It was not wonderful that the female disfranchisement agitation
became a formidable movement. The No-Votes-for-Women League
numbered its feminine adherents by the million; its colours,
citron and old Dutch-madder, were flaunted everywhere, and its
battle hymn, "We don't want to Vote," became a popular refrain.
As the Government showed no signs of being impressed by peaceful
persuasion, more violent methods came into vogue. Meetings were
disturbed, Ministers were mobbed, policemen were bitten, and
ordinary prison fare rejected, and on the eve of the anniversary
of Trafalgar women bound themselves in tiers up the entire length
of the Nelson column so that its customary floral decoration had
to be abandoned. Still the Government obstinately adhered to its
conviction that women ought to have the vote.
Then, as a last resort, some woman wit hit upon an expedient which
it was strange that no one had thought of before. The Great Weep
was organized. Relays of women, ten thousand at a time, wept
continuously in the public places of the Metropolis. They wept in
railway stations, in tubes and omnibuses, in the National Gallery,
at the Army and Navy Stores, in St.
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