In a Gilded Cage (3 page)

“Hello, Constable Byrne,” I said, giving him a weak smile.

“What are you doing mixed up with this lot?” he said.

“Campaigning for the vote for women, like the others.”

“Listen,” he said quietly, “why don’t I just escort you through the crowd and let you make your own way home. No need for you to go through the unpleasantness of jail. I’m sure Captain Sullivan wouldn’t want it.”

I must admit I was sorely tempted, having experienced jail on more than one occasion. But then I saw Sid and Gus and Emily being marched down the street like common criminals.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I can’t abandon my friends now. I know where my duty lies. Take me to the Black Maria with them.”

“Very well, if you insist.” He looked most worried. “But Captain Sullivan won’t like it.”

“You could do me one favor, please, Constable. Could you get word of this to Captain Sullivan? I’ve no wish for my friends and me to spend longer in jail than necessary.”

“I’ll do my best, Miss Murphy,” he said, and helped me up into the back of the police wagon.

Four

I
sn’t this exciting,” said a voice from the darkness as the Black Maria took off, lurching from side to side.

“Absolutely ripping,” another voice agreed.

“I’m going to contact our friend Nellie Bly and make sure it gets into all the papers,” a voice that sounded like Sid’s said. “This will give us better publicity than we had hoped for. And maybe stir up sympathy among other women when they see how we’ve been treated.”

“I hope they don’t actually treat us badly,” a small voice said with a tremor of alarm. “I’ve no wish to be locked up in a dismal cell with only bread and water.”

“They’ll fine us and let us go with a warning,” Sid said. “Besides, we must be prepared to suffer for the cause. You saw how those men in the crowd behaved. We don’t have an easy task ahead of us, that’s for sure.”

“Oh dear, my father’s going to be furious,” another voice whispered. “You saw how Lucinda’s brother behaved. My father will be ten times worse.”

“Stick to your guns, Matilda,” Gus said. “You are over twenty-one and able to make up your own mind.”

“Yes, but I’m still living under his roof. I’ve no profession and no marriage prospects. What will I do if he throws me out?”

“Come and live with us,” Gus said. “We’ve a spare room and Molly’s just across the street with spare rooms too. We’ll start a little colony of Vassar girls suffering for the cause!”

This caused merriment and the black mood was broken. All the same, I could understand that it was terrifying for these young women to be lurching along in pitch darkness, not knowing where they were headed. I knew, and I wasn’t looking forward to it, I can tell you. I just prayed that these delicate flowers were not shoved into cells with female pickpockets and prostitutes to teach them a lesson. In fact I prayed that the constable would be able to find Daniel and deliver my message.

After what seemed like an eternity the wagon came to a halt. The doors were flung open and a rough voice said, “All right, you girls. Out you get. No dillydallying. Come on. Move it.”

One by one we climbed down, blinking in the bright sunlight. It took me a moment or two before I saw that we were, as I feared, at the courthouse. So we were to spend a night in the underground cells and then come before the magistrate in the morning. Not a happy thought. The rest of the women were now rather subdued. They walked close together, some holding hands for mutual support, darting nervous glances around them as we were driven like sheep into the side entrance of the building. We were halted in front of a sergeant sitting at a tall desk and had to give our names and addresses. Our accompanying policeman then informed him that we were being booked on the charge of disturbing the peace. The sergeant nodded. “Take ’em down, then,” he said, and we were escorted down a flight of steps. It was dark down there and didn’t smell too appetizing. Memories of similar experiences in cells came back to me. I remembered the bucket in the corner. Surely these girls would be even more sensitive than I and refuse to use it. I just hoped we weren’t held for too long.

“In here,” one of our attendants barked, and opened a cell door with a giant key. He pushed six of the women inside, then stopped the seventh from entering. That door clanged shut and he repeated the process in the next two cells. I was among the last group. Sid and Gus were not with me. Emily was. Apart from her, the girls in my cell looked as if they were about to expire from fright.

“Don’t worry,” I said, sounding braver than I felt. “I have experienced this before and lived to tell the tale.”

“You’ve been in jail?” They were looking at me as if I were a different species of animal.

“Unfortunately yes. I work as a private detective and I’ve been arrested for what the police considered loitering, when I was, in fact, observing a house. Had I been a man they would never have thought twice about me. But a woman standing alone on a sidewalk at ten o’clock at night has to have evil intentions.”

“That is so unfair,” one of the girls said.

“Have you not noticed everything about our lives is unfair?” a tall fair girl demanded. “We are at the mercy of our fathers and then our husbands. If a woman tries to make her own way in the world she is judged as odd and a troublemaker.”

“Nellie Bly seems to have managed that hurdle,” I pointed out. “Nobody could have behaved more outrageously than she and yet she is happily married and accepted in society.”

“But look at what she has achieved,” the fair girl said. “How many of us would be prepared to put our lives on the line in a mental institution or expose corruption in the women’s prisons?”

I didn’t like to say that I had done both. “Her actions should be a beacon of hope to the rest of us,” I said. “And it won’t hurt when we come before the magistrate tomorrow to mention that we know her.”

“How long will they keep us here, do you think?” the frail one with the trembling voice asked.

“Overnight probably. Courts are not in session on Sundays.”

“Overnight? What will my family think when I do not return home? They will be so worried.”

“We’ll try to get word to your families,” I said. “We can at least hope that we will be rescued before too long.”

“Rescued? By whom?”

I didn’t want to raise any false hopes. “They may have noticed that some of you have influential names and not wish to embarrass your families,” I said.

“It’s a pity there are no really important names among us,” Emily said. “I tried to persuade Fanny Poindexter to join us, but she was afraid of upsetting her husband.”

