Alice Paul spent all day Christmas of 1918 in bed resting. At least, she was resting physically. Mentally....

On that day she evolved a new plan of bringing the attention of the President, the attention of the country, the attention of the world, to the fact that the Susan B. Anthony Amendment must be passed. It was impossible—because of the action of the police in putting out the fires and arresting those who tended them—to carry out, in all its detail, her original plan which was extraordinarily striking and picturesque. Perhaps at no time in the history of the world has there ever been projected a demonstration so full of a beautiful symbolism.

The original plan was to keep a fire burning on the pavement in front of the White House till the Susan B. Anthony Amendment was passed. Wood for this bonfire was to be sent from all the States. Whenever the President made a speech in Europe for democracy, that speech was to be burned in the watchfire. While this was going on a bell, which was set above the door of Headquarters, would toll.

On the afternoon of New Year’s Day, 1919, therefore, a wagon drove up to the White House pavement and deposited an urn filled with firewood—on a spot in line with the White House door. Presently the bell at Headquarters began to toll, and a group of women marched from Headquarters to the urn. Edith Ainge lighted the fire, and Mrs. Lawrence Lewis dropped into the flames the most recent words, in regard to democracy, that President Wilson had addressed to the people of Europe.

The first was from the Manchester speech:

392We will enter into no combinations of power which are not combinations of all of us.

The second was from his toast in Buckingham Palace:

We have used great words, all of us. We have used the words “right” and “justice,” and now we are to prove whether or not we understand these words.

The third was from his speech at Brest:

Public opinion strongly sustains all proposals for co-operation of self-governing peoples.

The fourth was from the speech to the English wounded:

I want to tell you how much I honor you men who have been wounded fighting for freedom.

As Mrs. Lewis burned these “scraps of paper,” Mary Dubrow and Annie Arniel, standing behind the urn, unfurled a lettered banner:
PRESIDENT WILSON IS DECEIVING THE WORLD WHEN HE
APPEARS AS THE PROPHET OF DEMOCRACY.
PRESIDENT WILSON HAS OPPOSED THOSE WHO DEMAND
DEMOCRACY FOR THIS COUNTRY.
HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISFRANCHISEMENT OF
MILLIONS OF AMERICANS.
WE IN AMERICA KNOW THIS.
THE WORLD WILL FIND HIM OUT.

This was the first of the many Watchfires of Freedom kindled by the Woman’s Party.

After these words were burned, Mrs. Lewis addressed the crowd that had gathered. When Helena Hill Weed, who 393had followed her, was speaking, a group of soldiers and sailors rushed forward, overturned the urn, and began to stamp out the blazing pieces of wood. There were two sentinels on each side of the urn, Gertrude Crocker, Harriet U. Andrews, Mrs. A. P. Winston, Julia Emory. They bore the tri-color, but they also bore torches. They quickly lighted the torches from the embers, and held them aloft. The rioting continued, but Mrs. Weed went calmly on with her speech.

Suddenly there was an exclamation from the crowd. Everybody turned. Flames were issuing from the huge, bronze urn in Lafayette Square directly opposite the bonfire.

Hazel Hunkins—clinging to the high-pedestaled urn—was holding aloft the Suffrage tri-color. The flames played over the slender Tanagra-like figure of the girl and glowed through the purple, white, and gold. People said it was—that instant’s picture—like a glimpse from the G?tterd?mmerung. Policemen immediately rushed over there, followed by a large crowd. They arrested Alice Paul, Julia Emory, Hazel Hunkins, Edith Ainge.

In the meantime, the fire in front of the White House had been rebuilt and rekindled. It burned all night long and all the next day. Alice Paul, who had been released with her three companions after being detained at the police station for a while, remained on guard until morning. Annie Arniel and Julia Emory stayed with her. It rained all night. But until late, crowds gathered, quiet and very interested, to listen to the speeches. This was Wednesday. All day Thursday succeeding groups of women took up their watch on the fire.

Friday afternoon, the same banner was carried out. As soon as it was unfurled, a crowd of soldiers, sailors, and small boys, a chief petty officer in the navy being most violent, attacked the Suffragists, Mary Dubrow and Matilda Young. They tore the banner, broke the urn and attacked the purple, white, and gold flags. The fires, were, 394however, at once rekindled. It was still raining, and the rain was mixed with snow, which became a steady sleet. But the fires continued. Finally a force of policemen put them out with chemicals. That night they were relighted. Mary Logue and Miss Ross guarded it until two in the morning; Mrs. Lawrence Lewis and Julia Emory from two until seven.

