The _Times_ was seldom
taken in, but great success often attended these audacious
deceptions, especially in the important organs of the provincial
press. Editors and sub-editors seldom took the trouble and the time
to hunt through _Who's Who_, or a Peerage to identify the writer of
the letter claiming the Vote for Women. No real combination of names
was given, thus forgery was avoided; but the public and the
unsuspecting Editor were left with the impression that the
Premier's, Colonial Secretary's, Home Secretary's, Board of Trade
President's, or prominent anti-suffragist woman's son, daughter,
brother, sister, wife or mother-in-law did not at all agree with the
anti-feminist opinions of its father, mother, brother or husband.
If the politician were foolish enough to answer and protest, he was
generally at a disadvantage; the public thought it a good joke and
no one (in the provinces) believed his disclaimers.
Vivie generally heckled ministers on the stump and parliamentary
candidates dressed as a woman of the lower middle class. It would
have been unwise to do so in man's guise, in case there should be a
rough-and-tumble afterwards and her sex be discovered. Although in
order to avoid premature arrest she did not herself take part
in those most ingenious--and from the view of endurance,
heroic--stow-aways of women interrupters in the roofs, attics,
inaccessible organ lofts or music galleries of public halls, she
organized many of these surprises beforehand.
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