s presented to the House of Commons by John Stuart Mill. Give the
Liberals time!' she echoed. 'Thirty-three years ago memorials in favour
of the suffrage were presented to Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli. In
1896, 257,000 women of these British Isles signed an appeal to the
members of Parliament. Bills or Resolutions have been before the House,
on and off, for the last thirty-six years. All that "time" thrown away!
At the opening of this year we found ourselves with no assurance that if
we went on in the same way, any girl born into the world in our time
would ever be able to exercise the rights of citizenship though she
lived to be a hundred. That was why we said all this has been in vain.
We must try some other way. How did you working men get the suffrage, we
asked ourselves. Well, we turned up the records--and we _saw_. We don't
want to follow such a violent example. We would much rather not--but if
that's the only way we can make the country see we're in earnest--we are
prepared to show them!'

'An' they'll show _you_!'

'Give ye another month 'ard!'

In the midst of the laughter and interruptions, a dirty, beery fellow of
fifty or so, from whom Stonor's arm was shielding Jean, turned to the
pal behind him with--

'Ow'd yer like to be _that_ one's 'usband? Think o' comin' 'ome to
_that_!'

'I'd soon learn 'er!' answered the other, with a meaning look.

'Don't think that going to prison again has any fears for us. We'd go
for life if by doing that we got freedom for the rest of the women.'

'Hear! Hear!'

'Rot!'

'W'y don't the men 'elp ye to get yer rights?'

'Here's some one asking why the men don't help. It's partly they don't
understand yet--they _will_ before we've done!' She wagged her head in a
sort of comical menace, and the crowd screamed with laughter--'partly,
they don't understand yet what's at stake----'

'Lord!' said an old fellow, with a rich chuckle. 'She's a educatin' of
us!'

'--and partly that the bravest man is afraid of ridicule. Oh, yes, we've
heard a great deal all our lives about the timidity and the
sensitiveness of women. And it's true--we _are_ sensitive. But I tell
you, ridicule crumples a man up. It steels a woman. We've come to know
the value of ridicule. We've educated ourselves so that we welcome
ridicule. We owe our sincerest thanks to the comic writers. The
cartoonist is our unconscious friend. Who cartoons people who are of no
importance? What advertisement is so sur