They had gone halfway up the steps, when policemen in plain clothes appeared from all sides and grappled with them. Many women were injured. Annie Arniel was thrown to the ground so violently that she fainted. An ambulance was summoned to take her to the hospital. The other women were locked in a basement room until six o’clock, when they were released. They were escorted through the Capitol grounds by a member of the vigilant force of guards. He bore the American flag which had been carried at the head of their line. As they reached the limit of the Capitol grounds, he returned that to them, but all the lettered banners and tri-colors were retained.
The twenty-one women were: Edith Ainge; Harriet U. Andrews; Bertha Arnold; Virginia Arnold; Annie Arniel; Olive Beale; Lucy Burns; Eleanor Calnan; L. G. C. Daniels; Frances Davis; Julia Emory; Mary Gertrude Fendall; Mrs. Gilson Gardner; Sara Grogan; Maud Jamison; Elizabeth Kalb; Augusta M. Kelley; Lola Maverick Lloyd; Matilda Young; H. R. Walmsley; Alice Paul.
On October 29, two pickets went to the Capitol with a banner inscribed:
RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD.
They were seized and held until the afternoon.
By some divagation in the police policy, they were seized, while they were walking to the car after their release, and held for another hour.
On October 30, five pickets, carrying the Senator Baird banner and three tri-colors, picketed the north front of the Capitol for an hour. Then they marched to the south front, determined to take up their stand on the Senate steps. Halfway in their progress, they were seized, locked up, and held until six o’clock.
Indignant at these arrests without charge, the National Woman’s Party decided to protest the next day—Thursday.
On October 31, therefore, after the usual morning arrest, their lawyer applied to Judge Siddons of the District Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus. The Judge declared that the sergeant-at-arms had no right to hold any one without a charge, that he must either make a charge, or release the Suffragists. The sergeant-at-arms released them at once. Nevertheless, when the pickets returned in the afternoon, they were seized in the usual violent fashion and conducted to the guard room. However, although their banners were not returned to them, they were detained but a few minutes. On Friday, they were released as soon as their banners were seized. Fresh banners appeared from time to time all day long. Again consulted, Judge Siddons said that the police had no right to keep the banners. On Saturday, however, the police did not have to seize the banners; there appeared a variation in the picket line. A group of women walked up and down in front of the Senate Office Building. They bore no lettered banners; they bore no tri-colors; but they wore on their arms black mourning bands—in commemoration of the death of justice in the United States Senate.