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REVIEW OE REVIEWS. 



MICE AND MEN. 

 I remember that we were particularly 

 interested in the way he trapped the 

 mice in his cell. There were plenty of 

 them, and he used to stick a 

 piece of paper over the top of a 

 small tin, cut a cross in it, put some 

 food there, and arrange a couple 

 of books as steps. He caught seve- 

 ral mice, but never had the heart to 

 hand them over to the authorities, so let 

 them go again. The governor, who used 

 to spend much time with father, was 

 much amused at the episode. Father 

 was. permitted to write as much as he 

 liked, provided he wrote nothing about 

 the cause of his imprisonment. He did 

 the leaders for the P.M.G. almost every 

 daw He had manv a laugh over letters 

 he received, saying how his admirers 

 missed his forceful leaders. 



A CROWNING MERCY. 



Father always regarded having been 

 sent to prison as a crowning mercy. It 

 is certain that it was this which gave 

 success to his agitation ; without it it 

 might not have achieved the result it did. 

 " After you have been in prison you can 

 understand and sympathise so much 

 better," he used to say. He was quite 

 convinced that before his end came he 

 would have to go to prison for con- 

 science' sake at least once, probably 

 twice. '"If ever I have a tombstone," he 

 said, " I want written on it, ' W. T. 

 Stead, who wrote the Maiden Tribute 

 of Modern Babvlon.' " His death on the 



" Titanic " gave the impetus which 

 forced through the Criminal Law 

 Amendment Act last year, the first real 

 advance since his success in 18S5. 



AT EXETER HALL. 



On his liberation he had a tremendous 

 reception at Exeter Hall. It was a won- 

 derful sight. The whole audience kept 

 its feet for nearly ten minutes waving 

 handkerchiefs, hats and sticks, and 

 cheering itself hoarse. I, a small boy at 

 the time, was, I must admit, considerably 

 scared at the demonstration, and was 

 glad to get out of the meeting. " Res- 

 cue the Perishing " was sung at every 

 gathering of the kind, and, I think, that 

 was about the only hymn father got 

 thoroughly tired of hearing. 



At this gathering he was given a 

 purse of sovereigns collected in penny 

 subscriptions from girls all over Bri- 

 tain. I recollect this specially, because 

 we had never seen so much gold at once, 

 and because father in his exuberant 

 energy, tossed it hard across to my 

 brother, who, failing to catch it, had his 

 head cut therewith. Ultimately this 

 money found its way into the funds of 

 the Xational Vigilance Society, founded 

 by him and his friends at that time to 

 protect the maidenhood of England — a 

 society which has done remarkable work 

 in organising international protection 

 for girl travellers, and has driven white 

 slave traffickers from many of the cities 

 of Europe. 



