"The Use of the Pen" - Women Writers, Banners and Cat Tails

Jane Austen's Suffragette Banner

"The Suffragists held a very great meeting in Hyde Park on Sunday last, when more than a quarter of a million people were gathered together. Seven processions started for the park from various points in the metropolis:  Trafalgar Square, Victoria Embankment, Euston, Paddington, Marylebone, Kensington, and Chelsea. The proceedings were quiet and peaceful, and the ladies claim a great victory for the cause. Some six thousand policemen were on duty to protect Suffragists from hooligans and others."  - From The Illustrated London News, June 27, 1908.

Pictures give some idea of the size and spirit of the "Great Demonstration" on what came to be called Women's Sunday:

Among the marchers were members of the Women Writers' Suffrage League, newly founded by the playwright Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton of the Women's Social and Political Union. The group's motto was: "To obtain the vote for women on the same terms as it is or may be granted to men. Its methods are those proper to writers - the use of the pen."

Edith Craig and Cicely Hamilton

Cicely Hamilton had a hit play, "Diana of Dobson's," that year, about a department store worker. Her famous Suffrage play, "How the Vote was Won," was a hit in 1909.  Edith Craig, daughter of actress Ellen Terry, was a member of the Women Actresses' Suffrage League, also founded in 1908.

The Illustrated London News ran a piece on "The Women Militant: Leaders of the Suffragist Procession and the Banners Commemorating Great Woman of All Ages."  Seventy banners were created and carried for the Hyde Park demonstration.

Suffragettes making banners for the Hyde Park march

Elizabeth Robins, actress turned writer, and first President of the League, wrote, "The qualification for membership is the publication or production of a book, article, story, poem or play for which the author has received payment, and a subscription of 2s . 6d. to be paid annually...Women writers are urged to join the League. A body of writers working for a common object cannot fail to influence public opinion." 

Other women writers who joined the organisation included Elizabeth Robins, Charlotte Despard, Alice Meynell, Olive Schreiner, May Sinclair, Marie Belloc Lowndes, Mrs. Israel Zangwill, and Mrs. Havelock Ellis.  Some familiar names, some not; fun to google them all.  Elizabeth Robins is one of the most interesting. 

 An American born actress, she emigrated to England after the bizarre suicide of her actor husband (he jumped into the river wearing a theatrical suit of armor), and became famous starring in the plays of Ibsen.  In 1900 she went on an adventurous journey to Alaska searching for her long-lost brother (she found him), and turned author, writing about the trip.  As a Suffragette, she supported the cause as a speaker, and by writing plays such as her controversial "Votes for Women" (it was about women's rights and abortion, way ahead of its time).

Elizabeth Robins as Hedda Gabler



The banners that floated above the heads of the women writers are a fascinating collection.  I like that they chose to celebrate so many famous women writers of the past.  Here are a few of them:

And here is an piquant assortment of others:

You can see all the banners!  Here:  http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/collections/FSB.html

And now, for your cat picture.  The song "March of the Women" should be sung while viewing.  Here is the song:  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCtGkCg7trY

 The sister cats, as you see, are appropriately Shoulder to Shoulder.

Shoulder to Shoulder:   Martial and Catullus

with their Tails as Banners

Tik-Tok's Hat and Other Treasures

You don't imagine for a moment, do you, that in all this haring around on top of mountains, we have forgotten our new delightful activity, foraging in thrift shops?  Certainly not; and here, in no particular order, is a sampling of our newest finds, from the Salvation Army, Goodwill, and other exciting venues that make the expensive new Santa Mammon Mall, I mean Santa Monica Mall, look boring!

Pindar contemplates the Tik-Tok lamp, which is lit in this picture

It was Paul who found this lovely lamp, whose shade reminded him of the hat worn by the robotic character Tik-Tok in the Oz books. I quickly appropriated the lamp for the chatchka-laden table where, Midas-like, I like to sit and fondle my baubles. Paul thinks he's getting the lamp back. Ha!

Catullus's turn to enjoy the lamp.  I think you see its grey tones better when it's unlit.

Why we call this lamp "Tik-Tok's hat"

The next acquisition was this pretty little octagonal wooden table.  I was amused when a visitor to our reading group commented, "There were so many books we had to eat on them!"  This struck me, however, as a little too true to be comfortable, so in the picture below you'll see how I've placed this little table so my reading group guests can have a bit more table space to rest their teacups.

Inlaid wooden table

Placement of the little table

The two Swedish blond bookcases (one is in Paul's house) aren't thrift store finds, per se; our neighbor Rita was moving out and bequeathed them to us.  But this one really transformed Peter's study and made it look much more light and cheerful than it did in the days of the particle board boxes - no!  shudder!  I don't know how we ever stood them for 30 years!

