FASTING WOMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 198, 25 September 1909, Page 3

FASTING WOMEN.

SUFFRAGETTE NOTION OF SACRIFICE. Londou, July 28. In a recent issue of the weekly publication, "Votes for Women," their ap pears the following description by MU-i Florence Cook, a sull'ragcttc who was convicted and sent to iiulloway on the 12th, of how she spent "live days in a dungeon." "1 shall never forget," she said, "tae horrible place into which 1 was taiwn. When 1 saw the damp underground dungeon into which they led me, 1 could have cried bitterly, but somehow the spirit always comes to you when you are lighting a fight for principle, and 1 determined io eland my ground. The place was horribly dirty and full of all kinds of germs. There was scarcely any ventilation, and no light except that which came from a, thick skylight in the ceiling, so that the place was nearly dark. The smell of the cell got into my clothes, and it is in my nostrils to-day; I cannot get rid of it. The only bed in the room was a piece of wood let into the wall.

"For sleeping at night a mattress was given me and some rugs, but these and all the utensils in my room smelt horribly, and were unlit ior use. The whole place seemed to inc as though it h,\i not been U6ed for a very long time, and was dank and damp. ' I said to the Governor, 'The spirit of the sulfrageae is strong enough to stand up evjn against this place, but it is wrong that there should be such places to-day; they would drive any ordinary person mad.' 1 saw that all means of protest had been taken from me except one, and that was to do what Miss Wallace Dunlop had done, and refuse to take any food.

POLITE TO THE WARDRESS, '•The hardest time was the first twenty-four hours. Milk was brought to me, which I felt 1 could have taken very willingly, but I put it from me. Then the -wardress brought me in some foud. 1 said to her, 'Will you please take that out.' She refused. 1 therefore tuok the tin in which it was and rolled it out of the cell, and what was in it went upon the ground. I saw that a paragraph appeared in the papers saying that one of us threw our cocoa at the wardress, f was particularly careful m what I did to be polite, and I believe that all the other suffragettes were the same.

"On Friday 1 took to mv bed, and the doctor told me that if I persisted I should get a fever; but I was absolutely determined to <fo my part at whatever sacrifice, and I told the Governor that so long as I was responsible for my action I should refuse to take any food. I also told the doctor that I would not allow invself ,to be fed through the nostrils. I told him that 1 knew this was illegal.

"On Sunday night I was taken to the hospital, and there a fresh effort was made to get me to take food. Medicine was brought to me, which I absolutely refused, knowing that it was cither food a disguise or else intended to aggravate my hunger. On Monday afternoon my head felt exceedingly bad, and I felt that I hardly knew what I was dob", but I determined that I would not give in.

"In the evening the Governor came to me and said, 'Be very .calm.' I said to him, 'There is a supreme power which givus us strength to bear whatever comes to us.' He said, 'I have orders to release you,' and I said to him, 'Does Mr. Gladstone prefer this to doim? us justice?'

"I am glad to have gone through this week in Holloway. lam thankful to know what exists in prison, and what ought not to be allowed to exist a dav longer. I also know that the spirit tha't is in women is stronger than the authorities, and. that we can compel them to do the right thing and give us what is just."