The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-09
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BIZ JAY E. HOUSE.
(From Philadsiphia Public LedEsr1

We tint an occasional pointless lance
at prohibition. but we have no quarrel
with any national policy which the
majority deems just and wise. The
thing that is sand upon our mental
gear is that the organs. the PUSSY
foot" Johnsons and the Andersons are
to have the glory that accrues from
the extension of the arid belt. the I'M
checked sweep of the aqua pura mo-
tit The woman who started it all lies
in an obscure grave. For all we know,
it may be unmarked; we never saw it,
If she is not forgotten, her name. at
least. has not been mentioned in the
circumstance.
In order to refresh a public memory
which is singularly unretentive. we
state the fact that it was Carrie Ma
ton. Carrie Nation had lived the
greater part of what had been who'll
ly uneventful life in surroundings that
were poor and obscure. The, so to
speak, blight of liquor had never laid
a moldy finger upon her. All at once,
when past sixty years OF age and pre-
sumedly interned for life within the
narrow confines of a rural community,
she burst upon the consciousness of
| nation in maudlin and i'll proper
| toned attack on booze. There was no
sense to her rawlings and neither Fea-
son nor order in her methods. But
/
under the traffic in Intoxicating IL
quors. And she lies In a grave as OBJ
scure as the community from which
she sprang, and her name never Is
mentioned in the connection.
/ 1t was ours to, meet the train from
which Carrie Nation descended to
what came to be a nationwide foray
| against John Barleycorn. Previous
| ly she had erusaded in & small, retail
/ in h nj NJ
cident marked her first appearance as
a wholesale "snnasherP' We saw her
at once for what she was, an ignorant,
| historical, half-illiterate woman whose
iconsuming ambition was to write her
name in impressive letters on the walls
of publicity. She was crafty, but she
/ had no sense. She was an apostle of
disorder, shrewd vendor of rant and
fustian. She was selfish and vain. She
never went out smashing until she
had fully advised the reporters as to
the time and place. But the liauer
traffic has never been the same since
Carrie Nation took a. Ratchet to it.
The state capital at which Carrie
Nation disembarked for her first wide
operation against the demon rum had
been dry for twenty years. Bpt she
found sixty open saloons operating
without restriction. She led the banc
of cranks, fanatics and zealots speed
lily recruited in her following agains
half a score of them. Her sceutint
party reduced interiors to splinteret
wood and shattered glass. She go
into Jail and into courts. She served
penal sentences and absorbed publi
contumely and judicial rebuke. Sh'
| was a pest, nuisance and bore
She did not stop the sale of liquor
then. But the reverberatiens OF tn
shot she fired jostied the world.
| CO bara,s line to Carrie Natiou
They stole her stuff.
The Democrats, we observe, hav
called in George Creel. We are curl
Gus as to Mr.. Creers function in tn
premises. Have the Democrats, per
; haps, a pair of lace curtains to drap'
or a bit of ribbon to match?
!, Possibly we do Mr.. Greei an fnjus
tice. We haven't seen him for years
; He may have outgrown it. But h
, will always linger in memory as tn
reporter who wore a windsor tie.
Adelaide. who takes Mr.. Harding
fortunes somewhat to heart, has tn
: thought that his publicity bureau rest
too heavily and too frequently upol
the point that the Republican candi
date is a Baptist. 1t is Adelaide
, theory that with public feeling suel
as it is in certain pivotal states. tht
is no time to lay stFesa upon can
didates church connections.
We submit the thought fer VIVA
It is worth without indeFsing it: Blu
: we concede the possibility that's AIDE
laide may be right about it. Sh
often is.
t However. Tom MeNeal, who wa
= reared in iberia, says Mr.. Harding i
Baptist enough, but not enough t
I hurt,
The Stoicism of a Veteran.
Sir-Amateur stuff. Horace Gree
ley once had some of his manuscrip
returned because nobody could read II
He sent it back. saying, Il am paid t
write this, not to read it,
Illustrators are paid for DRAWN
: pictures, not for reading manuscript
My heart was nigh on to broken one
when your neighbor, the s. Z. P