SUFFRAGETTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 587, 16 August 1909, Page 7

SUFFRAGETTES.

\ « - ONE QF THE CHHH QIBM TO VISIT / s' AUSTRALIA (By Telegranh-il'raaa A»S(Ji:!iU|<>n -OoDirlebt 1 London, August 13 Miss Mjir-iel Matters, a leading Suffragetto, baq arranged for.a lecturing tour in Australia

, THE INVASION OF THE COMMONS. Miss llnriel Matters; is an Australian who exercised he.r vote in her native country, and then, proceeding to England, adppted measures whioh she calculates will get tho vote fpr the women of England. One of these measures was to gain admittance, along wtthftsutfiagetto companion (Miss, Helen, .Fox), tp the ladies' fillery pf the House of Commons, through tho Ijidly olljc.es pf a iiberJl member, Mr. Stephen Collins, who suspected no grille Opoo there, the pair chained, and'pfidloeked theiriselves to tho./'gr}lje."a|id proceeded to display a suffragette placard and address the House, They were reinoved with some iliffioujtj and delay, and were-fined, 4i, in default pne, month's jmprison,mentiin the ttaird dma Son. They chose prjson, On 6 effect pf their feat was t]iat severo restrictions' were pnt unpn the use pf the ladies' gallery, which ha*e pnly Jatelj been modified Miss Matters, is not unknqwn in New Zealand Her people Me residents of Adelaide. About eleven or twelve years ago, the young lady, flto w£s somewhat of an elocutionbt, wept op. thfi stage under the name of Muriel Mathers, and touted New Zealand With the first ''Sign of the Cross 'I Company, headed by Mr. Julius Knight and Miss Ana levrar.i Some two years later she apam visited tbe Dominion wittt< the Btongh Company, playipg small j parts. Her friends jn Wellington state that in her theatrical days she was a girl of marked charaater, who learncij to battle fpi what she cpnsidere.d her rights in a scpool (the stage) whiph is as hard a training ground for the goodugirl with ambition as any in the seppe of wqmen's. i\.ork. Subsequently Miss Matters, or Mathers, raided in Sydney, and used to recite a professionally at Social functions and concerts. She will now,' as a lecturess, have some new aubjoct-matter, In'a lively account of the scene in the Commons, a London writer, after describing the preliminaries, thus describes tho strugglo with the attendants and the oratory of Miss Matters — •» "Jon can't get me away, J'ni fastened," exr «l»inied Hips Mattora to l\\§ group of men struggling- round her, "Vptes for woipen," came- like an echo in the, little voice from the other corner of the "grille," the possessor of which eventually proved to be a pretty brnnotte named JHss Helen Pqj(, I There was a hurried oousultation of the attendants, Then they ' hurried out of the gallery, apparently to ' get implements with which to break Miss Matters's chain or to file her free,. Untrfimine)lfcd for the moment, •Miss Matters forped heiself olose to r th« ' grille' to whioh she , was fastened 'and eoreained a little speech at the legislators heloiV!— c ; "We have listened too long to the illogical '' n ™ l ' : » n «s of jflep who know ngHiiflg about it. Attend to the women. Wβ demand of this Government calling itself Liberal, but which is really 111-hberaj —" . "iV° te ß fo* iVomenj votes for women," put in Miss Fax from the. other aide. 1 Miss Matters! "To show )ts Libcralispi—" Miss Fox: "Votes for. women! Votes for women! Miss Matters (screaming): "For forty years wo have sat Ibehind this grille." Then came a resumption of the struggle with the attendant?. Hembors ])?low watcfied the scene as if it were a play. ■ Finally, sections of tho "grille" wero broken away, and, with the suffrqgottes still attached, were carried qut. When she was before tho magistrate in London, Miss Matters volunteered the remark that she would not return t6 Australia until tho fight was won. This, however, is only a slight discrepancy.