Washington, DC, 2005.
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ALICE PADL TALKS
Hunger Striker Describes, { Forcible Feeding.
Philadelphia, Jan. 22. "Revolting" is the word Miss Alice Paul, the American suffragette, who returned, on Thursday by the steamer Haverford from exciting adventures in England, applies to the forced feeding which she endured in Holloway jail. Miss. Paul, by the way, doesn't look at all like the popular conception of an agitator. She astonishes persons . who sea her:f6r the first time, after hearing of her doings, by her exceedingly feminine appearance. She. is a delicate , slip of a girl, whom no one would suspect of being an interrupter of. public meetings and a victim of-prison hardships. � :
"I resorted to the 'hunger strike' method twice," she said to a Tribune reporter. "I was. clapped into jail three times while in. England, and during my first.>nH sec-
ond terms I refused to eat. Once I didn't touch food for five days. Then the authorities' decided to feed mo by. force. I refused to wear the prison garb, too, and I would not perform the labor ,1 was sentenced to do; so, of course, I had. to spend my days in bed. When the forcible feed-, ing was ordered I was taken from my bed, csrried to another room, and forced into a chair, bound with sheets and sat upon bodily by a fat murderess, whose duty it was to keep me still. Then the prison doctor, assisted by two women attendants, placed a rubber tube up my nostrils and; pumped liquid food through it into tha-stomach. Twice a day for a month,: from November 1 to December 1, this was done."
When Miss Paul was asked if she ever threw a stone through a window, she said:
"No, indeed. T never did and I never shall. I think such deeds be 1 wig- to r'uiers, , and women are seldom r/oters."
Miss Paul mpfei'y threw words at the Prime Mj^Arter, Mr. Asquith, and fright--, fle'a him, she says, nearly to death. It was during a meeting at Guild Hall. Miss Paul, who seems not to mind going without food for any length of time, got into, tha'
hall the night before, disguised as a scrub woman, and secreted herself until the meeting began.
"It was a weary vigil," she said, "but It paid. The Prime Minister made a most eloquent speech, and I listened, waiting for a chance to break in. At last there cams a pause. Summoning all my strength,; I shouted at the top of my voice: 'How about votes for women?'
"You would have thought I had thrown a bomb. There was serious disorder, but Mr. -Asquith was the most startled of all. You see, the hall was guarded by a cordon of 'police, and he felt-safe from interruption. While the,officers searched for me he stood. . like a statue, after one great start. I was. found and arrested, and imprisonment followed."
Miss Paul left Philadelphia for her home., in Moore'stown, !\". J., immediately after landing, and intends to give her attention for the present to the recovery of her- ' health, which suffered somewhat from her stormy experience. She is a graduate of ; Swarthmore College and had gone to England to continue her studies, when she was drawn into the militant suffrage movement.