one of the giant police-constables on duty outside the cotton hall, smutchester, upon the occasion of the conference of the national union for the emancipation of women workers, was seized with the spirit of prophecy when he saw sal o’ peg’s borne in, gesticulating, declaiming, carried head and shoulders above an insurging wave of beshawled and rampant factory-girls.
“theeaw goes th’ stormy pettrill, tum!” he roared to a fellow guardian of the public peace. “neeaw us be sewer to ha’ trooble wi’ theeay——” he did not add “tykes.”
“thee mun be misteeawken, mon,” urged tum, who had newly joined the smutchester city division. “’tis boh a lil’ feer-feaced gell aw cud braak between ma finger an’ thoomb lig a staalk o’ celery.” the great blue eyes of the “lil’ feer-feaced gell” had done execution, it was plain, and the first speaker, who was a married man, snorted contemptuously. sal o’ peg’s had completely earned the disturbing nickname bestowed on her. the courts and alleys of the roaring black city would vomit angry, white-gilled, heavy-shod men and women at one shrill, summoning screech of hers. the police-constable upon whose features she had more recently executed a clog war-dance was not yet discharged from the infirmary, though the seventeen years and fragile proportions of his assailant had, for the twentieth time, softened “th’ beawk” into letting sal o’ peg’s off with the option of a fortnight or a fine, and the threat of being 144bound over to keep the peace next time, if she insisted in being “so naughty.”
with these blushing honors thick upon her, sal o’ peg’s attended the conference, and became, before the close of the presidential address, an ardent convert to the cause of female suffrage. during the debate she climbed a pillar and addressed the meeting, and when, with immense difficulty, dislodged from her post of vantage, she took the platform by storm.
“why, it’s a child!” chorused the delegates from the different branches of the union, whose ramifications extend over the civilized globe, as the small, slim, light-haired young person in the inevitable shawl, print gown, and clogs climbed over the brass platform-rail, and, folding cotton-blouse-clad arms upon a flat, girlish bosom, stood motionless, composed, even cheerful, in the full glare of the electric chandelier, and under the full play of a battery of some two thousand feminine eyes.
“do let the little darling speak,” begged the honorary secretary of the chairwoman, who, as a native of smutchester, had her doubts. but sal o’ peg’s had not the faintest intention of waiting for permission.
“ah’m not bit o’ good at long words, gells,” said sal o’ peg’s. “mappen ah’ll be better ondersteawd wi’oot ’em.”
the thunder of clogs in the body of the hall said “yes!” she went on: “wimmin sheawd ha’ th’ vote. ’tis theear roight.” (tremendous clogging, mingled with shrieks of “weel seayd, lass! gie us th’ vote!”) she hitched her shawl about her with the factory-girl’s movement of the shoulders, and went on. “yo’ll noan fleg me wi’ yo’re din. ah’m boh a lil’ un, boh af ha’ got spunk. if you doubt thot——” a hundred strident voices from the body of the hall sent back the refrain, “ask a pleeceman!” a roar of laughter shook the roof.
145“ought we to interfere?” whispered the honorary secretary.
“my dear, why should we?” said a london delegate, leaning forward to answer. “the girl has got them in the hollow of her hand. a born leader of women—a born leader. she voices in her untaught speech the heart-cry of thousands of her dumb and helpless sisters. she——”
the born leader of women continued:
“ah dunno whoy ah niver thout o’ it before, but ’tis a beawrfeaced robbery neawt to gie us th’ vote. oor feythers has it, an’ sells it fur braass.” (screams, shrieks, and clogging.) “oor heawsbands has it, an’ sells it fur braass.” (tempestuous applause.) “oor lads, theay has it, an’ sells it fur braass. whoy shouldna’ we ha’ it, an’ sell it for braass tew?”
the enthusiasm with which this brilliant peroration was received nearly wrecked the cotton hall. no more speeches were heard that night, though several were delivered in dumb show, and sal o’ peg’s awakened upon the morrow to find her utterances reported in the newspapers. to the sarcasm of the leader-writer sal o’ peg’s was impervious. she “mun goo t’ lunnon neixt,” she said, “an’ leawt them tykes at the hoose o’ commeawns knaw a bit” of her mind. she wasn’t afraid of prime ministers—not she. she called at the branch office of the union twice a day, imperatively requesting to be forwarded as a delegate to the metropolis. when her services were declined with thanks, she harangued the populace from the doorstep. when politely requested to move on, she broke a window with one clog, and patted the office-boy violently upon the head with the other. then she burst into tears and retired, supported by a dozen or so of sympathizing comrades of the factory.
