The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
windows up in the cold January weather, and the fire would go down at
night. I had two blankets, no pillow and a bed that the criminals had
slept on for years perhaps. I would shiver with cold, and often would lay
on the cement floor with my head in my hands to keep out of the draught.
Oh! the physical agony! I had something like La Grippe which settled
on my bronchial tubes, from which I have never recovered, and I
expect to feel the effect to my dying day. I had a strong voice for
singing, which I lost, and have never been able to sing, to speak of since.
Hour after hour I would lay on the floor, listening to the ravings of this
poor old man, who would fall on his iron bed and hard floor, cursing and
calling out names. One night I thought I could not live to see day. I
had in my cell sweetest of all companions, my Bible. I read and studied
it, and this particular night I told the Lord he must come to my aid. As I
often do, I opened my Bible at random and read the first place I opened
to, the 144th Psalm. I have often read the book through, but this chapter
seemed entirely new. It reads, Verse 1: "Blessed be the Lord my
strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight. 2. My
goodness and my fortress my high tower and my deliverer; my shield
and He in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me."
God told me in this chapter that He led me to "fight with my fingers
and war with my hands;" that He would be my REFUGE and DELIVERER;
that He would bring the people to me.
David had just such enemies as these when be says in this chapter:
"Cast forth thy lightnings and scatter them; shoot out thine arrows and
destroy them."
7. Send thine hand from above; rid me and deliver me out of great
waters from the hand of strange children.
8. Where mouth speaketh vanity; and where right hand is a right
hand of falsehood.
12. That our sons may be plants grown up in their youth; that our
daughters may be as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a
palace."
Here is the motive: The drink murders our sons, and do not allow
them to grow to be healthy, brave, strong men. The greatest enemy of
woman and her offspring and her virtue is the licensed hellholes or saloons.
13. "That our garners may be full of all manner of store."
Our grain is used to poison; our bread-stuff is turned to the venom
of asps and the bread winner is burdened with disease of drunkeness,
where health should be the result, of raising that which, when rotted and
made into alcohol, perpetrates ruin and death; Our garners or grain
houses are spoiled or robbed.
14. "That there be no breaking in or going out; that there be no
complaining in our street."
What is it causing the breaking into jails, prisons, asylums, penitentiaries,
alms-houses? The going out of the homes, of hearts; going out
into the cold; going into drunkard's graves and a drunkard's hell?
"Complaining in our streets." Oh! the cold and hungry little children!
Oh! the weeping wives and mothers! Oh! the misery and desolation
of the drunkards! All from this drink of sorrow and death.
15. "Happy is that people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that
people whose God is the Lord."
"People whose God is the Lord," will not allow this evil. They will
smash it out in one way or another. This blessed word was a "light to
my feet and a lamp to my pathway." I rejoiced for the comfort it gave
me; for the Lord truly talked to my soul while I read and reread this.
I must say that "Little Dodds," the turnkey as I called him, was often
kind to me, but he was completely the servant of Simmons and his wife.
Once Mr. Dodds asked me if I would leave the jail; that Sam
Amidon would bring a hack to the back door of the jail and he, Mr.
Dodds, and his wife, would go with me to Kansas City.
John, the Dutch trusty, said to me one day: "There is something
in the wind; people are coming and going and talking to Dodds." Mr.
Dodds was supposed to be quarantined in the jail, but he went in and
out of the office and he would also go to his home; the prisoners saw
him from the window time and time again.
It was agony to hear the ravings night and day of the poor old
maniac. He would frequently fall on his iron bed and floor. He was a
large man of about sixty years of age or over. He was helpless; but had
no one to take care of him, but John, the trusty, who for the sake of
mercy, would give him some attention. The sanitary condition of his
cell must have been something horrible, from the smell that came into
my room.
One night the poor lunatic fell so hard on the floor, or bed that he
lay as one dead, for some time. The jailer and others were aroused and
before they dare have a physician come in, they had to scrub and clean
the cell. Then Dr. Jordan came, and the old man was finally brought
to life. This doctor was in the conspiracy to have me adjudged insane;
A woman fifty-five years old, who never broke a statute of Kansas.
Mr. Dodds told me that Sam Amidon would have a cab at the back
door of the jail and would take me out. I consented. John, the Trusty,
said to me, "Don't you leave this jail, there is some plotting going on,
and they mean mischief. I asked him to get me a wire to fasten my door,
which he did, and I wound it around the open places in the door and to
the iron beam it shut on, and then John brought me the leg of a cot.
I watched all night, listening for some one to come in my cell to drag me
out. With the cot leg I was going to strike their hands if they attempted
to open the door. I know what it is to expect murder in my cell. God
said, 'He would stand by me, and who but He, has."
I got so many letters from poor, distracted mothers, who wrote so
often: "For God's sake come here." In some letters there was money.
