The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1914-05-22
Ruined Kansas.
How Prohibition has Played Havoc
vita Prosperity In the >uniluNer
State.

state
Thg Dj~ulers Association Il send
in4 aul Il IeW argument against nrom-
It'll 0n Ii SAYS that pronrMttoa
ruined TING grape industry tn Kansas.
II claims that la the eigGtles tht> In
Ga9trS wae over 500 00o pVr Egur.
and II Is estimated as less than $4,000
now
The grape industry wasn't the only
Industry ruined by prohibition.
There was the mint industry. Prohl
bi'ion killed the mint julep. hence
there VA, no more demand for mint
except IN few homes where they
made mint sauce for spring lamb
dressing.
Then there was the blow to the egg
industry. Men no longer use eggs
tor eggnog. since the eggnog departed
When prohibition came the hens had
been doing their best III their free way
to keep the egg industry alive and
you could get eggs for eight cents
dozen. Since prohibition hit the egg
industry you have to pay two cents
apiece for eggs. Prohibition took the
life out Of the hens They do not
seem to have anything to cackle
about since the saloon left US.
A man over in the eastern part OF
the state used TO make rOulettewheels.
He was a fine cabinet maker and the
wheels he turned out for roulette and
other games OF chance were mounted
with ivory and mother OF pearl
Prohibition killed that industry also.
In fact prohibition has killed about
every industry in Kansas except the
raising of wheat and corn and alfalfa
and fruit and live stock: potatoes
and peas and cabbage and garden
sass:' chickens and ducks and geese,
and horses and mules.
1t busted up many Of our most pro-
minent gamblers, paralyzed the beer
gardens and absolutely killed the
Bartenders' Union. Prohibition has
left very little Of Kansas except the
growing crops in her fields, the STOCK
in her stock pens, the dreary round OF
work, in her factories and stores and
to do in hours of leisure except just
our children to school, go abroad Oc-
casionally, join the church when we
feel like it, run into each other with
expensive automobiles and store our
money away in dusty bank vaults,
instead of giving it to cheerful gentle
men with white aprons who used to
stand in front of cut-glass bars and
say infrequently This is one on the
house, Where once the thriving
| business OF the saloon sent clamOrOus
odor OF its prosperity out upon the
sidewalk and clear across the street
| we ind nothing but shoe stores, cloth
| ing stores, drygOods stores meat mar
! kets, grocery stores, and other SOr-
did activities OF an unhappy people.
Where once you saw long lines Of
men on Saturday night going joyfully
! into rooms where the doors always
swung in, never out, where there was
sawdust on the floor and merry
crowd standing around the mahogany
/ bar: where they were treating all
around and man could get his sal
airy check cashed and spend it right
there on his boon companions, and
then go enthusiastically home and
break up the furniture and give his
wife black eye:s instead of all these
manifestations OF a carefree people
which characterized the saloon day,
we now have nothing but gloom.
| We see men going quietly into the
butcher shop or grocery store or de-
partment store to get their weekl y
checks cashed and the ngoing moodily
home with shoes for the children and
beefsteak for supper and the tixings
! for q heavy Sunday dinner the next
day and you know instinctively that
there will be no hilarity in that home
that night and nothing to cheer the
lives of these people except such sob
er activities as mother may introduce
into the family circle.
There is nothing in that family to
look forward to except comfortable
Sunday dinner and maybe church in
the morning and Sunday School pos
sibly decOrous ride around town in
the family automobile in the after
noon.
Then Monday they begin the same
round all over again and spend the
nezt week in doing nothing but work
ing ,pla ying and riding and eating and
sleeping and huying new clothes and
taking music lessons and going to
parties and theaters and over-feeding
each other at dinners. and during the
livelOng week father never comes home
and breaks in the door with q war
whoop and goes smashing up the
furniture or caressing mother with
doubled up fist and kicking little
Tommy just to see what Tommy would
do, and doing other things to show
the pride of strong manhood that
used to be in him in the days before
prohi bition came and killed everything
in Kansas.
| And yet there are some who are
asking other states to ruin themseIve,
in this absurd dreary way--Fron
| HENRY j ALIENS S WICHITA (KAN
BEACON.