“’tis a beeawrnin’ sheame!” they said, as they fastened up their chosen representative’s loosened flaxen 146coils with hairpins of the patent explosive kind, contributed from their own solid braids. “but donnot thee fret, sal o’ peg’s, us’ll ha’ nah dollygeat but thee, sitha lass!” and they sent the hat round among themselves with right goodwill. they were not quite sure what a “dollygeat” was, but thought it was something that could walk into the house of commons, defy a minister to his nose, dance a clog-dance in the gangway of the upper house, and receive in chests and bagsful all the good money that women had been defrauded of since the masculine voter first plumped for a consideration; of that they were “as sure as deeawth.”
so sal o’ peg’s gave notice at the factory that, being thenceforth called to figure upon the arena of political life, she could not tend frames any longer. she bought a black sailor straw hat with a portion of the subscribed fund, and tied up the most cherished articles of her wardrobe in a blue-spotted handkerchief bundle. she traveled express to london, choosing a “smoking third,” as affording atmospherical and social conditions less remote from her lifelong experience.... the journey was purely uneventful: a young man of unrestrained amorous proclivities receiving a black eye, and a young woman who sneered too openly at the blue-spotted handkerchief bundle suffering the wreck of a bandbox and sustaining a few scratches. the guard—alas! for the frailty of man—being all upon the side of the blue eyes and flaxen coils of hair....
i suppose the reader knows pelham’s inn, w. c., where are the headquarters of the national union for the emancipation of working women? there is no padding to the armchairs, cocoanut matting of a severe and rasping character covers the committee-room boards; the committee inkstand is of the zinc office description (the committee are not there to be comfortable—just the reverse). they are busy women of small 147spare time and narrow spare means; but when they found sal o’ peg’s sitting on the doorstep, they found leisure to be kind. they looked at the clogs with pity, unaware of the pas seul they had performed upon the countenance of a policeman still in bandages, and the great blue eyes yearning out of the small pale face, and the ropes of fair hair tumbling over the shabby shawl that enfolded the childish figure of the little factory-girl who had traveled up to london for the sake of the cause, won them to practical expression of the sympathy they felt.
“so different a type to the brawling, violent creature,” they said, “who nearly caused a riot at the smutchester conference. her one dream is to see the house of commons and speak a word in public for her toiling sisters of the factories.” and those of them who wore glasses found them dimmed with the dews of sympathetic emotion. it was such a touching story, they said, of faith and enthusiasm and courage.
