SUFFRAGETTES IN COURT.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8783, 10 April 1907, Page 3

SUFFRAGETTES IN COURT.

After the recent [[disturbances a numbers of suffragettes were charged with disorderly conduct. Mrs Sanders, the delicate-looking young wife of Alderman Sanders, having been accused of striking a burly constable, raised a great burst of laughter by 'her gentle inquiry, "Did I hurt you, fconstable?" But she did not escape • the usual flue. Miss Marion King, a tall young woman in a long fawn-coloured Newmarket "coat, stepped into the dock looking rather bored, and established the record of the morning by saying not a word. A burly constable gave evidence about her trying to force her way into the House, and she merely regarded him with a, tired air, and when asked if she had any witnesses to call, and anything to say, she merely,shook her head. When Mr Curtis Bennett fined her 20s, or 14 days', she simply nodded gracefully, and stepped from the dock the picture of a silent sufferer. Miss Sernya was a graceful young lady with a laughing confidence, and •when she entered the dock she leaned back over the rail and chuckled silently at the tall, grim policeman lin the box about to give evidence against her. "She not only said she | would not go away," said Police ConstabKr 264 A, '' but she also struck me w T ith her clenched fist. " " What !'' exclaimed Miss Seruya, vivaciously; "I struck you with this muff, which had a book inside it." "It seemed like a clenched fist,'' remarked tho Magistrate pleasantly, "Well, merely struck back t " declared Mis's Seruya. "Twenty shillings'or fourteen days ,'' said Mr Curtis Bennett. "OJi, the fourteen days, of course," i the defendant remarked sweetly, as she stppced into the care of the : gaoler. | Mrs Chatterton, a slight, heavilyveiled lady, provided the sensation of the morning. She walked slowly into the dock, aud composed herself on the seat. "Stand up, please," said the gaoler. "Thank you, I prefer to sit,'' she said. '' You must stand up," said tho Maigstrate. "Oh, no," she replied coolly, without moving. "I would rather not. I have been standing outside ail the morning, as there was riot sufficient accommodation, and I ani' tired.'* The Magistrate accepted the defe.it gracefully. "I will allow you to sit down.'' A sergeant began to tell the tale of Mrs Chatterton's disorder, when the lady vehemently interrupted him with denials. She was asked to keep quiet, and she indignantly refused. "I have come here to tell the truth, find tell !it in my own way. I afil going to select my own time. " " Put her back till tho other cases are over," said Mr'Oaf tis Bennett. Tho gaoler touched her on tho shoulder. "Don't touch me," she exclaimed, "I'm not lame; I can walk." She slowly made her way out of the dock, and was requested .to move more quickly. She stopped to argue the point. Immediately a policeman lifted her off her feet and carried her out, Mrs Chatterton shouted jubilantly, "Oh, isnt' it lovely!" She was not so defiant when she came up later. Having a previous conviction in connection with a suffragette disturbance she was fined 40s or a month.

Miss Olivia Smith in spickaud-spau nurse's costume, gave the Cout a few Jof comedy. -Police Constable 21AR.. said that at a quarter past nine the prisoner was pushing and shoving about. She deliberately went up and got hold of the bridlo of a mounted officer's horse and shoved it about, he explained. Thereupon Miss Smith in gentle tones exi^lained: "I had already shoved one horse off the footpath, and the policeman said, 'There's another there ; go and shove that.' Not liking to break the law, I went and did ask was told." Forty shillings or a month, was the Magistrate's decision.