Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-06-22
THE TRAGEDY
OF CARRIE NATION
By Her Former Press Agent.

vi LIc ne VI CdIItG 1NdIlOE. L lie pd-
thos of this gray-haired, broken-heart
ed, fanatical old woman is insepara-
BILE from the humor she aroused. Both
pathos and humor were with her thru
the years when she thundered damna
ton to salOonists and Wreaked de
structiOn to their places Of business.
It was many times more in evidence
at her eath-bed, when, broken in spir-
it and mind, she breathed her last
with none of those with whom and
for whom she had fought to soothe
her dying hours. Two nieces, a strang
hospital surgeon and a head nurse
were her only attendants.
The two dominant features of Carrie
Nations character were Numerically
opposed. On the one side was the
crusader, the leader, the fearless ia
matte boldly defying the world; gree
dy for money and seeking the best
method for getting it; alive to the
value of advertising and quick to grasl
the dramatic and sensatiOnal; a graf
ter of the lowest kind; a miser in hel
love for gold; glutton for publicity;
a leech, money-vampire.
On the other hand was her simple,
motherly character, as loVable as
that of any woman l have ever known
Sometimes she would make one won
der how she could be the termagant
she was. She rarely referred to her
smashing tour, and when she did it
was with quiet little laugh, her gray
eyes sparkling and her fist clenched
as she would describe how the men
would flee the saloon by the rear
door when she entered the front. The
waste, the injustice, the criminal side
of her actions, never seemed to enter
her head.
Many of Carrie Nations sensation
al deeds were inspired by her press
agents or the press agents of the
theatres insWhich, during a few years
she worked. She was keen, too, in
making her contracts. She received
from $3.50 to 81 900 a week for lectur
ing at theatres, and always with the
privilege of selling in the lobby her
tory of her life This privilege
would net her from $1OO to $3.50 a
week extra
The first work l did for her was as
a press agent for a theatre in Allan
ia, Ga, The house was putting on sen
sational plays at popular prices, and
Carrie Nation was signed for 2 TWEEN
ty-five minute lectures each day, for
which she received $500 for a week
house manager chose "Ten Nights in
a bar Room" for the weeks produc-
tion, and Mrs. Nations profits for
the period amounted to nearly 81 900
In spite of the money she made,
she refused absolutely to stop at a
first-class hotel She preferred ra-
ther to go to cheap place, because,
she said, she needed her money more
than the hOtel-keepers did.
Not a single suggestion made by me
with view to making her stay in Al
lanta more sensational, was rejected
by her. She arrived Sunday night
and early Monday morning began her
crusade. There was a big advertise
ment for cigarettes in a drug store
window in the center of the city, in
which a man made up to represent
manikin, with electric wires at
tached, smoked cigarettes. | suggest
ed that Mrs. Nation pull him out of
the window backwards.
Of course there was a big crowd
in front of the window and the lit
tie old woman saw her first chance
for a sensation. She marched deter
minedly into the store, stopped in
the center and began TRADE against
cigarette smoking. Then, when the
store became crowded with people,
she went to the window, opened the
back of it, grasped the performer in
side by the scruff of the neck and
yanked him to the floor. The mani
kin was so surprised that he became
galvanized into the liveiest lay-fig-
ure imaginable and the crowd roared.
Thenext day the window was empty,
and remained so for the rest Of Car
rie Nations stay in Atlanta.
l suggested to her that Governor
Hoke Smith was an inveterate smok-
er. rs he? Well, let's go to see
him. she said. It'll make good news
paper talk, won't it?"
We went to Hoke Smiths office,
but that gentleman was too shrewd
for He recognized her
when door without
being announced, a. Immediately
threw his cigar into cuspidor. Mrs
Nation was satisfied to give him a
mild reprimand and we left for more
fertile fields.
Down to the police tsation the lit
tie woman marched, followed by a
crowd, which jeered and laughed at
her. When we went into the sta.
tion the station chief was seated at
his desk smoking a big black cigar
Mrs. Nation went up to him, grasped
the cigar and crushed it in her
hand. Don't you know you are smo-
king yourself into help" she scream
ed. Then she lit into the chief and