“Her father’s name would certainly have caused them to think twice about arresting us,” the tall, fair one said, “but I found it was impossible to recruit married women to our cause. They are all under their husbands’ thumbs.”

Our conversation lapsed into silence. There wasn’t enough room on the wooden plank bench for us all to sit comfortably but it was cold and damp down there and we were glad to huddle together for warmth. I realized that I was feeling rather frail myself at this point. I had only had a piece of bread for breakfast and the clammy dizziness of my illness had returned.

“I wonder what time it is,” I said.

“The time? It is one-thirty.” To my absolute envy one of our group unbuttoned her jacket and revealed a dinky little cloisonné watch pinned to her blouse. I hoped to own such a thing myself someday. If I received more commissions like the Macy’s one—a sobering thought came to me. If this incident was reported in the papers and my name was mentioned, it could possibly harm my business prospects. Oh dear. Lack of forward thinking has once again gotten you into hot water, Molly Murphy.

I was just in the midst of this thought when an angry male voice echoed down the hallway.

“Holding them in the cells? On what grounds? Are you out of your mind, man? Where are they?”

The voice came nearer, along with rapidly advancing footsteps, and to my delight Daniel’s face appeared outside my cell. “Molly, what the devil?” he exclaimed. “Can I not leave you alone for two seconds without your needing to be rescued from some predicament?”

He made an impatient gesture to the sergeant, who was now looking subdued. “Go on, let them out.”

“They were disturbing the peace, sir,” the sergeant complained, as he put the key into our door.

“Young ladies? Disturbing the peace? What were they doing? Dancing the Viennese waltz in public?”

“Carrying banners, sir. Votes for women and all that nonsense. A scuffle broke out and we had to arrest them for their own good.”

“I should have thought your boys had enough to do with keeping pickpockets and genuine criminals at bay,” Daniel snapped.

“Only obeying orders, sir,” the sergeant muttered. “The commissioner himself said to pounce at any sign of trouble and we pounced.”

“A little too enthusiastically, it would seem,” Daniel said. “These young ladies come from the Four Hundred, surely you must realize that. When their fathers come to us to complain, your name will be mentioned . . .”

“Only doing my job, sir,” the sergeant mumbled, his large, whiskered face now beet-red.

One by one we came out of our cells.

“And you young ladies ought to thank your lucky stars that I happened to hear of this,” Daniel said, still glaring. “A night in the cells is not an experience you’d wish to repeat. By nightfall you’d have been joined by the least savory women in the city. What on earth were you thinking?”

“We were using our constitutional right to assemble and to protest,” Sid said. “We were marching in the parade, in orderly fashion, when we were set upon.”

“I have to say you brought it upon yourselves, Miss Goldfarb. You know how most men feel about giving women the vote. A holiday parade was neither the time nor the place for such sentiments.”

“Then where do you suggest we make our message known, Captain Sullivan?” Sid demanded. “At the weekly sewing circle?”

“Your behavior certainly has done little to win you support, Miss Goldfarb,” Daniel said, as he ushered us up the stairs. “Men who believed women to be too irresponsible to be involved in public life will now be even more convinced they are right.” He turned to the group of us. “Now, ladies, I suggest that you go home as swiftly as possible and stay there.”

“Thank you, Captain,” the trembly one said. “Thank you for saving us.”

Daniel tipped his hat. “My pleasure, miss.”

“Will you take a cab with us, Molly dear?” Gus asked.

I glanced at Daniel.

“I will be taking Molly home,” he said. “She has been sick and should never have been allowed to undertake something like this in the first place. Let us pray she doesn’t have a relapse and come down with pneumonia. Come, Molly.”

“Oh, but I could easily ride with Sid and Gus,” I said. “I know how busy you are.”

“I said I was driving you home,” he said firmly. “I still have the automobile and can have you home in no time at all. Good day to you, ladies. I hope you will exercise more prudence in your future decisions.” He tipped his hat, then grasped me firmly by the arm and propelled me across the grass to where the automobile was waiting.

I was seething with anger. The moment we were out of earshot of the other women, I exploded. “How dare you drag me away like a naughty child,” I said. “You embarrassed me in front of my friends.”

“I can’t believe you would act so foolishly,” he said, looking equally angry. “Risking your health for this harebrained notion.”

“What is harebrained about women having the right to vote?” I demanded. “Why should half the population have no say in the running of the country?”

“Because the running of the country is best left to those who were raised to do it. Men have always been the leaders, women the nurturers.”

“What about Queen Victoria?” I said. “Queen Elizabeth? Boadicea? Cleopatra? Joan of Arc?”

“All women who behaved like men,” he replied. “How can a woman be a good wife and mother if she is concerned with affairs outside the home?”

“Maybe not every woman wants to be a good wife and mother,” I said. “I’m not sure that I do.”

“Oh, come, Molly. Don’t tell me you’ve been influenced by those pathetic bluestockings. You want to have children someday, don’t you?”

“Yes, I suppose so,” I said at last. “But I also want the freedom to think and act for myself. If we marry, Daniel, you are not going to lay down the law. It is not going to be your household. It will be our household, our family. We will run it jointly or not at all. You will never walk all over me.”

We faced each other like a pair of fighting dogs, me with hands firmly on my hips. Finally a smile twitched at his lips. “No, I can’t ever see myself walking all over you.”

“You’d better drive me home. I’m keeping you from your work,” I said.

Daniel helped me climb up to the automobile seat. “I suppose it’s those neighbors of yours,” he said as the car started and we drove away. “They persuaded you to join this stupidity.”

“Nobody persuaded me. I thought their cause was just and wanted to be part of it. And I’ll thank you not to continually run down my two dear friends. They have been most kind to me. In fact, without their help I probably would not have survived in this city.”