The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
terrified. From that I went to another saloon, until I had destroyed three,
breaking some of the windows in the front of the building. In the last
place, kept by Lewis, there was quite a young man behind the bar. I said
to him: "Young man, come from behind that bar, your mother did
not raise you for such a place." I threw a brick at the mirror, which was
a very heavy one, and it did not break, but the brick fell and broke
everything in its way. I began to look around for something that would
break it. I was standing by a billiard table on which there was one ball.
I said: "Thank God," and picked it up, threw it, and it made a hole in
the mirror. While I was throwing these rocks at the dives in Kiowa,
there was a picture before my eyes of Mr. McKinley, the President, sitting
in an old arm chair and as I threw, the chair would fall to pieces.
The other dive keepers closed up, stood in front of their places and
would not let me come in. By this time, the streets were crowded with
people; most of them seemed to look puzzled. There was one boy about
fifteen years old who seemed perfectly wild with joy, and he jumped,
skipped and yelled with delight. I have since thought of that as being
a significant sign. For to smash saloons will save the boy.
I stood in the middle of the street and spoke in this way: "I have
destroyed three of your places of business, and if I have broken a statute
of Kansas, put me in jail; if I am not a law-breaker your mayor and
councilmen are. You must arrest one of us, for if I am not a criminal,
they are."
One of the councilmen, who was a butcher, said: "Don't you think
we can attend to our business."
"Yes," I said, "You can, but you won't. As Jail Evangelist of Medicine
Lodge, I know you have manufactured many criminals and this
county is burdened down with taxes to prosecute the results of these dives.
Two murders have been committed in the last five years in this county,
one in a dive I have just destroyed. You are a butcher of hogs and cattle,
but they are butchering men, women and children, positively contrary to
the laws of God and man, and the mayor and councilmen are more to
blame than the jointist, and now if I have done wrong in any particular,
arrest me." When I was through with my speech I got in my buggy and
said: "I'll go home."
The marshal held my horse and said: "Not yet; the mayor wishes
to see you."
I drove up where he was, and the man who owned one of the dive-
buildings I had smashed was standing by Dr. Korn, the mayor, and said:
"I want you to pay for the front windows you broke of my building."
I said: "No, you are a partner of the dive-keeper and the statutes
hold your building responsible. The man that rents the building for any
business is no better than the man who carries on the business, and you
are "particepts criminus" or party to the crime." They ran back and
forward to the city attorney several times. At last they came and told
me I could go. As I drove through the streets the reins fell out of my
hands and I, standing up in my buggy; lifted my hands twice, saying:
"Peace on earth, good will to men." This action I know was done
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. "Peace on earth, good will
to men" being the result of the destruction of saloons and the motive for
destroying them.
When I reached Medicine Lodge the town was in quite an excitement,
the news having been telegraphed ahead. I drove through the streets
and told the people I would be at the postoffice corner to tell why I had
done this. A great crowd had gathered and I began to tell them of my
work in the jail here, and the young men's lives that had been ruined,
and the broken hearted mothers, the taxation that had been brought on
the county, and other wrongs of the dives of Kiowa; of how I had been
to the sheriff, Mr. Gano, and the prosecuting attorney, Mr. Griffin; how I
had written to the state's attorney-general Mr. Godard, and I saw there
was a conspiracy with the party in power to violate their oaths, and refuse
to enforce the constitution of Kansas, and I did only what they swore they
would do. I had a letter from a Mr. Long, of Kiowa, saying that Mr.
Griffin, the prosecuting attorney, was taking bribes, and that he and the
sheriff were drinking and gambling in the dives at Kiowa.
This smashing aroused the people of the county to this outrage and
these dive-keepers were arrested, although we did not ask the prosecuting
attorney to get out a warrant, or sheriff to make an arrest. Neither
did we take the case before any justice of the peace in Kiowa or Medicine
Lodge, for they belong to the republican party and would prevent
the prosecution. The cases were taken out in the country several miles
from Kiowa before Moses E. Wright, a Free Methodist and a justice of
the peace of Moore township.
The men were found guilty, and for the first time in the history of
Barber County, all dives were closed. Of course it took two or three
months to accomplish this and not a word was said about suing me for
slander, until after the dives were closed. Then I began to hear that
Sam Griffin was going to sue me for slander, because I said he took bribes.
The papers were served on me, but I was not at all alarmed, for I thought
it would give me an opportunity to bring out the facts of the case. I
knew little about the tricks of lawyers, and the unfair rulings of judges.
I will here speak of the attitude of some of the W. C. T. U. concerning
the smashing. Most of this grand body of grand women endorsed
me from the first. A few weeks after the Kiowa raid, I held a convention
in Medicine Lodge. I got letters from various W. C. T. U. workers
of the state that they would hold my convention for me. I said: "No,
I will hold my own convention."
Up to this time, no one had ever offered to hold my convention,
and I fully understood, although I did not say anything, that the W. C.
