The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-06-23

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The manikin was so surprised that
he became galvanized into the liveliest
lay-agure imaginable and the crowd
4 roared. The next day the window was
empty and remained so far the rest of
Carrie Nations stay in Atlanta.
I suggested to her that Governor
Hoke Smith was an inveterate smoker.
'Is he? Well. let's go to see hin" !"
she said. It'll make good newspaper
talw, won't it?"
We went to Hoke Smiths Office, but
that gentleman was too shrewd for
Mrs. Nation. He recognized her when
she opened his door without being an
nounced, and Immediately threw his
cigar into cuspidor. Mrs. Nation
was satisfied to give him a mild repri
mand, and we left for more fertile
fields.
| Down to the police station the little
woman marched, followed by crowd,
which jeered and laughed at her. When
we went into the station the chief was
seated at his desk smoking big black
cigar. Mrs. Nation went up to him,
grasped the cigar and crushed it in her
hand Don't you know you are smok-
ing yourself into hell?" she screamed.
Then she lit into the chief and gave
him the warmest ten minutes he had
experienced for some time.
Of course the newspapers were full
of Mrs. Nations doings, and none could
be more pleased at the publicity than
she. She would get out on the street
at Z o'clock in the morning and work
until the matinee. I asked her once
why she did it. "It's good advertising,
son. she smiled ut gets the people
into the theater and we need the
money"
Mrs. Nation cleared nearly $150,000
, from her lectures in churches and
theaters. She would refuse, however,
to go to a church if theater made her
better offer A minister once up
raided her for this, but she snapped
him up with, when l fish, I go where
the fishes are"
1t is bitter commentary on her life
that she died leaving an estate of only
$4,000. All the money she made went
to support useless tracts and grating
oJ;+ore ~ xforfoua 80 oalIad nrNbihi4ior
papers. One paper, published in Wash
ington, D. c., ate up thousands of dol
lars of ner money. She even mortgag-
ed her home, she told me, to help keep
this paper going. Her estate consist
ed of few houses and lots in Shaw
nee and Guthrie, Okla, an insurance
policy and bank account of 81 900 in
Alexandria, Va. Her only daughter,
Mrs. Charlton A. McNab, received the
estate. The Woman's Christian Temp
erance Union of Kansas was left Mrs.
Nations autobiography, Book of My
Life"
Mrs. Nation died of paresis, brought
on by nervous breakdown from worry
over a lawsuit to recover money due
for her lectures. She died as she had
lived after she found herself famous.
She was obsessed with the desire to
get money. | have always been in
doubt whether or not she was sincere
in her prohibition fight or whether she
saw in it method for gain. She was
! either a shrewd, INSCRIPTIONS busi-
ness woman, or she was insane. | am
more inclined to believe, from the con-
tradictions in her character, that she
lost her mind before her first saloon
smashing expedition.
1t was Carrie Nations boast that
when she died the Lord would raise
up other women to carry the nation.
The pity of her life shows the futiIity
Of hopeless task When she died
her own Kansas, which she made
dry" was overrun with bootleggers
and dives. She witnessed the prohibi-
tion wave surge over the south. At
her death she saw the reaction, and
that the southern states had begun to
repeal the laws which they found inn
possible to enforce. 1t was these facts,
it is said, that went far toward maxi
ing her broken, disappointed old wo-
man during her last years, when any
one could led her without resistance.
The hopelessness of her efforts to es-
tablish a reform through fanaticism,
the ceaseless demands of the blood
suckers who lived from her earnings,
her lonely life and her death without
friends to comfort her made the trag-
edy in Carrie Nations life.