Saturday afternoon, the bell at Headquarters tolled again. Immediately the flames leaped up on the White House pavement. Alice Paul, Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, and Ph?be Munnecke burned the first speech on Liberty made by President Wilson on reaching Italy. They were arrested, and the police put out the watchfire with chemicals. Instantly the fire started in the urn. Mary Dubrow and Julia Emory were arrested. All five women were released on bail.

On Sunday, January 5, Julia Emory, Mary Dubrow, Annie Arniel, and Ph?be Munnecke started a fire in front of the White House. They burned the second speech on Liberty made by the President in Italy. All the time the bell pealed its solemn tocsin. The four sentinels were arrested. This time they refused to give bail and were sent to the house of detention. The fire had now burned all day and all night on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

All these sentinels were charged, when they were arrested, with breaking a Federal Park regulation. But when they came to court, they were charged with building a bonfire on a public highway between sunset and sunrise. Three of them went to prison for five days, and three for ten days. They all went on hunger-strike.

January 7, evidently the official mind changed. The fire which consumed the President’s speech on democracy delivered in Turin was allowed to burn for three hours. Nevertheless the crowd kept kicking it about, so that there was a line of flames across the pavement and trailing into the gutter. By hook or by crook—three of the Suffragists—Harriet Andrews, Mrs. A. P. Winston, Mrs. Edmund C. Evans—managed to keep it going.

395At the end of three hours, new orders seemed to materialize out of the air; for then the police took a hand and put the fire out. With the extinction of the last ember, however, a second fire burst into flames at the base of the Lafayette Monument across the street. The police rushed to it, and put it out. Immediately another fire started at the opposite corner of the Park. And then fires became general ... here ... there ... everywhere....

The police arrested the three women who had kept the fire going. On the following day they were sentenced to five days in jail.

On the afternoon of that day, Mrs. M. Toscan Bennett and Matilda Young burned the speech that the President had just made at the statue of Columbus in Genoa. They were arrested at once, and they too were given five days in jail.

By this time, there were eleven women in jail, all on a hunger-strike.

On the afternoon of January 13, just as the thousands of government clerks began to pour down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House, twenty-five Suffragists, each one bearing a banner of purple, white, and gold, came round the corner of Lafayette Square. They proceeded to the White House pavement, where they built a watchfire. The crowds, of course, stopped to watch the proceedings. Policemen finally broke through them and arrested three of the women. The other twenty-two closed in their line a little, and went on with their fire-building. The police returned, but they did not arrest the others. But they tried to break up the fire with huge shovels and a fire extinguisher. They tried to trample it out. But it was useless. Wherever a bit of the watchfire fell, it broke into flames. Finally, they arrested seventeen more women. Four remained, holding the purple, white, and gold banners.

Suddenly a great tongue of flame leaped upwards from the urn in Lafayette Square. The crowd rushed towards it. 396Then for a moment it seemed to go mad. A group of young men rushed over to the Headquarters; climbed up the pillars; tore down the flag, the uprights, and the pole. The bell ultimately crashed to the ground.

The police arrested the remaining four sentinels. By eight o’clock that afternoon, released on bail, all the women were back in Headquarters. Half an hour later, they went out with their banners again. The streets seemed deserted even by policemen. But, as they crossed the street, the park police began to materialize from the shrubs and trees of the square. However, they built their watchfire on the White House pavement, and stood there on guard for an hour and a half. Crowds gathered, of course. Occasionally, a man would rush over to one of the girls, and tear her banner from her. The girl would hold it as long as it was a physical possibility, the crowd meanwhile calling remonstrance or encouragement according to their sympathies. By ten o’clock the women were all arrested again. They spent the night in the house of detention. They were: Dr. Caroline Spencer; Adelina Piunti; Helen Chisaski; Mrs. C. Weaver; Eva Weaver; Ruth Scott; Elsie Ver Vane; Julia Emory; Lucia Calmes; Mrs. Alexander Shields; Elizabeth Kalb; Mildred Morris; Lucy Burns; Edith Ainge; Mrs. Gilson Gardner; Gertrude Crocker; Ellen Winsor; Kate Heffelfinger; Katherine Boyle; Naomi Barrett; Palys L. Chevrier; Maud Jamison; Elizabeth Huff.

Suffragists filled the court when these women came up for trial. Four of them were tried at once. They were sentenced to a ten-dollar fine or five days’ imprisonment. Their entrance into court had been greeted with applause from the audience. When the next four women appeared, they too were applauded. The Judge said, “The bailiffs will escort the prisoners out and bring them in again, and if there is any applause this time....”

One of the Watchfires of Freedom.
Taken Just Before the Arrest of the Picket Line.

Photo Copr. Harris and Ewing, Washington, D. C.

