PRO DAYS I have always accepted the idea that I was old enough to remember the days when we were trying out the idea of a nation prohibiting making and selling of alcoholic beverages. I have always associated that era with the period just after World War I - about 1919 into the mid-l930's
I was unbelieving recently when I read that the State of Kansas went "dry" in 1881. That early? They banned all alcoholic beverages, at the time, the biggest industry in the territory - not yet a state, and I wondered if that action played a part in the plans they had to show merit sufficient to become a star in our national flag. The southeastern section of the state - Crawford and Cherokee Counties, in particular, which is said to have been rich in local traditions, folklore beliefs beyond imagining, and strong "western": values to which they held stubbornly. Writers have called that portion of Kansas "the Little Balkans" and with good reason. They proved to be a fermenting agent in the brewing "Saloon War" of 1880 .
Shooting and stabbing occurred almost nightly when the "drys"and the"wets" were
at odds which was most of the time. We sometimes overlook the fact that this era and this locale had such regular citizenry as that associated with local names such as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short and the James Brothers. The people of that area "worked hard and played even harder" it has been said, and the laws which permitted liquor by the drink were meaningless in the face of the fact that the state prohibition ruling was made by means a of a change in the state constitution.
One of the key personalities in the Kansas "Saloon War" was, however, was not from this list of lusty benders and breakers of the law. The keynote activist was, rather, a woman. The keynote activist was from Garrard County, Kentucky where she was known as a quiet girl - "not too strong" - who spent most of her time reading the Bible. She fell in love with a young doctor named Charles Gloyd and moved to Belton, Missouri. They had one child who was "afflicted" at birth and the mother blamed the flaw on her husband who had become a habitual drunk. He drank himself to death within in the next six months. His widow tried school teaching for a time but without success. She decided the only way to be ahead was to re-marry. She selected a man who was nineteen years her senior. He was a combination lawyer-minister-editor. They moved to Texas and when husband David was named Minister of the Christian Church at Medicine Lodge, Kansas they moved once again.. There, they settled down a bit. She organized the Women's Temperance Union at the church, served as a jail evangelist, taught Sunday School, and started lecturing on the evils of tobacco and strong drink use.
One night she dreamed and heard a strong voice ordering here to "go to Kiwoa!" Obeying the voice, she, the very next day arrived in Kiwoa and physically trashed out her first prosperous saloon - as of June 1, 1900 - and became known nation wide as a Carrie Nation - ax wielder, rock tosser, thrower of bricks gift-wrapped in old newspapers, often an iron rod affixed to her cane and a leader of furious groups of screaming women furious groups of angry women seeking to "Protect Our Homes! She wrecked over thirty saloons and paid her fines by using money which flowed her way from the sale of pewter badges and pins - replicas of her crusading hatchet. Carrie Nation was also a skilled merchandiser and public relation operator because she quickly expanded her protests to include woman's suffrage, prison reform, prostitution, illegal gambling and anything which would enlarge her support base.
So many people think of Carry (Amelia) Nation as a small, rather petite woman; a somewhat subdued little lady. I held that view for many years but I found that she stood a full six feet and threw one hundred eighty ponds or better behind every brick, iron rod, hatchet or ax blow while mocking her opponents as "rum-soaked, whiskey-swilling, Saturn-faced rummies!" and yelling at her helpers: "Smash, ladies, Smash!"
Her rough tactics gained growing sympathy all across the nation.. It is generally said she did more to enforce prohibition than all others combined. She dictated her own epitaph: "She Hath Done What She Could".
A.L.M. February 25, 2005 [c758wds]