it is upon the records of the nation that the events i have to relate took place in the central hall of the sacred fane of westminster between four and five o’clock in the afternoon, when twenty or thirty ladies, well-known adherents of the cause, appeared upon the scene and asked for suffrage. it was an act of presumption, almost of treason, bordering on blasphemy. still, the arguments that were not drowned were sound. they were all householders, taxpayers, earners, and owners of independent incomes one daring female said, and as the drunken husband of her charwoman possessed a vote, she thought she had a right to have one also. the sergeant-at-arms instantly directed a constable to quell her. another audacious creature asked for the vote qualified. she demanded that the suffrage should indeed be given to women, but only to those women who should, by passing a viva voce examination on the duties of citizenship, 148prove themselves fit to discharge them.... she was listened to with some attention until she suggested that male voters should be subjected to a similar weeding-out process; upon which a portly inspector bore down upon her, clasped her in a blue embrace, and carried her, protesting loudly, down the hall, amidst demonstrations of intense excitement. members cried, “shame!” members cried, “serve her right!” passing peers put up eyeglasses and stayed to see the fun. hustled women shrieked, “cowards!” pushed women cried, “let us alone!” punched women only said, “owch!” ... it was freely translated “wretch!” for the occasion. the middle-aged and advanced in years met the same treatment as the younger and more excitable.... all were unceremoniously expelled by the stalwart beings in blue from the sacred precincts where such inviolable order is habitually maintained, and where all the proprieties find their permanent home. crushed headgear, scattered handbags, and strange derelict fragments of feminine attire bestrewed the scene of the one-sided fray; the crowds of sympathizers outside cried, “boo!” and waved white flags in defiance as a dozen arrests were made in a dozen seconds.... and a young woman in a brown plaid shawl and brass-bound clogs danced with shoutings upon the pavements of st. stephen’s porch, and while her long, light coils of hair came down and her hairpins were scattered to the winds of westminster, she asked, in the lancashire dialect, for admittance to the bar of the house; for justice for the oppression and downtrodden; for the blood of ministers, peers, and members; and for the viscera of the officials who were their tools. she told the chancellor of the exchequer to come out and bring the treasury with him; and when he did not come, she knocked off one policeman’s helmet and smote another with one of her clogs—toujours those 149clogs!—upon the nose. also she relieved a third of half a whisker, bit another in the hand, kicked them all in the shins, and generally made history as six police-constables bore her, shrieking at the full pitch of excellent lungs, to blunderbuss row police station.
there were newspaper headlines next day—“bedlam let loose!” “the shrieking sisterhood!” “the termagant spirit!” “no choice but to use force!” the arrested demonstrators were paraded at the police-court; the damaged policemen made an imposing show. tears choked the utterance of mr. vincent squeers, presiding magistrate, as he asked: “were thee, indeed, women who had abraded the features, discolored the eyes, bruised the shins, and plucked the whiskers from the gallant constables who stood before him? nay, but m?nads, bacchantes, priestesses of savage rites, unsexed amazons—in two words, emancipated females!” he found a melancholy relief in imposing a fine that had no precedent in cases of brawling, or fourteen days’ imprisonment. he should not be surprised to hear that these hunters after vulgar notoriety preferred to go to holloway, to luxuriate on prison fare, enjoy calm, undeserved repose on straw beds, and clothe their unregenerate limbs with the drab garments generously provided by the nation.
“but there is one among you,” cried mr. vincent squeers, “who has been innocently led away by your pernicious example, but whom the spirit of justice, that dwells in the bosom of every englishman, that hovers, genius-like, above this bench to-day”—the chief clerk hastily produced a white handkerchief, and the reporters shook freedom into the flow of their geyser pens—“will stretch forth a hand to protect and to aid. i speak of this simple, artless child....” a police-constable felt his nose, and another groped for his missing whisker 150as sal o’ peg’s stood up in the dock. “lured from her humble home, from her laborious employment, from her upright-minded, honest associates, by these immodest and unwomanly women, cast a stranger upon the streets of london, this simple country blossom, wilting in the atmosphere tainted by habitual vice and common crime, appeals to the chivalry of every honest man who ever had a mother”—the chief clerk was carried from the court in hysterics—“ay, to the pity of every woman who is not bereft of that heavenly attribute.”
“sheawt opp, thee donowt owd hosebird!” said sal o’ peg’s. “dosta think ah niver weur in a teawzle in th’ streeawts or a skirmidge wi’ th’ police afeore? dustha see th’ pickle theam girt big cheawps is in? if theay saay theay got theawee scratts an’ sogers fra’ eany wench but sal o’ peg’s, they be leears aw! sitha? an’ as to yon weumen an’ lasses, yo ca’ baad neams, i ha’ nowt o’ truck wi’ they. i coom to lunnon as a dollygeat fra myseln. sitha?”