Swedish blond wood bookcases

A small selection of thrift store pins, animal and flower themed

Then there was the 30-piece set of little Chinese dishes, with soup tureen for centerpiece, bought for a song, and just the thing to enhance the home made wonton soup!

Chinese soup tureen with little gold handles

It all goes nicely with this pretty cloissone Chinese vase, in "my" cobalt blue, with flower pattern.

Chinese blue vase

The brass traditional Jewish serving platter, and white Venetian mask, are both thrift store acquisitions.  Perhaps they go oddly with the pine cone (not to mention, with each other)...

  

Peter's desk - the two glass vases are new (to us)

Below, a better view of the two wonderful 18th century political cartoons we bought in Oxford many years ago.

And these are some of the masks we brought home from Venice - not thrift store ones!

And now, to finish off, I give you a small collection of Jane Austen quotes about Shopping.

"Their eyes were immediately wandering up in the street in quest of the officers, and nothing less than a very smart bonnet indeed, or a really new muslin in a shop window, could recal them."  - Pride and Prejudice

"'And we mean to treat you all,' added Lydia; 'but you must lend us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there.'"  - Pride and Prejudice

"Look here, I have bought this bonnet. I do not think it is very pretty; but I thought I might as well buy it as not."  - Pride and Prejudice

"Oh! but there were two or three much uglier in the shop."  - Pride and Prejudice

"Here I am, you see, staring at a picture. I can never get by this shop without stopping. But what a thing here is, by way of a boat."  - Persuasion

"Once, as he had stood in the shop in Bond Street, he had counted eighty-seven women go by, one after another, without there being a tolerable face among them."  - Persuasion

"...examining and debating for a quarter of an hour over every toothpick-case in the shop..." - Sense and Sensibility

"What a happy day for booksellers, music-sellers, and print-shops!"  - Sense and Sensibility

"I have entered many a shop to avoid your sight."  - Sense and Sensibility

"What are Men to Rocks and Mountains?"

August 23, 2010 - Late summer in the Sierras.  Paul and I spent a weekend hiking with old friends, while Peter stayed home and guarded the cats.

Paul at May Lake, Yosemite - a most peaceful place!

We drove up to visit our friends Mike and Eleanor who were staying in Mammoth (300 miles, 5 hours north of Los Angeles), and next day went on one of the best hikes in the region, the Saddlebag Lake Loop Trail in the Twenty Lakes Basin.  This is reached by turning off main highway 395, and driving ten miles on the spectacular mountainous Tioga Pass Road, to Saddlebag Lake, a few miles east of Yosemite.

Boat ferry on Saddlebag Lake

At Saddlebag Lake, we took the short boat ferry ride across the lake.  It's a beautiful ten minute ride, and costs $11 return; you book it at the Saddlebag Resort (where they bake fabulous berry pies and make sun-brewed iced tea) and reserve your ride back.  You can walk to the far end of the lake, but it adds a mile or so walk on shale. 

The start of the trail

The loop trail winds past approximately ten of the basin's Twenty Lakes, and is extremely wild and beautiful.  It's a well marked trail, easy to follow and not too steep, though you are at 10,000 feet elevation the whole time, which makes any hiking more difficult! 

The first lake, Shamrock

A steep shale chute down to Helen Lake, filled with yellow monkey flowers

Paul at the chute, which had some of last winter's snow, still there in August.

White alpine columbine

Me and Paul

At this ridge above Helen Lake, we took a detour to look at the overlook into Lundy Canyon (a beautiful place to hike in fall because of the golden aspens).  Can you see Paul, Eleanor and Mike on the ridge?   You can click to see this, or any of the pictures full size.

Beautiful flowers by the lake

Leelee on the trail

Sierra Primroses - first time I've ever seen this flower

A variety of paintbrush called Indian pinks

Greenstone Lake, almost back to the start of the trail and the boat landing.

The next day, Mike and Eleanor hiked to the Conness Lakes, beautiful, pristine, high altitude lakes above the Saddlebag Loop trail, but Paul and I, out-of-shape city dwellers from sea level, wanted to do something easier.  So we had a lovely drive (about 20 miles) into Yosemite, to the May Lake trail.  That's only a mile and a half easy hike, though with about 500 feet elevation gain to 9,250 feet, which took us 45 minutes.  There's a High Sierra camp at May Lake, and our original plan had been to spend a night there, but we couldn't get reservations, so we did it just as an easy day hike.

Paul at May Lake, Yosemite

The day was perfect, temperature in the 60s, and we lounged by the lake for a long, relaxing time.  Then, when we were rested, we climbed the ridge above the lake, to the lovely meadow below Mt. Hoffman.  Many people use this trail to climb Mt. Hoffman, but getting to the meadow was enough for us.  Some years there are beautiful black and white striped gentians there, but the summer was so late this year, they weren't blooming yet.

Me at May Lake, Yosemite

Mt. Hoffman, over the meadow above May Lake

On the way back, I saw a ptarmigan.