Today -100: May 22, 1914: Of mud, arsenals, non-ritual murders, and non-vice-presidents

Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “Militants Roll Police in Mud.” British suffragists attempt to present a petition to the king at Buckingham Palace. There’s a fracas with the police, as was the custom (I don’t use the word fracas often enough). The 1,500 (!) police surrounding the palace outnumbered the suffragettes. There were 58 arrests, including 3 male supporters and Emmeline Pankhurst, resulting in this famous photograph of her being hauled off (note her feet are not touching the ground) while a by-stander berates her:



Competing Headlines of the Day -100 (London Times): 1) “Suffragist Arsenal Raided” (well, the arsenal mostly consisted of some stones, wrapped in tissue paper, presumably for throwing through windows, and some hammers). 2) and, on the same page, “Bayonets Seized in Dublin” (intended for the National Volunteers; somehow the cops can find those but never can manage to intercept guns smuggled in by the Ulster Loyalists).

The five suffragists found with the “arsenal” in a West End flat will be tried as “loose, idle, and disorderly persons” who have committed or are about to commit a crime.

Flora “General” Drummond of the Women’s Social and Political Union is released from prison in an ambulance on the grounds that further imprisonment would endanger her life. Three hours later she’s arrested protesting outside Home Secretary Reginald McKenna’s house.

“General” Coxey’s army of the unemployed finally arrives in Washington. All nine of them.

The Constitutionalists will send a delegate to the Niagara Falls conference after all, but to observe and present the rebels’ views, not to negotiate with the Huertaist and American delegates.

Authorities in Ukraine drop ritual murder charges against a Jew after deciding a killing in Fastiv in December was just a plain old murder.

Sen. William O’Connell Bradley (R-Kentucky) dies. He was also a governor of the state in the ‘90s, but his obit in the LAT contains the saddest words which may be said about any politician: “Was once mentioned for vice-presidency.” Just last week he announced that he wasn’t running for re-election because of declining health – then he ran to catch a streetcar and fell down, sustaining injuries from which he died 9 days later.

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