HOUSES HELD AS FORTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 115, 12 June 1909, Page 4

HOUSES HELD AS FORTS.

The feat of the Coinistanan, Cecil Dcnch, of St. Blazey, in holding his cottage fo r nearly four days and' nights against a force of constables, by no means establishes a record in singlehouse sieges (save a Home paper), for in the early days of the ''Votes for Wonujn" movement, that ardent suffragist, Mrs. Dora Montefiore, shut herself up in her Hammersmith house and. defied the bailiffs—who were seeking to arrest her for unpaid income-tax—dur-ing the better part of a fortnight. A SIEGE OK FIVE WEEKS.

In Paris, again, during t-l'.e slimmer of 1899, a Epyalist agitator named Jules' fiiicrin fortified a residence he owned in the Rue Chaorol, and sustained therein a siege which excited the interest and even, in a sense, compelled the admiration of Europe. Troops moved agiiiiist him. fiemlarmcs fusilladed his impromptu' citadel-. Yet he and his friends refused to capitulate until one member of the garrison actually died from starvation. Then they surrendered, a band of gaunt, dishevelled spectres, after a siege lasting from 12th August to 2(lth September.

Several similar instances, too. took place in Ireland during the palihv (lavs of the Land League \l t Boilvkc. for example, five peasants kent half a regiment of British redcoats at liav for eleven d.tvs. ."♦ ■■-.

A ftweedore family sustained a siege" of nineteen days, during which period the "garria'pn" was twice successfully re. lieved and re-victualled by armed jieasants. Dr. Tanner. M.P.. following their example, shut himself un in his ""castellated country seat, and "refused to surrender to the officers of the Crown, who held a warrant for his arrest. , AT UAV IX A niIMXEV.

In Xcwry. not long since, a steeplejack named fJill sustained a siege in a chimney. He had to surrender Jt last, but the fine t.lie magis'l rates inflicted upon him was paid many times over by the salaries he received at the local ■music-halls, where the audiences hailed him as a celebritv.

London flats, especially if thev are high enough up, lend themselves readily to passive defence of this character, due such, in Blnonisburv. was held for three months by a widow and her daughter against the landlord and hisa"enls the bailiffs.