“the child speaks only the roughest dialect of her native lancashire,” continued mr. vincent squeers, “which, i own, i am unable to comprehend. how could the hapless young creature understand the poisonous shibboleth poured into her ears by the abandoned sisterhood whose leading evil spirits are now before me? they have denied all knowledge of or connection with her”—(as indeed they had)—“her who stands here—oh, shame and utter disgrace!—in the dock of a police court as a result of their vile and treacherous usage in dragging her from her home. she is sufficiently punished by this outrage upon that innate modesty which is as the bloom upon the peach, the—er, ah!—dew upon the daisy. fined three-and-sixpence, and i will order that the same be discharged out of the court poor-box. the missionary will now take charge of the poor young creature, who will, i trust—ah!—be returned to her sorrowing family 151in the course of the next twenty-four hours. good-day, my dear child—good-day!”
a clog whizzed from the dock and hit the paneling behind the bench. the magistrate looked another way, the constables coughed behind their large white gloves as sal o’ peg’s, weeping bitterly, was led away by the court missionary, a bearded person in rusty black, with a felt pudding-basin hat and a soiled white necktie. robbed of the glory of battle, denied her meed of acknowledgment for doughty deeds achieved, bereft of her amazonian reputation, sal o’ peg’s felt that life was “scarcelin’s weath livin’.” and the afternoon newspapers administered the final blow. every leader-writer shed tears of pure ink over the child lured from home, the “daisy with the dew upon it” sprouted in a dozen paragraphs. only in smutchester there was homeric jest and uproarious laughter. the girls of the cotton-mills, the policemen of the lower town—these knew their sal o’ peg’s, and were loud in their appreciation of the satiric humor of the london newspapers. the missionary did not see his precious charge into the train for smutchester; a clergyman’s daughter, who had come into accidentally compromising relations with an american gentleman’s diamond evening solitaire and “wad” of bank-notes, urgently required his ministrations. so a burly police-constable, with one whisker and a sore place on the denuded cheek, performed the charitable office. in the four-wheeler, turning into the euston road, sal o’ peg’s said suddenly:
“thoo wastna’ sheaved this mearnin’, lad?”
“i ’adn’t no time, for one thing,” said the police-constable sulkily; “an’ for another, i ’ad to keep this whisker on as evidence that you’d pulled out the other. and a lot o’ good evidence does when old foxey”—this was the nickname bestowed upon mr. vincent squeers by the staff of the court—“’as made up ‘is 152mind not to listen to it.” he rubbed the remaining whisker thoughtfully.
“eh, laad, laad!” cried sal o’ peg’s, bursting into tears and falling upon the neck of the astonished police-constable, “but theaw knows ah did it. theaw said sa just neaw. eh, laad, laad!”
“are you a-crying?” asked the police-constable, over whose blue tunic meandered the heavy twists of fair hair which invariably tumbled down under stress of sal o’ peg’s emotion. “are you a-crying because you’re sorry you pulled out my whisker, or glad as that you did it? which?”
sal o’ peg’s lifted radiant, tearful blue eyes to the burly police-constable’s, which were little and piggish, but twinkling with something more than mere reproof.
“ah be gleawd,” said sal o’ peg’s simply.
“very well,” said the police-constable, who was not only a man after all, but a bachelor. he put a large blue arm round the slim little figure of the war-goddess. “you’ve ’ad my whisker; i’ll ’ave a kiss.”
“teawk it, laad,” said sal o’ peg’s.
hitherto, in her short but vivid experience of life, policemen had occupied a different plane, moved in another sphere. they were beings to dodge, defy, jeer at, and punch when you could get them down. flowerpots were kept on window-sills of upper floors expressly for dropping on their helmets. she had danced upon the upturned face of one, given another a swollen nose, distributed bites and shin-kicks impartially among others. this lunnon one had kissed her for pulling out his whisker. she looked at him with melting eyes. the hitherto impregnable bastion of her heart was taken—and by a member of the force.
“when tha dost sheave, laad, send tha whisker to ah by peawst. th’ address be sal o’ peg’s, briven’s buildin’s, clog ceawrt, east side, smutchester!”
153“i won’t send it, you pretty little bit o’ frock,” said the enamored police-constable. “i’ll wait till my next leave an’——”
“breng it then, laad,” sighed sal o’ peg’s.
