sunday evening before their departure. The Sabbath day reflected
national customs in prison as outside. The morning was characterised
by clean clothing and an unusual rigidity of behaviour, but towards
the latter half of the afternoon the air of solemnity wore away, some
of the officers had an afternoon off, bringing back with them an
indefinable sense of the outer world, and the evening hours sometimes
produced an atmosphere almost of amiability. Much would depend on
whether a lovable wardress, who often did duty in our ward and had
shown herself invariably friendly towards us, should be “on” or “off.”
The patients, who had increased to nine, were all of them now out of
bed during part of the day. We were to gather round the fire, and to
tell yarns, stories or poems, as if we were in camp in the free world.
A sense of excitement and expectancy pervaded the ward all day. I felt
as children do before a self-schemed escapade into the dominions of
forbidden joys, my delight only slightly marred by the prospect of
having to contribute to the recitations, a performance not at all in
my line. I spent the spare moments of the day trying to remember and
write down on my slate Coventry Patmore’s poem “The Toys.” Parts of it
had constantly floated into my mind while in Holloway from the striking
resemblance between prisoners and children. I treasured more especially
the actual list of toys which the child, a seven times breaker of the
law, when punished and dismissed “with hard words and unkiss’d,” had
put beside his bed:--
“A box of counters and a red-vein’d stone,
A piece of glass abraded by the beach,
And six or seven shells,
A bottle with bluebells,
And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art
To comfort his sad heart.”
When evening came after the supper meal our little plot developed with
unexpected smoothness. The kindly wardress was in charge, activity and
“inspection” in the passage outside subsided altogether and we were
left to our own devices. What chairs there were we set round the fire
and the rest of the company sat on the floor. An unwonted expression
of happiness beamed from the fire-lit faces of these prison-clad
individuals, drawn together from many parts of the country and from
widely-differing walks of life. Each one contributed her share to
our spontaneous entertainment. Even the wardress, completely casting
aside her official manner and addressing herself deferentially to
Mrs. Lawrence, for whom she had a great admiration, told a pathetic
little story with a surprising gift of narration and concentrated
expression. I remember I had dreaded lest one or two of the company
besides myself should not be “up” to an adequate contribution, and
that our little entertainment would be marred by those uncomfortable
moments of both conscious and unconscious failure such as are common
to “social” gatherings, no matter where they take place. However,
everyone played up. There was great variety in the different speakers,
each in turn adding a new element to the programme, each was good of
its kind and there was no need for pity anywhere. My friend with the
injured leg contributed a remarkable political poem of her own making,
but far the most artistic items were given by Mrs. Lawrence. She told
us first an Arab story which she had heard from a Dragoman sitting
round a real camp fire in Egypt. It was full of the detail dear to the
East, which suited the associations of superfluous time in our then
experience. It was intricate and humorous, lifting our minds completely
out of our present surroundings. She was pressed for “more.” She then
repeated Olive Schreiner’s “Three Dreams in a Desert.” I had read
this allegory many years ago when it was first published. I remember
that the painter Watts and my father had been enthusiastic over the
poetical beauty of these “Dreams.” Their lyrical force, the imaginative
woof and warp of their parables and the dignified cadence of their
language had impressed me in my youth so that I read them many times
for sheer emotional joy, but their meaning had evidently not penetrated
to me. Olive Schreiner, more than any one other author, has rightly
interpreted the woman’s movement and symbolised and immortalised it by
her writings. Now after even so short an experience of the movement
as I had known, this “Dream” seemed scarcely an allegory. The words
hit out a bare literal description of the pilgrimage of women. It fell
on our ears more like an A B C railway guide to our journey than a
figurative parable, though its poetic strength was all the greater for
that. The woman wanderer goes forth to seek the Land of Freedom....
