Stanton Blatch, President of the WPU, introduced the speaker ‘as the woman
who in all the world is doing the most for the suffrage’.^89 Wherever she went,
Emmeline received warm hospitality and while in New York was the guest of
Mrs. and Dr. John Winters Brannan. Since the latter was head of the city hospi-
tals, he was able to take Emmeline on visits to a range of institutions, including
a workhouse and penitentiary. For Emmeline, the conditions she found there
were ‘infinitely superior to the English prisons where women are punished for
trying to win their political freedom’. The visit to the Night Court for Women,
on the other hand, where she and her friends sat on the bench with the magis-
trate, was a profoundly shocking experience. ‘The whole business was
heart-breaking’, she later recorded. ‘All the women, with one exception – an old
drunkard – were charged with solicitation. ... It all seemed so hopeless, and it
was clear that they were victims of an evil system.’^90 It was hardly surprising that
at her next port of call, Cleveland, Emmeline spoke of the white slave traffic in
America. ‘Why is there such a thing?’ she asked. ‘It is because women are cheap.
Because they are not paid enough to keep soul and body together. ... Give us
the vote and there will be no such thing. ... The women will eradicate it.’^91
The breathtaking pace of her tour continued as she then took a fourteen-
hour train journey from Cleveland to Louisville, Kentucky, where the NAWSA
was holding a Convention. Since the train was delayed, Emmeline entered the
hall at 10 o’clock in the evening, one hour later than scheduled, and was
greeted by a storm of applause as many women forced their way through the
crowded aisles in an effort to reach her side and touch her hand. ‘She looked as
fresh as a daisy’, wrote the eager Eleanor Garrison to her mother while the
Louisville Couriercommented that Mrs. Pankhurst’s costume was ‘in quiet taste.
She wore a black picture hat with black plume, and her cheeks were flushed,
probably due to her haste in reaching the hall.’ The moment she appeared on
the platform, claimed another American newspaper, ‘one realised by what
power of personality she has become the best loved and best hated woman in
England. ... We have never seen any personality that instantly impressed itself
more than does Mrs. Pankhurst.’^92 At the Convention Emmeline met many of
America’s well-known suffragists including Dr. Anna Shaw, Jane Addams and
Carey Thomas, Principal of Bryn Mawr College for Women.
Emmeline and Dorothy Pethick, by courtesy of Carey Thomas, stayed in
Louisville at the Seelbach Hotel where the adoring Eleanor Garrison was also a
guest. ‘I was amazed to see them so little lionized’, wrote an astonished Eleanor
to her mother. ‘They took themselves about a lot & I found myself walking
down to the hall with Mrs. Pankhurst just as if she were anybody.’ The night
before, Eleanor’s friend, Lucy Wills, had invited Emmeline and Dorothy to a
meal in the underground restaurant of the hotel, much like the crypt of a
church. The band played so loudly and the table was so large, that the four
could barely hear each other speak. According to Eleanor, the distinguished
guests ‘ate quite heartily & consumed large steins of bier! Mrs. P said she didn’t
object at all.’ After the meal, the four joined Anna Shaw’s group where some fat
THE TRUCE RENEWED