The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-15
KANSAS COAMENT
CARRIEnARRnAn

/
carrie Nation, with her Ratchet
ana an ner cause is touring the United
hlngdom. And, granting that She is
.t13ll perdnces reformer, she is GER
1919 10y, mliere sne is most needed. An
<A1 II sls writing from London says:
AFTER carrie sizes up drinking CON
oltlonS IN the United Kingdom she
VIII arrive at the conclusion that her
oWu people are lot of ange1-faced.
soIt-drlnk boozers. She is up against
the real thing now. More poWer to
her elbow and axe
But Carrie will not be allowed to
use ner hatehet. The British police
man differs from our own in heinz,
ever present when needed She will
De allowed to talk, however, but the
voice against drunkenness raised in
such wilderness of dissipation will
not carry Tar. Mrs. Nation is in a
land where there is much want and
poverty, and the best authorities
plame the most of this to drink; a
Ialo where many of the bartenders
are girls and where drunken women
are more common than drunken men
on this side; where liquor is regarded
almost as essential as bread by many
OF the people; where saloons (pubIic
houses' they call them over there,)
may not be closed unless the govern
ment pays damages for the privilege
AND all these and other dep1orabIe
conditions indicate that the stigma
Whlch attaches to the liquor business
III ILLS country Is not a bad thing. In
the United Kingdom, the keeper of a.
publc mouse is counted as respectable
as the butcher, the baker or the gro
Ger, which is one reason so many en-
gage In the traffic. In Great Britain
the license is granted to the house
instead of to the individual; so that
should the barkeeper go wrong, some
other man may take over the bust
ness, and conduct it unmolested.
These are some of the conditions
which will make it difficult for Mrs.
Nation to accomplish anything even
exciting.
Mrs. Nation is attracting hardly as
much attention abroad as she did in
her native land before the novelty Of
her crusade wore off One London
paper prints her picture with a group
Of Scotch prohibitionists in Dundee,
together with a brief paragraph an
nouncing that she is in the country,
mentioning her habit of wrecking
public houses with an axe. Another
London paper contains a number of
cartoons, containing suggestions as to
Ratchet, but none of them are liquor
houses. Some statues, third-class rail-
way carriages, scorching AUTOMOBILE
lists, and the long p1umes on ladies
hats, are considered by this paper fit
subjects for the axe But they don't
seem to be making much fuss over
our Carrie.-Atchison Globe.
THE WAY AND WHEREFORE.
AS the entire human race except Chi
namen are organized into a conspiracy
to exterminate rats, and all the state
have for years been passing
laws to protect quail, now will some one
please explain how it comes that rats
are increasing and quail diminishing in
numbers. And while the explainer has
his hand in he might tell US how it is
that Notwithstanding millions of tillers
of the soil are constantly trying to
eradicate cockIeburs and crab grass and
to cultivate and encourage corn to grow,
still the burs and crab grass continue to
thrive and multiply while the poor corn
plant withers and dries up. There must
after all be something in that alleged
declaration made by the Almighty in
the early morning of time about the
ground being cursed.-Holton Recorder.