“‘_How am I to get there?’ The old man, Reason, answers, ‘There is
one way and one only. Down the banks of Labour, through the water of
suffering. There is no other._’ ... ‘Is there a track to show where
the best fording is?’ ... ‘_It has to be made_....’ And she threw from
her gladly the mantle of ancient-received opinions she wore, for it
was worn full of holes. And she took the girdle from her waist that
she had treasured so long, and the moths flew out of it in a cloud.
And he said, ‘_Take the shoes of dependence off your feet._’ And she
stood there naked but for one white garment that clung close to her,
the garment of Truth, which she is told to keep. She is given a staff,
Reason, ‘a stick that curled.’ ‘_Take this stick, hold it fast. In that
day when it slips from your hand you are lost. Put it down before you,
where it cannot find a bottom, do not set your foot._’ The woman having
discarded all to which she had formerly clung cries out: ‘For what do
I go to this far land which no one has ever reached? I am alone! I am
utterly alone!’ But soon she hears the sound of feet, ‘a thousand times
ten thousand and thousands of thousands and they beat this way.’ ...
‘_They are the feet of those that shall follow you._’ ... ‘_Have you
seen the locusts how they cross a stream? First one comes down to the
water’s edge, and it is swept away, and then another comes and then
another, and at last with their bodies piled up a bridge is built and
the rest pass over._’ ... And of those that come first some are swept
away, and are heard of no more; their bodies do not even build the
bridge? ... ‘_What of that? They make a track to the water’s edge._’”
And in the last dream she sees in that land of Freedom where Love is no
longer a child but has grown to a man. “On the hills walked brave women
and brave men, hand in hand. And they looked into each other’s eyes,
and they were not afraid.”
We dispersed and went back to our hard beds, to the thought of our
homes, to the depressing surroundings of fellow prisoners, to the
groans and cries of agonised women--content. As I laid my head on the
rattling pillow I surrendered my normal attitude towards literature,
and thought “There is some point, some purpose in it after all.”
Since I had left the general ward there were more opportunities for
the officers to show kindness without being detected in “favouritism,”
and I had come to be on very good terms with several of them. Even the
ward superintendent, who made a special hobby of outward severity, had
relaxed on several occasions. For instance, she stood in the doorway
one morning watching me make my bed. She remarked, with the same
outward air of contempt that was habitual to her, but with a kindly
look in her eyes: “You’re not much used to that, I expect?” I answered:
“Do you think I do it so badly?” She smiled and seemed distressed
that I had interpreted her that way. Her anxiety that I should put
on flesh while under her charge made her almost motherly at times. I
accounted for my small appetite by explaining that I did not spend
myself in prison life. “Don’t know about spending yourself, but how
about your sensitiveness? Doesn’t that ‘spend’ you?” This taunt was
because when she renewed the plasters on my cut, which she did very
skilfully, I winced a good deal. The sticky plaster adhered closely
and the process of removing it generally made me feel faint. I didn’t
know till she said this that she had even noticed it, but her contempt
was softened by a kind smile. I had determined to begin my strike in
real earnest the following week if I failed by reasonable pleadings
to get sent to the cells. I was anxious that the responsibility of
my bad behaviour should not fall on her, and I wished to make very
clear that I had no malicious intentions towards her, or anyone else,
beyond giving proof to the doctors that I should be better the “other
side.” She was extremely busy and her visits to me never lasted more
than a few seconds. I took the first opportunity to say unconcernedly
and not looking at her, but with the hope of arousing her curiosity
sufficiently for her consent: “If you should have a spare minute
before Sunday, come in to me when I am in my cell, I want to ask you
something.” She looked surprised, but said nothing and avoided me for
the rest of the day. The following afternoon she looked in hurriedly,
saying in her most official voice: “What is it you want?” I resented
the scolding tone and answered without humility, as one would to a
fellow-being outside, “Come near to me, I want to speak to you, but
only if you can spare the time.” I was lying on my bed, a privilege
I was allowed in the separate cell. She came in, pushed the door to,
stood close to my bed-side and said again gruffly, “What is it?” I
reached out my hand to take hers, but meeting with no response I drew
it in again. I did not want to get angry with the rebuffs of her
officialdom, so I kept my eyes down as I said: “I like you because
you have always treated me the same as the others, yet you have never
really been unkind to me. I want to ask you something now, because
