The Use and Need of the Life of Carrie A. Nation [65]
by taking all means to drag these men down. Prostitutes
do not like men; they often hate them. The man who goes there
generally loses respect for the virtues of women, and from associating
with bad women they judge other women to be vile. These men hate
the very women they go to see. Married men who drink are bad husbands,
for they deceive their wives, who soon find it out; and the husbands
and wives cannot be happy. A woman leaves all others for one
man and she wishes his society. In the evening the clubs and drinking
places take up men's time when their families should have it. These
things destroy love and confidence between husbands and wives. 'Tis
not all men's fault, for there are some drinking women.
A man came to me just before I went on the stage at Newport, and
said: "Carry Nation, step aside here, I must speak to you. I am in so
much trouble. Give me some advice. My wife is at home drunk; she
is that way most of the time. We have six children and they feel disgraced.
What can I do? I am almost wild."
I asked: "Did you ever drink with your wife?"
He looked confused. I said: "Women do not usually go to saloons
but you men bring it home and use it on the table and women are just
as apt to catch the disease of alcoholism as men. This may be the way
your wife learned to be a drunkard. Wives have been nursing their
drunken husbands for years; now the chickens have come home to roost,
and you are nursing your drunken wives."
Poor man! He, indeed, seemed distracted; and he is not alone,
there are hundreds of cases.
I met a lovely creature on the train, who had been married a few
months. Her husband was a lumber merchant in Chicago. She sat by
me and told me her sad story. She had been a poor girl and dearly loved
a man whose mother opposed the match and prevented the marriage.
The young lumber merchant, left rich by the death of his father, proposed
and she married him. In a month, the mother of the man she
loved first, died and the obstacle was removed. In telling me this story
I smelled liquor on her breath. She would say a few sentences and then
say: "Oh, Carry Nation I am so miserable! If Charlie would only be
true to me I would not grieve for the man I love, but Charlie drinks
and he goes with other women, and leaves me alone. He gives me all the
money I want. I have everything that money can buy; but, Oh! I
almost hate these things! I had rather have a hut with someone to love
me." She kept talking this way until it was enough to break my heart.
She said: "Charlie will be in from the smoking car, and please Mrs.
Nation speak to him. I want to be a good wife and I will do all I can
to make him a good man. But he laughs at me when I talk to him, he
never takes me in earnest. Go speak to him."
So I did. I found him to be a young man about twenty-three, with
the marks of dissipation on his face. I said: "I have something to say to
you privately. You have a beautiful young wife. If you wish to make
her happy you can do so. There is one thing that will ruin the happiness
of both. That is intoxicating drink. Did you know your wife is under
the influence of some drug? He said: "Oh, don't say a word to her
about that, I am the cause of it. I drink and have persuaded her to,
because she has a right to do what I do."
I told him of the fatal results and asked him to quit or it would be
the ruin of both. Here were these two on the brink of ruin, so young,
so attractive. I never shall forget the pathos of that woman's story.
The yearning of that heart for love. Of course in her unhappiness she
would turn to the benumbing fascination of the poisonous drug.
On every hand I see the desolation of homes and hearts. There are
no five things that make so much enmity between the sexes as this one--
the licensed saloon. The home life is destroyed. Men and boys are taken
from home at the very time they ought to be there, after their work is
done. Families should gather in the evening to enjoy each other's society.
It is said that Germans are the cruelest husbands
do not like men; they often hate them. The man who goes there
generally loses respect for the virtues of women, and from associating
with bad women they judge other women to be vile. These men hate
the very women they go to see. Married men who drink are bad husbands,
for they deceive their wives, who soon find it out; and the husbands
and wives cannot be happy. A woman leaves all others for one
man and she wishes his society. In the evening the clubs and drinking
places take up men's time when their families should have it. These
things destroy love and confidence between husbands and wives. 'Tis
not all men's fault, for there are some drinking women.
A man came to me just before I went on the stage at Newport, and
said: "Carry Nation, step aside here, I must speak to you. I am in so
much trouble. Give me some advice. My wife is at home drunk; she
is that way most of the time. We have six children and they feel disgraced.
What can I do? I am almost wild."
I asked: "Did you ever drink with your wife?"
He looked confused. I said: "Women do not usually go to saloons
but you men bring it home and use it on the table and women are just
as apt to catch the disease of alcoholism as men. This may be the way
your wife learned to be a drunkard. Wives have been nursing their
drunken husbands for years; now the chickens have come home to roost,
and you are nursing your drunken wives."
Poor man! He, indeed, seemed distracted; and he is not alone,
there are hundreds of cases.
I met a lovely creature on the train, who had been married a few
months. Her husband was a lumber merchant in Chicago. She sat by
me and told me her sad story. She had been a poor girl and dearly loved
a man whose mother opposed the match and prevented the marriage.
The young lumber merchant, left rich by the death of his father, proposed
and she married him. In a month, the mother of the man she
loved first, died and the obstacle was removed. In telling me this story
I smelled liquor on her breath. She would say a few sentences and then
say: "Oh, Carry Nation I am so miserable! If Charlie would only be
true to me I would not grieve for the man I love, but Charlie drinks
and he goes with other women, and leaves me alone. He gives me all the
money I want. I have everything that money can buy; but, Oh! I
almost hate these things! I had rather have a hut with someone to love
me." She kept talking this way until it was enough to break my heart.
She said: "Charlie will be in from the smoking car, and please Mrs.
Nation speak to him. I want to be a good wife and I will do all I can
to make him a good man. But he laughs at me when I talk to him, he
never takes me in earnest. Go speak to him."
So I did. I found him to be a young man about twenty-three, with
the marks of dissipation on his face. I said: "I have something to say to
you privately. You have a beautiful young wife. If you wish to make
her happy you can do so. There is one thing that will ruin the happiness
of both. That is intoxicating drink. Did you know your wife is under
the influence of some drug? He said: "Oh, don't say a word to her
about that, I am the cause of it. I drink and have persuaded her to,
because she has a right to do what I do."
I told him of the fatal results and asked him to quit or it would be
the ruin of both. Here were these two on the brink of ruin, so young,
so attractive. I never shall forget the pathos of that woman's story.
The yearning of that heart for love. Of course in her unhappiness she
would turn to the benumbing fascination of the poisonous drug.
On every hand I see the desolation of homes and hearts. There are
no five things that make so much enmity between the sexes as this one--
the licensed saloon. The home life is destroyed. Men and boys are taken
from home at the very time they ought to be there, after their work is
done. Families should gather in the evening to enjoy each other's society.
It is said that Germans are the cruelest husbands