The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-06-12

Carrie Nation. the queer combina-
| ton Of rabid crank and cvable. moth
erly old woman. has passed on. BY
some she was considered insane. Even
the newspaper men who were most
familiar with the smasher considered
her little off, at times The most
skfllfuI of them learned the symptoms,
and could pilot her mind past the dan
gerous channels of sunken booze and
tobacco Herded away from these ex-
plosive topics, Mrs. Nation was mild,
sweet-tempered old lady whom any
one would be proud to call aunt or
grandmother, but when she began to
talk "hell's broth" and devils in
ventions," she underwent change.
Her cheerful smile turned to grin
that held nothing of humor. and her
eyes glittered
Aunt Carrie was good copy" and
In the old days was cultivated extern
islvely by newswriters; they egged her
on to do things which might other
wise have been left undore. She liked
the notoriety her escapades produced.
Many who knew her intimately be-
| leved that. had the account of her
first joint smashing at Kiowa been
overlooked by the newspapers, it would
have been her last.
Mrs. Nation liked newspaper men,
and they liked her-not only as a pro-
woman who thought she had mission
IN the world. The conservatives among
the writers realized that her efforts al
though wildly sensational md disor-
oerly, We're getting results; joints were
IcIosing their doors, and the "welcome"
lsign was taken in off the sidewalk. The
fear of an attack by Carrie Nation was
genuine. The booze sellers made
threats of violence, but dared not make
good for fear that they would be shot
Gown by some woman-respecting man
IN the crowd of hangers-on, for it does
not follow that because man is a sa-
loon patron, he would approve of vio-
Hence toward a woman.
Aunt Carrie may have been. crazy in
spots, but she was honest in her be-
liefs, and with all her craziness was
more respected than many of the sane
reformers who followed in her wake.
She has passed; never again will the
cup reporter swallow his cigarette and
follow 1t with a listerine chaser as her
familiar voice Is heard in tn hall; the
circus clowns will have to forsake the
poke bonnet, motherhubbard and big
hatchet for some other "lake-off''
The 'sU. S. Dreyfus case, is TO he
expected. The "shavetails" are taught
at West Point that they are the only
human specimens of Gods handiwork,
and that enlisted men and civilians are
tHCIe lIlClQSIIS.
Scientists may, some time, find a
cure for tuberculosis, but that other
plague, the street-car humorist who
tells the jokes he read in the 1881
Hostetters almanac, and then repeats
them with diagrams showing the dot
ted line leading to the point, is incur
able.
Mr.. Ed Chalk, secretary of the Kan
sas Esperanto association, called upon
this department Saturday and left
few reasonable reasons why Esperanto
should be used upon some occasions.
Eat the ball game" says Mr.. Chalk,
zone must relieve his mind by vocal
umpire thus: Robert Thief Kill hint
Boneheadi Rotten! it undoubtedly
peeves the jumps, but, should he say 1t:
Robistoi Stelistoi Mortigu lin! Oso-
lkapulo! Putrantai he would secure the
same mental relief, but avoid hurting
the feelings of the official"
Mr.. Chalk forgot to make allowances
for the possibility that the jumps might
also be an Esperantonut He proba bly,
holds that the average umpire hasn't
brains enough to learn the language.
"There is one serious flaw in the
Esperanto language" continued Mr..
Chalk. sit is that the equivalent for
| batter is 'batisto,' meaning, one who
hits And for the batter who does not
hit. the language, which contains no
profanity, furnishes no adequate de-
| scription.'
Hep