One letter from a United Brethren church in Winfield, Kansas; the minister,
Bro. Hendershot, wrote me that he took up a collection in their
church for me of $7.38. How I cried over that letter and kissed it! I
knew that I had some friends who understood me; and just after this
letter, one from a Catholic priest came, which was a great comfort. The
many letters I got from all kinds of vice was a great encouragement to
me. I must say: "All hell got hit, when I smashed the saloons." For
I never, until then, knew that people thought, or could write such vile
things; letter after letter, of the most horrible infidelity, cursing God,
calling me every vile name, and threatening me.
I was not allowed a pillow; I begged for one, for I had La Grippe,
and my head was as sore as a boil. Mr. Dodd frequently brought
me the papers, and nearly every time that Wichita Eagle would have some
falsehoods concerning me, always giving out that I "was crazy," "was
in a padded cell," "only a matter of time when I would be in the
insane asylum;" that I used "obscene language" and "was raving." The
bible says: "All liars shall have their part in the lake that burns with
fire;" so the Murdocks of Wichita ought to tremble. I associate the
name "Murdock" with murderer. The real depravity of such people
was shown, when a lone old woman with a love of humanity, was in a
cell suffering so unjustly, that these people should have left nothing
undone to prejudice the people against her. Even when my brother
died, this Murdock paper spoke of me "raving in jail," and I was not
privileged to go to him in his dying hours. Such people drove the nails
in the hands and the spear in the side of Jesus.
This Wichita Eagle is the rum-bought sheet that has made Wichita
one of the most lawless places in Kansas.
When first arrested in Wichita, in violation of the Constitution, I
was denied bail and compelled to bring a Habeas corpus proceeding in
the Supreme Court to get a trial or bail. Sam Amidon as attorney
for Simmons proposed a return to the writ, and filed a false certificate
from Dr. Shults, president of the Board of Health, stating that Board had
quarantined the jail. Rather than face the Supreme Court with a false
return the case was dismissed. I do not believe that history ever recorded
a quarantine of a jail before, for public buildings, such as post
office, court houses or jails cannot be made pest houses, and such buildings
are cleansed. There was not a meeting of the Health Board. This
was a conspiracy, signed by Dr. Shults and the sheriff, for the purpose
of keeping me in jail, preventing me from seeing my friends or lawyers,
and by persecution to get me in an insane asylum. Below is a copy of this
fraudulent notice:
ORIGINAL NOTICE TO O. D. KIRK, JUDGE, WARDEN EBEY,
CLERK, CHAS. W. SIMMONS, SHERIFF. SERVED
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1901.
To O. D. Kirk, Judge, Harden Ebey, Clerk, and Charles W. Simmons,
Sheriff:
You, and each of you, are hereby notified that the following is a
copy of a paper purporting to be a statement made by J. W. Shults,
President of the Board of Health, of Wichita, Kansas, and attached to
the return of Charles W. Simmons in the The Matter of the Application
of CARRIE NATION for a Writ of Habeas Corpus now pending in
The Supreme Court of the State of Kansas, viz:
"Wichita, Kansas, December 29, 1900.
"At special meeting of the Board of Health, held in the City of
Wichita, Kansas, on the 29th day of December, 1900, at the office of Dr.
J. W. Shults, President of the Board of Health, the following resolution
was adopted and ordered spread upon the minutes kept by the said
board. 'Whereas it has come to the knowledge of the Board of Health
that the inhabitants of the jail of Sedgwick County, Kansas, have been
exposed to small pox and that one Isaiah Cooper confined therein has been
exposed to smallpox and is infected with said disease and that the said
Isaiah Cooper is a violently insane man and it is impossible to move him
from said jail and that all of the said jail have been exposed to the same
and that one W. A. Jordan, who is County Physician of Sedgwick County
and City Physician of the City of Wichita, Kansas, asked and desired
and demanded that said jail be quarantined or that said Isaiah Cooper
be removed therefrom and that said jail be fumigated, and whereas it is
impossible to remove the said Isaiah Cooper therefrom, the action of
said W. A. Jordan in recommending the quarantine of the said county
jail and in quarantining the same is hereby approved and the said
county jail is hereby declared quarantined and ordered quarantined for
the space of twenty-one days from this date and all persons in charge of
said jail and the health officer of said city are hereby directed to enforce
this said quarantine and the order of the said W. A. Jordan.
J. W. SHULTS, M. D.
President of Board of Health."
and that the above statement is not true; that there was no meeting of
the Board of Health on the 29th day of December, 1900 and that the
said jail has never been quarantined by the said board of health on the
said 29th day of December or at any other time.
Dated at Wichita, Kansas, January 14, 1901.
W. S. ALLEN,
RAY & KEITH,
ROBT. BROWN,
Attorneys for Carrie Nation, an Inmate of said Jail.
Served on O. B. Kirk, 9:20 a. m., Tuesday, January 15, 1901.
Harden Ebey, 9:20 a. m., Tuesday, January 15, 1901.
Chas. W. Simmons, 9:35 a. m., Tuesday, January 15, 1901.
I could tell of many interesting incidents in jail.
There were five singers, one a graduate of the conservatory of music
in Boston, and Mr. Dodd was a fine singer himself; he would often sing
with the prisoners and it was a great pleasure to me. One song he
would have the boys sing was: "My Old Kentucky Home." We had a