The Savannah morning news., 1901-03-16
THE MAID OF P0DUNk.
Mrs. Carrie Nation as the Future
Htstorian Sees the Saloon SmaSher.

Mrs. carrie NatIOh "S thO
Historian Sees the Saloon Sma"her.
Ambrose Bierce, in New York journal
OF the girldhood of Mrs. Nation (wrote
the Historian of the Future) little -tnat
is authentic is known. She is common
" believed to have been born at Podunk'
where as lately as the year 273O monu-
ment stood inscribed with her name her
virtues, and her deeds. In that year II
was destroyed by the great earthquake
that overthrow that famous city, which
was then the National Capital.
IT is known that she was of humble
origin and was brought up Cher mother
having died in giving birth to herr, ION
the bottle" The meaning of that phrase,
much in use among her contemporaries
is not now accurately understood, FOR IL
is obvious that unless the ardent spirits
of that day were materially different
from those of our time, they would not
have served as the sole diet of infants
Tc the deIeterious effects of "the bottle
on the childs heath we perhaps car
trace that passionate antagonism e.
Strong drink which was the keynote &c
her character and career.
When little Carrie was eleven years old
say about 1880, her father removed to
Whitchita, or Whickity, frontier town
III Kansas, or Nermont-authorities dis
agree. 1t was here that she began to
hear the mysterious voices" that moved
her to take up arms against the Joints
These, il appears, were places In when
ctrong drinks were made by daring Grim
inals and forced down the threats of per-
10 fcrh h.
ways and carried into them.
The evolution of the word Joint" as
given by the learned and ingenious Pot
win Dumbleshaw in his great work on the
philology of the ancients, is interesting
A man who had been carried into one oil
these terrible places and made to swal-
low the noxlous liquid there produced was
singularly affected by 1t; he was so linn
Der as to be unable either to stand oil
sit-it was as if he had joints all over
him. Hence he was known as joint
err" Now, in the ancient Americanese
tongue a ''horser'' was one who rode the
now extinct animal called horse" a
a schooner" was one who sailed in shiI
called ''schoon," and so FORTH the ter
mination "er' implying always certain
relation to a place or thing. So by an
odd forward-and- back analogy, the word
"ioint" meaning originally point OF fiex-
ion in a limb, came to mean also. through
its own derivative, a place where the
"jointer'' was Joined. II know not" says
Prof. Dumbleshaw, "a more curious in
stance of the perversion and shifting OF
words from thing to thing
ID is only fair to explain that DR.. Mud
Ter, professor of extinct languages at the
Seacaucus University, holds a different
view, to the effect that Prof. Dumblesha"
is an ass.
For many centuries there has beer
muoh controversy regarding the voices
said 40 have been heard by the youne
Carrie Slupsky Chat was her nader
name), and many duels are said to nave
resulted from the conflicting opinions.
The chief protagonists of Miss Slupsky
the men most solemnly convinced OF hei
veracity and good faith in affirming hei
guidance by the "voices"--are Basuen La
page, a famous author OF the nineteenth
century, and Mark Twain Tor Duane)'
painter of great renown. Both these
worthies. each in his way, have put upor
record their profound persuasion OF th'
maiden's actual inspiration by audible
voices In the air. and both were her con
temporaries and compatriots. Not mucf
of the work of either has come down L
us-a few leaves from the book OF La
mage. a fragment of painting by Twair
or Duane.
An odd circumstance is that in one O.
the former. Mrs. Nations birthplace ant
home OF her girlhood IS mentioned al
"Domremy." The same name occurs II
several fragments Of European literature
of an even earlier date, and these facf'
have given rise to much discussion, evolv
ing more heat than light.
prof Clambuck writing In the year 264l
oxplains this apparent discrepancy some
what as follows: "In the Pottawottom,
dialect which in the nineteenth century
nrevailed over the greater part of Ameri
ca among the illiterate, "po' and dom
meant the same .thing-a COW NO"
dunk" means a place Of refreshment, oi
entertainment. and "remy' IL the OLD Al
gonauin word for salt. Having these
meanings In mind. II Is easy. says th'
learned professor. 10 see that the namei
"Podunk" and "Domremy" are virtual,
The same: they signify place OF refresh
ment for cows, a place where those AMI
mails 20 for salt--a "cow-lick.'
n IL not. generally speaking, within tn
province Of the historian 20 utter dog
matte Judgment IN such matters. but thi'
seems 10 be pretty fragrant instance 81
ingenuity. I mention II only 10 show n
what lengths the learned will sometime'
70 in eKplainlng what IL obviously
Grammatical error like the "ablatiye al
eolutaY in Latin. or mere slip % ~
oen. ~ when % Was said that bdwnrf
MARKHAM was born in betbelehm.
Thare can b. go feaaonapie doubt ms
NJ Mellon VS. born in P0,iunk. nor ihH
~ grlfsr who fret used ths NAMED Dom