The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-02-22
typical the case of the lady with
the hatchet:

the hatehet:
Carrie Nation caused great deal
of annoyance in Kansas, a state that
meant very well, indeed, but that was
content for long while with merely
meaning well. Having become pro-
hibition state in 1880, many OF It's
people thought it had gone Ii
enough.
Throughout the larger part of it
the State prohibition law was en-
forced, and dryness was characters
tic of all Kansas areas in which
the anti-liquor element was ever
watchful and alert; but the liquor
interests, through collision with To-
cal authorities, were shipping intox-
icants into the State regularly from
Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri, and in
some parts of Kansas, particularly in
the west and southwest, distillers and
brewers, despite the preponderance
Of anti-liquor sentiments, did not even
take the trouble to mask or conceal
the traffic by resorting to the "speak-
easy" or the "blind-pig.' 4
Carrie Nation was a daughter of
Kentucky, State once noted for its
distilleries. She had married, in her
girlhood, a man who had become
dicted to drink, and this had Destroy
ed their happiness.
The loss of her husband filled her
with intense aversion to the saloon,
and she determined to devote her
life to the work of arousing public
antagonism against the barrooms.
Removing to Kansas, she married
David Nation, who sympathized with
her prohibition tendencies.
At first she went about her work
in an argumentative fashion. sShe
would enter barrooms and address
the proprietor, if he were present,
but, at any rate, the bartender and
the patrons.
But she soon realized that little
real progress was being made, and
that, while obtaining a great deal of
notoriety in the press, she was MAX
ing very little Roadway in the mat
ter of arousing the better element
of the public to a recognition of the
real meaning Of her work. So she
decided to make departure. Armed
with Ratchet, she entered the Ella
borately appointed barroom of the
Carry Hotel in Wichita, on December
81, 1900, and proceeded to Smash"
her first saloon. Before she could be
stopped she had irreparably injured
some of the highly polished and
costly furniture. Going to another
saloon she repeated her performance.
In the following months she Smash
ed" saloons by the score, not only
hacking the furniture but breaking
the mirrors and glassware.
Thousands of people of the con-
tented type in Kansas were, as re-
suit of Carrie Nations crusade, sur
priced to learn that there were so
many saloons illegally wide open in
the State. Her activities exposed
other conditions of which the COM
placent were ignorant. She produced
evidence for the anti-liquor movement
that was invaluable in legislative in
vestigations. The people of Kansas
as whole began to demand that the
day of farcical prohibition should be
brought to an end. New and strin-
gent laws were adopted and, better
still, enforced. Carrie Nation, in fact
forced upon Kansas the decision to
live up to it's pretensions, as Neal
Dow had, thirty years earlier, forced
like decision upon the people o.
Maine.
Carrie Nation saw the barrooms
of Kansas not nominally but actually
closed, and then she entered Nebraska
and other States, even going as far
east as New York on her lecturing
tour. She was not generally popu-
lar at any time. To the end of
her career her methods were severely
criticized. She was oftener abused
than praised by the press. But those
who spoke most slightingly or depre-
catingly of her while she was WELD
ing her Ratchet were compelled to
admit, when she laid it down, that
through sheer pluck, as well as moral
courage and persistence, she had &C
complished her self-imposed task.