The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
to swear to, and the man signed it, for he could just write his name.
This man was in Oklahoma at the time, My neighbors came of their
own accord and testified to my having done my cooking and housework;
frequently cooking meals and taking them to Mr. Nation, who was still
in bed. Judge Gillette, the same man who was on the bench in my
slander suit presided. Mr. Nation did not get his divorce because of my
"extreme cruelty," but because I testified that I could not, nor would
never live with him as a wife. I could not. I was very much grieved to
bear this reproach, of a divorced wife. I made my home during the trial
with my dear friend, Mrs. Judge Howe, who is still living, and she knows
how bitter this was to me.
The home was given me, and the divorce and a small piece of property
in Medicine Lodge to Mr. Nation. I shortly after sold this home for
$800. It was part of the payment for "Home for Drunkards' Wives" in
Kansas City. It was as I expected, a means used by my enemies to hinder
me in my work. I was blamed for the divorce. It was said, "I broke up
a home." That if I was in a good work I would not do these things.
And while delivering my lectures, it was often called out; "Why don't
you go back to your husband? No wonder he got a divorce from
you," and all such sayings. But I learned to expect and was prepared for
such treatment.
We hear, "A woman's place is at home." That is true, but what and
where is home. Not the walls of a house. Not furniture, food or clothes.
Home is where the heart is, where our loved ones are. If my son is
in a drinking place, my place is there. If my daughter, or the daughter
of any one else, my family or any other family is in trouble, my place
is there. That woman would be selfish or cowardly who would refuse
to leave her home to relieve suffering or trouble. Jesus said, "Go out
into the highways and hedges." He said this to women, as well as men.
If the women of Galilee had not left their homes they would not have
followed Jesus. If Phoebe had not left her home, she would not have
gone on the business of the church to Jerusalem. We would have no
woman missionaries--Women now, are forced to go out to save the
homes.
D. L. Moody once said, and which I hardly understood at the time:
"When a wife knew that the man that should be her husband was unfaithful
and corrupt, she was as bad as he if she lived with him." I have thought
much of the meaning of husband. He is one who is a man who provides
and cares for his family, as much as it is in his power to do, but when
he refuses and will not do this, he breaks his marriage vow and becomes
his wife's enemy. A husband is not an enemy. This will place many
women in the roll of living with men who are not their husbands, and
this is so. I do not favor divorce, but it is better to separate, than bring
up children of drunkards or licentious fathers. There is nothing which
is making so much enmity between the sexes as intoxicating drink. This
is the cause of so many divorces. Men who go into saloons generally
visit houses of prostitution. The women they meet there have been
deceived and lost their self respect, become discouraged because men have
made them their victims through treachery and in turn these women
revenge themselves by taking all means to drag these men down. Prostitutes
do not like men; they often hate them. The man who goes there
generally loses respect for the virtues of women, and from associating
with bad women they judge other women to be vile. These men hate
the very women they go to see. Married men who drink are bad husbands,
for they deceive their wives, who soon find it out; and the husbands
and wives cannot be happy. A woman leaves all others for one
man and she wishes his society. In the evening the clubs and drinking
places take up men's time when their families should have it. These
things destroy love and confidence between husbands and wives. 'Tis
not all men's fault, for there are some drinking women.
A man came to me just before I went on the stage at Newport, and
said: "Carry Nation, step aside here, I must speak to you. I am in so
much trouble. Give me some advice. My wife is at home drunk; she
is that way most of the time. We have six children and they feel disgraced.
What can I do? I am almost wild."
I asked: "Did you ever drink with your wife?"
He looked confused. I said: "Women do not usually go to saloons
but you men bring it home and use it on the table and women are just
as apt to catch the disease of alcoholism as men. This may be the way
your wife learned to be a drunkard. Wives have been nursing their
drunken husbands for years; now the chickens have come home to roost,
and you are nursing your drunken wives."
Poor man! He, indeed, seemed distracted; and he is not alone,
there are hundreds of cases.
I met a lovely creature on the train, who had been married a few
months. Her husband was a lumber merchant in Chicago. She sat by
me and told me her sad story. She had been a poor girl and dearly loved
a man whose mother opposed the match and prevented the marriage.
The young lumber merchant, left rich by the death of his father, proposed
and she married him. In a month, the mother of the man she
loved first, died and the obstacle was removed. In telling me this story
I smelled liquor on her breath. She would say a few sentences and then
say: "Oh, Carry Nation I am so miserable! If Charlie would only be
true to me I would not grieve for the man I love, but Charlie drinks
and he goes with other women, and leaves me alone. He gives me all the
money I want. I have everything that money can buy; but, Oh! I
almost hate these things! I had rather have a hut with someone to love
me." She kept talking this way until it was enough to break my heart.
She said: "Charlie will be in from the smoking car, and please Mrs.
Nation speak to him. I want to be a good wife and I will do all I can
to make him a good man. But he laughs at me when I talk to him, he
never takes me in earnest. Go speak to him."