T. U. did not want it to go out that they endorsed me in my work at
Kiowa. The state president came to my home the first day of the convention.
I believe this was done, thinking I would ask her to preside at
the meeting, or convention. I was glad to see her and asked her to conduct
a parliamentary drill. She came to me privately and asked me to
state to the convention that the W. C. T. U. knew nothing about the
smashing at Kiowa and was not responsible for this act of mine. I did
so, saying the "honor of smashing the saloons at Kiowa would have to
be ascribed to myself alone, as the W. C. T. U. did not wish any of it. So
far as Sister Hutchinson, who is, and has been the president for some time,
is concerned, I believe her to be a conscientious woman, and whose heart
is in the right place. She and I have been the best of friends and love
each other, and she has often defended me and spoken well of my work.
But I think the W. C. T. U. would be much more effective under her
management, if she had understood that Stanley, the republican governor,
wished to handicap her in her prohibition work when he appointed
her husband as physician in the reformatory at Hutchinson, Kansas. Be
it said to the credit of this christian physician he never used alcohol in
his practice. And perhaps other bearings have prevented her from seeing
that the republican pressure has injured our work more than anything
else in Kansas. Many of the wives of these political wire-pullers
are prominent in the Union. A W. C. T. U. must of necessity be a
prohibitionist, for her pledge is a prohibition pledge, not a temperance
one.
The Free Methodists, although few in number, and considered a church
of but small influence, have been a great power in reform. They were
the abolitionists of negro slavery to a man, and now they are the
abolitionists of the liquor curse to a man. They were also my friends
in this smashing. Father Wright and Bro. Atwood were at the convention
I speak of. Father Wright, who has been an old soldier for the
defence of Truth for many years said to me: "Never mind, Sister Nation,
when they see the way the cat jumps, you will have plenty of friends."
The ministers were also my friends and approved of the smashing. Bro.
McClain, of the Christian church, was at the convention, and he was
trying to apologize for the smashing and defend me at the same time,
he said: "We all make mistakes and crooked paths, and Sister Nation
we all know, tries to do right, and even if she did some crooked things,
all the rest of us do the same thing."
I appreciated his motive, but for the sake of others, I replied: "I
could not see that the term 'crooked' should be used. I rolled up the
rocks as STRAIGHT as I could, I placed them straight in the box, hitched
up my horse straight, drove straight to Kiowa, walked straight in the
saloon, threw straight and broke them up in the straightest manner, drove
home straight and I did not make a crooked step in smashing." This
of course was pleasantry, but it was the way I took to justify myself, as
but few seemed to see the merit or result of this crusade.
I never explained to the people that God told me to do this for some
months, for I tried to shield myself from the almost universal opinion
that I was partially insane.
I will now speak of my persecution for so-called slandering the
prosecuting attorney. As I said, no one mentioned such a thing until
the dives were closed. Closing the joints, called attention to the perjury
of the county officials, for it was proven to be their fault, that we
have dives in Kansas. In order to direct the attention from themselves,
as perjurers, and to me as insane, and to be avenged, they put their heads
together to bring this suit against me. Mr. Griffin was no more to blame
in this matter than the rest of the republicans. A. L. Noble, Polly Tincher,
Edd Sample, and Mr. Herr, the city attorney of Kiowa, were all employed
by Sam Griffin. This practically took all the legal ability, leaving one,
G. A. Martin, whom I retained. I had witnesses enough to prove gambling
and drinking in these dives by Sam, and the sheriff; had sufficient
testimony to justify me in saying what I did. The republican judge of
Kingman, Gillette, ruled out my testimony right through. If my case
had been conducted properly by my lawyer, and proper exceptions taken,
I could have taken the case to the supreme court, and had it reversed on
several rulings. Judge Stevens and Judge Lacey, who were at the trial,
told me they never saw such determination on the part of any judge to
cut out the defense as the rulings of Judge Gillette. It was evident that
everything was cut and dried before going into court. Judge Gillette
had several pages of instructions to the jury, telling them their duty was
to convict and that the damages should be a large sum. I had these
instructions examined by a good lawyer, Mr. Duminel, of Topeka, and the
judge overleaped his perogative. He should have told the jury the facts
and the statute governing slander, but his instructions were an appeal and
command to convict me. This Judge Gillette has a reputation for being
a respected citizen, but his zeal to save from disgrace his republican
colleagues led him to thus persecute a loyal woman Home Defender of
Kansas, and protect the rum defenders, and republican schemers, who
have done more to injure prohibition in Kansas than any other party.
If a democrat wanted to carry on a dive, republicans would grant him
the permit to do so.
The jury brought in a verdict of guilty; but the damages to the character
of this republican county attorney was one dollar, and of course
I sent him the dollar, but the cost which was, including all, about two
hundred dollars was assessed to me and a judgement put on a piece of
property, which I paid off, by the sale of my little hatchets, and lectures.