by Sunday either I shall have had leave to go to the other side or I
shall have begun my strike in real earnest and you will be getting more
and more angry with me.” She stooped down and said in a low voice of
extreme tenderness as if I had been a child: “Why, I have never been
angry with you yet.” I looked up into her eyes. They were lit with
kindliness and her whole face beamed on me with genial goodwill. It
was a surprising change. The personality was the same, but the mask
was off and I realised something of the sacrifice it must be to this
woman continually to conceal her good nature under so forbidding a
manner. I felt more than ever how wasteful and unreasonable is a
system which represses the natural powers of good influence in such
a woman and exacts of her, in their stead, an attitude towards the
prisoners of so much less worth. Her kindness made my determination
to carry out my strike at all costs a much harder job than any amount
of her official hardness and reproof would have done. If it had been
for any less object than a matter of principle I could not have done
it. “No,” I answered, “but I haven’t yet begun my strike seriously.” I
added: “I don’t wish to discuss that now. I want you to tell me when
you could come and see us after I am out. Mother will wish to thank
you for being kind to me, and to hear about my wicked ways from you.
You must come down to us in the country. We are on this line and quite
near London.” Her face grew serious again, but remained without the
official mask. She shook her head. “That’s impossible,” she said with
decision, “it would be against the rules.” “There are no prison rules
for me once I am free again, and you surely have some holidays when
you can do as you like.” “No, that would be quite against the rules.”
I pleaded afresh and with determination. She then tried another tack,
said that she had friends of her own to visit in the little time at
her disposal. I answered she must bring one of these with her and they
would spend the day together with us. But she would have none of it. I
said she, of course, felt obliged to rub in the rules and regulations
while I was prisoner under her charge and that I respected her for
that. It was obvious, however, that such rules would have nothing to
do with me once I was free again, that I should write to her after my
release, as an ordinary outsider, and make fresh suggestions. I had in
mind several instances in which prisoners and warders had continued
friendly after release. I asked her to give me her home address or, at
least, to tell me her Christian name, for, as several of her sisters
were also prison officers in Holloway, I did not want my letter to go
to them. She, however, would not tell me any of these things. I asked
why it would be against the rules. She answered, “We are not allowed
to hold communication with ex-prisoners,” and vouchsafed no further
explanation. I said I thought we Suffragettes might be looked upon
as different from the ordinary ex-prisoners. She remained adamant. I
felt fresh enmity for the system which continually admitted variation
from its rules on the side of less kindness or for reasons of snobbish
privilege, but which showed itself rigid and unelastic when it was a
case of reasonable, unharmful good-will. But, of course, I immensely
respected this woman’s loyalty to the system she served and her
punctilious adherence to its rules. She had, nevertheless, let go her
own voice and her own smile just once upon me. They remained among the
joy experiences of Holloway. I wondered if she had ever shown them to
the poor woman who screamed and groaned in the cell below mine, or to
the yellow-faced patient in the lower ward.
I began my strike gently; I knocked off all diet extras, such as the
maltine and its accompanying banana or the pudding at the mid-day
meal, and kept to the food which would be mine the other side, viz.,
_Breakfast_: Brown bread, butter, milk. _Mid-day_: Brown bread,
potatoes, one vegetable. _Supper_: Brown bread, butter, milk. Both
doctors and wardresses talked of the plank bed as one of the hardships
likely to be too much for me in the cells, so I took one of the two
mattresses from my bed and slept with it on the floor. I clambered up
on the furniture and cleaned the windows of my cell to show I could do
some extra housemaiding without harm. The first night of my floor-bed I
was left undisturbed. The second night, at the time of the “All right?”
rounds, the hospital superintendent came in. To my surprise she was
not angry, did not scold. She asked quite gently and interestedly why
I was lying on the floor. “Because the doctors suggest that I would
get ill or die if I laid on a wooden bed instead of an iron one, so I
am just showing that I can manage it all right; I am very comfortable,
thanks.” But she didn’t go away. The cell, of course, was small, the
fixed bedstead down the centre of it taking up most of the floor-room,
so I had laid the mattress cross-ways under the bed, my head sticking
out on one side, my feet on the other. The wardress suggested that if I
woke suddenly in the night I might hit and hurt myself against the bed.
