The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1874-04-02
The Women's Crusade.

The Womens Crusade.
The war being made by the women
of this country upon whisky is spread
ing every day, with success i'll some
places and failure in others. In nearly
every town and city in the west a wo-
mans organization has been completed
and war declared against that old en-
envy of human happiness, king alcohol.
In some places all the saloons have
been abolished, but whether the victo-
nv resulted in putting an end TO whisky
drinking is not stated. In our own
state. at Leavenworth, the crusade has
been in full life now for several weeks,
but, Judging from the papers, nothing
has been accomplished.
The leading papers of the country |
are becoming interested in the move
ment, some Of them endorsing and
others frowning IIarpcr's Weekly is
among the former, and in an editorial
says:
~The women whose homes are ru-
med. whose hearts are broken, whose !
lives are wasted by drunken husbands
and sons: who see at every corner the |
smiling fiend, the devils trap set to
catch human happiness; who are drag
oed hopelessly downward day by day
toward abiect. helpless poverty and all
its terrible temptations, and who see
x,-b nj hose women and
their tragedy are the power and the
conservation of every such movement.
| The HYMNS may be poor stuff. and the
| PRAYERS mere gueSses OF VANITY ana
| concict. and the excitement a physical
! frenzy. but under all the mean phe-
nomcna is the inexpressible and far
reaching sorrow of suffering women.
/ A dramscller who sees wife whose
hu, band he has ruined appealing TO
( God iii her misery. IL she kneels i'll his
presence or before his door, is the very
kind of a man TO be profoundly, even
superstitiouslv disturbed. and to vow
to renounce his trade. He can deal
with mobs of swearing men and pis-
tolls. but a throng of women knceling
in PRAYER for him perpleXcs and con-
POUNDS him."
The Chicago Post, while il regrets
to give utterancc to word that would
appear TO initiate against the cause IN
which the women are so earnestly en-
gagged. is constrained 10 announce as
il, belief that onc-half of the trouble of
whisky drinking is brought on by the
women themselves. Ii SAYS:
In plain English. too many women
make their homes IA domestic hell, and
for relief from continual broils or do
nestle dis.cntions. the husband and
son Sccl, comparative quiet and enjoy
mcnt in the saloon. 1t lies within the
peculiar domain of women TO make
home attractive and enjoyable to men;
but in very many eases the woman Is
"A fault finder with whom everything
her sphere goes wrong, and upon the
heads of husbands and sons she vents
her spleen. She despoils home life of
its beauty and charms: she has few. II
any. kind words for her partner in life
or children. Whatever they do is par
TALLY or wholly wrong, and she Is not
charv of expressing her views upon
the subject. BY her words and acts
she makes. in many eases unlntcnfion-
: allv.. home without any attraction.
Her face is clouded with illtemper
her speech is full of bitterness her
domestic duties are made the pivots
for scores of complaints. When man
returns from his labor or his business
he is assaulted with questions rs to why
he did that, or why somebody else was
permitted to do this. that. or the other
deed. \ hundred rasping questions
are chartered into his ears: n hundred
unpleasant sights and sounds irritate
him simply through woman's Ill
temper or acknowledgement. ana ne Is
TEMPTED 10 seek his ease and enjoy
meut nj places of public resort, where.
TO kill time and the remembrauccs of
wild domestic scenes. he soon iall> INTO
the evil courses of the tipler. all
through the fault-fnding ways OF his
wife. mother or sister.
These women may or may not be vira-
goes: but so long as they make their
houses rcpulsivc by means we have III
dicatcd. or any other. they incur the
responsibility of forcing their hus-
bands. fathers OF brothers TO more at
tractiyc and unQuestiouably more per-
nicious places. II is idle 10 say there
; is no basis for such suggestions as we
hape given: for the reality can be
/ found in probably forty families out
, of hundred"
This is a dark picture whose fearful
coloring we think over drawn. yet
there is no denying the fact that part
of the conclusions are warranted by
everyday observations
This evil OF intemperance is the
: greatest evil of the nineteenth century
, "a curse W hich organized societies and
churches have failed thus far 10 cope
with or put down. and many thousands
, are praying for the success of the wo-
, mems crusade