So I did. I found him to be a young man about twenty-three, with
the marks of dissipation on his face. I said: "I have something to say to
you privately. You have a beautiful young wife. If you wish to make
her happy you can do so. There is one thing that will ruin the happiness
of both. That is intoxicating drink. Did you know your wife is under
the influence of some drug?" He said: "Oh, don't say a word to her
about that, I am the cause of it. I drink and have persuaded her to,
because she has a right to do what I do."
I told him of the fatal results and asked him to quit or it would be
the ruin of both. Here were these two on the brink of ruin, so young,
so attractive. I never shall forget the pathos of that woman's story.
The yearning of that heart for love. Of course in her unhappiness she
would turn to the benumbing fascination of the poisonous drug.
On every hand I see the desolation of homes and hearts. There are
no five things that make so much enmity between the sexes as this one--
the licensed saloon. The home life is destroyed. Men and boys are taken
from home at the very time they ought to be there, after their work is
done. Families should gather in the evening to enjoy each other's society.
It is said that Germans are the cruelest husbands on earth. Their beer
gardens have taken the place of firesides. There are more insane and
suicides in Germany than any nation on earth. Alcoholism is a disease.
Men go to the Keeley cure and take different treatments to get cured.
This disease is killing more every year than the deadliest epidemic, and
still not one of the senators or representatives will discuss this. Roosevelt
toured this country moralizing on different questions. The nearest
he ever touched on the subject was "race suicide;" but he did not wish
to intimate that drinking intoxicating liquors was the cause. He wished
to reproach women for not raising larger families. What protection has
a mother if she does? She has to produce the grist to make these murder-mills
grind, and I for one, say to women, refuse to be mothers, if the
government will not close these murder-shops that are preying on our
hearts, for our darling sons are dearer to us than life.
If I had a family to raise and had to live in a city, I know of no place
as desirable as Topeka. I was once lecturing in Lincoln, Neb., and made
this remark. A wife said to her husband, "Let us take our boy and go
to Topeka." So they came. The husband was D. L. Whitney, manager
of the Oxygenor Company, and both he and his wife have been a great
help to me. I say to fathers and mothers, move to Kansas, where your
sons are taught that it takes a SNEAK to sell, and a SNEAK to drink,
intoxicating liquors in that state.
I was arrested in Topeka for going into the dives. The officials
were determined to keep them open, and the police arrested me for even
going in. They did not arrest the keepers. I was thrown out and called
names by the proprietors, in the hearing of the police, still they were let
go. This was during the time that Parker was mayor.
The voting citizens of Kansas will soon find out that no one
but prohibition officers can be trusted to enforce prohibition statutes. I
am glad at the present writing there is said to be not a dive in the beautiful
city of Topeka, and that she has passed the Rubicon. God grant
that no more criminal dens be opened by Republicans, Democrats or any
other Anarchists.
I was arrested in Wheeling, West Virginia, winter of 1902, for going
in a saloon and telling the man he was in a business that would send him
to hell as well as others. The facts are that the police never knew what
I was going to do and they were so frightened and rattled that they of
course thought they would arrest me to prevent trouble. I have been a
terror to evil doers. I was in jail there two nights. No pillow. The
bed bugs bad. Col. Arnett, my lawyer, said I had a good case of malicious
prosecution. I have begun several suits but the "laws delay" and
the condition of dishonest courts has prevented me. I desire to compel
Murat Halstead to be shown as he is, a liar, almost equal to the "Murdocks
of Wichita."
I was arrested in Bayonne, N. J., the summer of 1903, because I was
talking to a poor drunkard. A policeman came up and ordered me to
"walk on". I said: "I have a right to speak to any one on the street."
He said: "I will arrest you if you do not move on." I said: "You do
not wish this poor man to have one warning word to keep him out of
a drunkards hell." He arrested me, took me to the police headquarters,
where I was sentenced for disturbing the peace. I was put in a cell with
a hard board, no cover. There were only two other prisoners, both put
there for getting drunk. The partition door was by accident left unlocked
and I heard someone creeping, looked up and there was one of the poor
creatures in my cell. I called loudly. He ran back. The turnkey came
and fastened the door. All night through I was handing water to these
poor creatures. The bed bugs were thick and kept me quite busy knocking
them out of my face. I lay on the plank but could not sleep a wink.
Next morning I was called in court. That police officer in order to make
it a case of disturbing the peace said there were one hundred and fifty
people around. There was but five and I so testified. I never have seen
such false swearing as there is with the police. I got a fine of ten dollars.
Of course this judge was a republican.
Here is a list of the times and places I have been in jail:
In Wichita three times. Sentenced December, 1900, thirty days; January
21st, 1901, twenty-one days and January 22nd two days.
Topeka seven times; once thirty days; twice each eighteen days; then
twelve days; fifteen days, seven days and three days.