I assured her that sleep in Holloway was not of a kind heavy enough to
wake from it unconsciously. It was true I had enjoyed such a sleep one
night, the first in my private cell, but the ghastly sounds of human
desperation and suffering by which it had been broken had driven away
sound sleep for the remainder of my imprisonment. At last she went
away. The following night she again came and argued about the bed. She
said she would worry lest harm should happen while she was responsible
for me and it would drive away her own rest. I respected her for at
last using a sensible form of argument, but for the moment I did not
relent. When she had gone, however, I managed by judicious shifting of
the movable furniture to find room for the mattress along the wall with
my head behind the door. I rang my bell, the night wardress appeared.
Peremptory fashion, I sent her with an invitation to the superintendent
to come again if she had not yet gone to bed. The wardress positively
laughed at my effrontery, but evidently delivered my message, for in
a few minutes my friend the superintendent returned. She tried to
look severe, but a broad grin enveloped her face when she saw my new
contrivance. “However much I jump about now, I can’t hurt myself. Will
you be able to sleep all right?” I asked. She said she would try, and
left me.
My continued appeals to the authorities to treat me as they did my
fellow-prisoners and not keep me in hospital now that I was in normal
health, having proved unavailing, I entered upon the last phase of
my strike. I had decided to write the words “Votes for Women” on my
body, scratching it in my skin with a needle, beginning over the
heart and ending it on my face. I proposed to show the first half of
the inscription to the doctors, telling them that as I knew how much
appearances were respected by officials, I thought it well to warn them
that the last letter and a full stop would come upon my cheek, and be
still quite fresh and visible on the day of my release. My difficulty
was to find suitable tools. My skin proved much tougher than I had
expected and the small needle supplied to me for sewing purposes was
quite inadequate. I procured another and stronger one for darning my
stockings, but neither of them produced the required result. I thought
of a hairpin but had only three left of these precious articles and
could not make up my mind to spare one. I had the good luck, however,
while exercising, to find one, the black enamel of which was already
partially worn off. I cleaned and polished it with a stone under my
cloak as I walked the round. The next morning before breakfast I set
to work in real earnest and, using each of these implements in turn,
I succeeded in producing a very fine V just over my heart. This was
the work of fully twenty minutes, and in my zeal I made a deeper
impression than I had intended. The scratch bled to a certain extent.
I had no wish for a blood-poisoning sequel, and, fearing the contact
with the coarse prison clothes, when the wardress came to fetch me
for breakfast I asked her for a small piece of lint and plaster. On a
previous occasion I had been allowed these without further inquiry,
when the frosty weather, cold water, and lack of gloves had produced
a sore on my hand. But this time the superintendent herself appeared
and refused to produce the dressing without hearing for what purpose
it was required. I was anxious to proceed further with my inscription
before letting the authorities know of it, fearing that it was not
yet sufficient to be imposing and that all tools might be taken from
me. However, thanks to our previous conversations, my friend was
suspicious. She ordered me to show the scratch. She looked very much
startled on seeing it and asked how it had happened. I explained. She
at first did not know how to take it, but evidently did not think it a
laughing matter, to my great relief, for I hoped this meant the misdeed
was grave enough to suggest to the authorities that I was becoming an
awkward customer in hospital. She was restrained in manner, but looked
rather angry as she solemnly applied a large piece of lint and many
plasterings which, to my delight, gave the scratch a quite imposing
look, as if half my chest had been hacked open. So that no blame should
fall on her, I gave her all the information for which she asked and
the incriminating tools were gathered together as if they had been
witnesses in a detective case. After breakfast I was summoned into
the presence of the Governor and given a scolding, but no sentence of
punishment was passed and I remained in doubt as to whether my evil
deed had been sufficiently impressive. Later on I was taken down to the
Senior Medical Officer. Scolding was not in his line and the official
requirements of the occasion were evidently effortful to him, but his
laborious sermon of reproofs was all the more punitive on that account.
