Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-03-02
MISS Lotto KELSAY.
MRS BROOKS MRS. CARMICHAEL
JOHN A CROSS


JOHN A. CROSS.
The plan was simple. The ladies OF small
city or village formed in bands, took up
position at the door of a saloon and sang and
prayed till the proprietor fled or capitulated
Every leading newspaper in the state soon
lad its correspondent describing the work
The noted lecturer on hygiene, DR.. Dio Lewis,
With hls once notorious convert. John Calvin
Van Pelt, traversed the state, organizing the
crusade. The public streets of almost every
place reSounded with song and prayer, and at
the end of two months the central committee
announced that they had closed l. 700 saloons
and had 1000 more under conviction" Then
came the inevitable reaction-the diving out
of enthusiasm, the reopening of saloons, in
Guiding that kept by the notorious Van Pelt
twho, by the way, soon after got a five years
sentence TO the Missouri states prison for
stealing a pair of gears, the regular war
over license, and then the Murphy movement.
The w. G. I. u. came next, and in due time
split on the rock Of politics, and now the
Itdies are devlslng some new scheme against
King Alcohol. Lathrop has had the common
experience. For a long time there was no
licensed saloon in the place, but there was
drug store" with all that the quotation
marks indicate; the temperance people made
the usual fight, scored the usual failure, and
explained it ~ the usual charge-that the
officials had vinzei at the violation of the
law. The real reason was, as in So many fail
ures in laws aimed at social customs, the inn
possibility Of finding witnesses who could
remember. No other drugof mans inven-
ton produces such oblivion of memory az
whisky.
The ladies then took the matter in hand,
and eighty-five signed pledge to extermi-
nate liquor selling in Lathrop. BY this time
there were two saloons. Late in January
Abe Scruggs stabbed john L. Brooks-both
drunk Mrs Brooks appealed to the women
and declared that if one would help her she
would smash the saloon. She got help. On
Il mild afternoon they appeared on the main
street, their line of march directed on
Thomas Wards saloon. He bolted and
locked the door, imprisoning some dozen men
who lad been interested In game of bill
iards. On the opposite side of the street a
large crowd had gathered. The maple trees
there were full of spectators.
Break IMP shouted one of them A lady.
name not reported, dashed in the glass win
How, and, thrusting in her hand, unlocked
fhe door,
tThen pouring after through the gaping space,
IA tide of women flows and fills the place;
Ehe Greeks behold, they trembe and they fly,
THE floor is splashed with rum and tumulU rends
| the sky.
No, it wasn't quite so Homeric as that, but
II was exciting. The sight OF the beer bottles
fnd whisky barrels melted the women to re-
Yewed action. Pretty misses gathered beer
bottles from the cases and rushed with them
into the streets, mothers rolled filled whisky
barrels about as if they were empty, and
with axes, hatchets and rocks knocked in the
kops and let the contents flow on the floor.
Barrels were rolled into the streets and the
crowd cheered to the echo. Hltchets and
axes were again applied with effect and the
whisky flowed in the CUTTERS