A Policeman Scatters the Watchfire.
Photo Copr. Harris and Ewing, Washington, D. C.

The prisoners returned, and the applause was a roar. Three women among those who applauded were taken out 397of the mass. “The police will escort the women out of the courtroom,” said the Court. When they reached the door, “And see that they do not return,” added the Court. As the door closed, “And lock the doors,” shouted the Court. Thereafter, the prisoners were brought in one at a time, and were sent to jail immediately. Twenty-two women were thus sentenced. There remained one for whom there was no prosecuting witness—Naomi Barrett.

The next day, Naomi Barrett was tried alone. As she came forward, applause greeted her—applause long and continued. The Judge ordered silence. The applause continued. He ordered the applauders to be brought forward. One, Mrs. Pflaster, sank to the floor in a faint. She was picked up and put on a chair, but as she fell from the chair, the Judge ordered her removed at once. A physician was sent for. Her fellow Suffragists demanded that they be permitted to see her. Finally one of them was allowed to go to her. The Court had scarcely reached the next case when word came that Mrs. Pflaster was in a serious condition. The Suffragists came rushing in and demanded that the Judge come off the Bench and see what had happened; the Court obeyed. In due time the doctor arrived, a stretcher came, and the patient was taken to the Emergency Hospital.

The Judge resumed his seat, and sentenced Bertha Moller, Gertrude Murphy, Rhoda Kellogg, and Margaret Whittemore—the applauders—to twenty-four hours in jail for contempt of court. Mrs. Barrett was sentenced to five days in jail. They joined the twenty-two women who were already there and hunger-striking.

On January 27, six women kindled a Watchfire on the White House pavement. They were arrested on the charge of starting a fire after sundown. They were as usual, tried the next day; sentenced to five days in jail. They went on a hunger-strike of course. They were: Bertha Moller; Gertrude Murphy; Rhoda Kellogg; Mary Carol Dowell; Martha Moore; Katherine Magee.

398In the meantime an interesting event took place in France. President Wilson received a delegation representing the working women of France, Saturday, January 25, at the Murat Mansion in Paris. The delegation urged upon the President that the Peace Conference include Woman Suffrage among the points to be settled by the Conference. President Wilson replied as follows:

Mlle. Thomson and ladies: You have not only done me a great honor, but you have touched me very much by this unexpected tribute; and may I add that you have frightened me, because realizing the great confidence you place in me, I am led to the question of my own ability to justify that confidence?

You have not placed your confidence wrongly in my hopes and purposes, but perhaps not all of those hopes and purposes can be realized in the great matter that you have so much at heart—the right of women to take their full share in the political life of the nations to which they belong. That is necessarily a domestic question for the several nations. A conference of peace settling the relations of nations with each other would be regarded as going very much outside its province if it undertook to dictate to the several states what their internal policy should be.

At the same time these considerations apply also to the conditions of labor; and it does not seem to be unlikely that the conference will take some action by way of expressing its sentiments, at any rate, with regard to the international aspects at least of labor, and I should hope that some occasion might be offered for the case not only of the women of France, but of their sisters all over the world, to be presented to the consideration of the conference.

The conference is turning out to be a rather unwieldy body, a very large body representing a great many nations, large and small, old and new; and the method of organizing its work successfully, I am afraid will have to be worked out stage by stage. Therefore I have no confident prediction to make as to the way in which it can take up the question of this sort.

Suffragist Rebuilding the Fire Scattered by the Police.
Photo Copr. Harris and Ewing, Washington, D. C.

The Last Suffragist Arrested—the Fire Burns On.

Photo Copr. Harris and Ewing, Washington, D. C.

But what I have most at heart today is to avail myself of this opportunity to express my admiration for the women of all the nations that have been engaged in the war. By the fortunes of this war the chief burden has fallen upon the women of 399France, and they have borne it with a spirit and a devotion which has commanded the admiration of the world.

I do not think that the people of France fully realize, perhaps, the intensity of the sympathy that other nations have felt for them. They think of us in America, for example, as a long way off. And we are in space but we are not in thought. You must remember that the United States is made up of the nations of Europe: that French sympathies run straight across the seas, not merely by historic association but by blood connection, and that these nerves of sympathy are quick to transmit the impulses of one nation to the other.

We have followed your sufferings with a feeling that we were witnessing one of the most heroic, and may I add, at the same time satisfactory things in the world, satisfactory because it showed the strength of the human spirit, the indomitable power of women and men alike to sustain any burden if the cause was great enough.

In an ordinary war there might have been some shrinking, some sinking of effort; but this was not an ordinary war. This was a war not only to redeem France from an enemy, but to redeem the world from an enemy. And France, therefore, and the women o............