As he had invariably been kind to me and civil to all other prisoners,
I was sorry to have to vex him. I reminded him of the warning I had
previously given and how often I had patiently renewed my request in
a reasonable way before having recourse to these stronger measures.
Of course he had to pretend that he saw not the remotest connection
between his refusal to let me leave hospital and my “outrageous”
conduct of the morning. He and the ward superintendent, who ushered
me into his presence and exposed the scratched “V” for his inspection,
were evidently much put out. I felt all a craftsman’s satisfaction
in my job. The V was very clearly and evenly printed in spite of the
varying material of its background, a rib bone forming an awkward bump.
As I pointed out to the doctor, it had been placed exactly over the
heart, and visibly recorded the pulsation of that organ as clearly
as a watch hand, so that he no longer need be put to the trouble of
the stethoscope. I also explained how useful the mark would be at the
inquest, to which he had alluded, when they wanted quickly to extract
the heart in proof that its “serious disease” was responsible for
my demise and not the prison regimen. But he was not in a mood for
chaff and became more and more distraught as to how to deal with the
situation. At last he hit on a brilliant idea and said, “If you go on
like this we shall have to dismiss you from the prison altogether.”
I could have congratulated him with both hands for this really
understanding remark. It was obvious that such a sentence wouldn’t at
all meet with my aims, and would secure my return to good behaviour if
anything could. He had effectively checkmated me, at any rate for the
moment. I promptly capitulated and capped this suggestion by saying:
“I think I had better be sent back to the general ward; I seem to
give a lot of extra trouble in the separate cell.” The superintendent
wardress exclaimed with gusto, “Yes, you do,” and the doctor jumped at
the suggestion. As there were now only ten days before our release I
had decided to push through my efforts to get to the cells regardless
of all else, but I was exceedingly anxious about the patient with the
injured leg. Her release was due, with other members of the Freedom
League, the next day (Wednesday, March 17). I had a feeling that I
could to a certain degree watch over her welfare and was to this extent
glad of the opportunity to return to the hospital. While waiting for
the hospital gate to be unlocked a small gang of ordinary prisoners
had for some reason or another congregated in the passage and blocked
the way. My friend, the superintendent, took the opportunity to give
me a severe scolding in their presence. Now that the extent of my
criminality had been duly notified and received, as it were, official
recognition, her pent up indignation let fly and she gave me a regular
dressing down. She did not, of course, allude to the nature of my
crime; this was left to the imagination of the onlookers, but, as
on all other occasions of the kind that I can recall, the sympathy
of prisoners turns automatically to a fellow-prisoner, not to the
officials. Intercourse by means of speech being forbidden, the language
of the eyes becomes perfected. Inquiry, interest, fellow-feeling,
loyalty, encouragement, sympathy of the best, all these emotions are
expressed in prisoners’ eyes in a way that outbids the meaning of words
and the intonations of the voice. I respected this superintendent as
before, because of the impartiality with which she treated me, but this
example of public reproof before other prisoners was typical of the way
this sort of prison discipline defeats its own ends.
Mrs. Macdonald was still suffering acutely. She had been taken out
of the ward for the injury to be photographed by X-rays. She was
carried up and down the stairs, as before, in a chair with no rest
for the feet. She had been told that the photographs had not been
distinct and left them “none the wiser,” but “Depend upon it,” said
the doctor, “you had better keep moving about as much as you can.” The
prison authorities recognised that she was unfit to travel by rail.
As she had no home in London and could not afford to rent rooms, they
proposed sending her to a hospital. For various reasons, the thought
of an ordinary public hospital was extremely repellent to her. The
prison officials now discussed the matter with her and seemed to show a
certain amount of interest and even kindness towards her.
