The Use and Need of the Life of Carrie A. Nation [98]
dens and smash their bottles and
fixtures with a hatchet. The smashing of joints and joint fixtures
is at an end without doubt as far as Kansas is concerned, although
Mrs. Nation still believes that that method of suppression of a public
nuisance is the very best. However, the effect of that smashing has been
to marvelously stir up the officers of the law, our legislature, and
public sentiment all over the State. Mrs. Nation was let out of jail on
the bond signed by Rev. J. B. McAfee, an esteemed member of my
congregation here. Her bond now is a bond to keep the peace, and her
smashing is at an end.
The times were ripe for just such a movement. The people of Kansas,
through the indifference and neglect of her officers of the law, saw
the jointists getting bolder every day, having their fines paid by the
breweries and distilleries of other States, until they started in to give
the State "open" saloons, with all the brazen ways in the East, Then
Mrs. Nation came. Everything was ripe for a reaction against all this.
The coming of this woman was simply the lighting of the match which
set off a temperance pyrotechnic display which has lighted up the temperance
horizon all over the Union, and has created an unparalleled
degree of temperance sentiment and activity. The writer has had Mrs.
Nation at his table; has discussed with her her ideas; has differed
with her as to the final utility of the "hatchet" as a cure for the disease;
has one of the hundred of hatchets and axes sent her from all over the
country, this a fierce broad-axe sent her from Hartsel, Col., and which
he keeps as a souvenir; has investigated the charges as to her sanity,
finds her entirely sane, though possibly somewhat of a crank because
of her ultraradical methods in furthering reform against strong drink,
tobacco, and other social evils; yet he feels that the temperance cause,
despite all her faults, has much for which to thank Mrs. Nation. It
needed just such severe movements to arouse the easy-going masses
of our State, and awaken public sentiment along these lines, and Mrs.
Nation was the "John Brown" for the movement.
The movement in the city of Topeka, a city of 35,000 population,
brought out a meeting of 3,000 men who demanded that liquors no longer
be sold contrary to law, and that all joint fixtures be removed or they
would be smashed. This was promptly done. It was a grand sight to
see a dozen men carry down, from upstairs back rooms, long bars to
be stored or sent out of the city. What brought them down? Public
sentiment, the education resulting from twenty years of constitutional
prohibition. To-day the city of Topeka is absolutely free from joints,
as far as the writer can see. Of course, liquor can be bought secretly,
and always will be, but our boys do not know where it can be bought.
You might as well try to absolutely bind the devil as to absolutely bind
the liquor traffic in one State with all the brewers and distillers in a
dozen surrounding States seeking with determined and cunning methods
to extend their business within its borders.
It is like heaven to live in a city where there are no open saloons.
There are thousands of public school children here, now nearly of age,
who have never seen here a beer-wagon or a beer-keg! Recently a child
who had never been out of the State, on going to Kansas City, Mo.,
looked out of the car window and saw a sign on a building, and spelled,
"S-a-l-o-o-n, saloon," and then exclaimed, "Mamma, what is that?"
There is no better city in the world in which to bring up a family of
boys than Topeka, and many fine eastern families are coming here for
that very reason. It amuses me to see the comments made on Kansas
in the East. To some it is truly, "The wild and woolly West." One
pastor writes: "Is it safe for the next General Synod to go out there?"
Let me tell your readers just two or three things about Kansas. Her
educational exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair took the highest prize;
her per cent of illiteracy is the lowest of all the States
fixtures with a hatchet. The smashing of joints and joint fixtures
is at an end without doubt as far as Kansas is concerned, although
Mrs. Nation still believes that that method of suppression of a public
nuisance is the very best. However, the effect of that smashing has been
to marvelously stir up the officers of the law, our legislature, and
public sentiment all over the State. Mrs. Nation was let out of jail on
the bond signed by Rev. J. B. McAfee, an esteemed member of my
congregation here. Her bond now is a bond to keep the peace, and her
smashing is at an end.
The times were ripe for just such a movement. The people of Kansas,
through the indifference and neglect of her officers of the law, saw
the jointists getting bolder every day, having their fines paid by the
breweries and distilleries of other States, until they started in to give
the State "open" saloons, with all the brazen ways in the East, Then
Mrs. Nation came. Everything was ripe for a reaction against all this.
The coming of this woman was simply the lighting of the match which
set off a temperance pyrotechnic display which has lighted up the temperance
horizon all over the Union, and has created an unparalleled
degree of temperance sentiment and activity. The writer has had Mrs.
Nation at his table; has discussed with her her ideas; has differed
with her as to the final utility of the "hatchet" as a cure for the disease;
has one of the hundred of hatchets and axes sent her from all over the
country, this a fierce broad-axe sent her from Hartsel, Col., and which
he keeps as a souvenir; has investigated the charges as to her sanity,
finds her entirely sane, though possibly somewhat of a crank because
of her ultraradical methods in furthering reform against strong drink,
tobacco, and other social evils; yet he feels that the temperance cause,
despite all her faults, has much for which to thank Mrs. Nation. It
needed just such severe movements to arouse the easy-going masses
of our State, and awaken public sentiment along these lines, and Mrs.
Nation was the "John Brown" for the movement.
The movement in the city of Topeka, a city of 35,000 population,
brought out a meeting of 3,000 men who demanded that liquors no longer
be sold contrary to law, and that all joint fixtures be removed or they
would be smashed. This was promptly done. It was a grand sight to
see a dozen men carry down, from upstairs back rooms, long bars to
be stored or sent out of the city. What brought them down? Public
sentiment, the education resulting from twenty years of constitutional
prohibition. To-day the city of Topeka is absolutely free from joints,
as far as the writer can see. Of course, liquor can be bought secretly,
and always will be, but our boys do not know where it can be bought.
You might as well try to absolutely bind the devil as to absolutely bind
the liquor traffic in one State with all the brewers and distillers in a
dozen surrounding States seeking with determined and cunning methods
to extend their business within its borders.
It is like heaven to live in a city where there are no open saloons.
There are thousands of public school children here, now nearly of age,
who have never seen here a beer-wagon or a beer-keg! Recently a child
who had never been out of the State, on going to Kansas City, Mo.,
looked out of the car window and saw a sign on a building, and spelled,
"S-a-l-o-o-n, saloon," and then exclaimed, "Mamma, what is that?"
There is no better city in the world in which to bring up a family of
boys than Topeka, and many fine eastern families are coming here for
that very reason. It amuses me to see the comments made on Kansas
in the East. To some it is truly, "The wild and woolly West." One
pastor writes: "Is it safe for the next General Synod to go out there?"
Let me tell your readers just two or three things about Kansas. Her
educational exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair took the highest prize;
her per cent of illiteracy is the lowest of all the States