My wound being the nominal ground on which I had been returned to
hospital, it had to be treated with official respect. The ward
superintendent told me she would come and inspect it the last thing
before she went to bed herself. I looked forward to this opportunity of
pacifying her displeasure with me, but when she came she was already
in her most benignant mood. My chief concern was to inquire her view
as to my chances of ever being sent to the other side. “They’ll never
send you out of hospital, nothing you can do will make any difference,
so what’s the use of going on trying?” In some mysterious way this
despairing speech of hers put new mettle into me, and I determined I
would renew my attempts. To reassure her with regard to my villainous
intentions I told her that the doctor had hit on a really effective
deterrent by threatening to turn me out of prison. “That’s what you
deserve,” she said, severely, but with something of a wink. “So you
think,” I retorted.
The hospital atmosphere soon drew my thoughts away from my strike and
its object. Several of the patients were less restless than when I
had last been amongst them. The night wardress with the hacking cough
had been changed. The sick patients had agreed to make no complaints
for fear they should get her into trouble or perhaps be given a more
disagreeable wardress in her place. But when our numbers had been
increased by a patient who was in fairly vigorous health but for the
most painful neuritis in her arm, she found the continuous disturbance
of her all too precious sleep intolerable and she reported the
wardress’s cough to the doctor. We were then all questioned and had to
admit the fact, whereupon we were given another night wardress. This
one, as had been feared, was more rigid in her ways and interpreted
the absurdly inhuman prison regulations literally. For instance, one
night a patient who was quite incapable of moving out of bed had been
given medicine which disturbed her during the night. The wardress
at first refused to wait upon her, but after reluctantly consenting
to do this, she then refused to empty the slops. A fellow-prisoner
volunteered to do this, but was not allowed. At last, after putting
the patient to much distress, the wardress did the work. On hearing of
this the next morning I was indignant and reported the matter to the
ward superintendent. She answered, “The officer was quite within her
rights. She is not a nurse and it is no part of her duty to wait on the
patients. She was quite right, too, not to allow the other patients to
do it.” I expostulated as to the brutality of putting a patient who
was really ill to such distress and on the unwholesomeness of having
slops in the ward all night. “The only thing that can be done in such a
case,” she replied, “would be to ring the night bell for me.” As this
woman was on her feet for sixteen hours, from six in the morning to ten
at night, the patients would be most reluctant to disturb her, apart
from the fact that they would never dream of this being the right thing
to do unless they had been specially informed of the regulation.
I found that my poor friend of the injured leg was suffering more than
ever. I did my best to ease her pain by rubbing and trying to lift
the cruel pressure from the disturbed bones. The wardress did not
interfere with me as I had rather expected she would, but the next
morning she said, “I must report you for being out of bed half the
night.” When the doctor came on his rounds he had, I suppose, received
the “report,” for he shook his head at me reprovingly but with a kind
look as if he at least understood the motive of my most recent crime.
I felt very despondent all day. The members of the Freedom League were
released that morning, all except Mrs. Duval, who had to serve a longer
sentence, and Mrs. Macdonald, as the authorities had not yet decided
what was to happen to her on release.
In the afternoon the sun shone brightly and the air was full of that
indefinable sense of spring. The “spring-running” of the jungle seemed
to penetrate even through prison walls and into the minds of prison
officials. Whether because of this or for some less good cause we were
accorded exceptional benefits. Hospital patients who had not been out
before were allowed to come to exercise and we were told to walk in
couples, arm-in-arm, the healthier patients supporting the others.
Amazing privilege! It seemed like a bit of heaven. We, of course,
discarded the “silence” rule at the same time. We were exercised in
a larger space, not one of the narrowly-enclosed exercise yards. The
prison officials passed by--Governor, Matron, doctors--but they made no
comment at the unusual sight, seemed, on the contrary, quite pleased as
we grinned our pleasure boldly into their faces.