DEATH OF CARRIE NATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 24 June 1911, Page 17

DEATH OF CARRIE NATION.

EEMAKKABLE CAREEB, SALOON-SMASHING ADVOCATE, A cable from Leaveawortu City, Kansas, this week reported the death of Mrs. Carrie Nation, the well-known temperance reformer, whose celebrated saloon-smashing «u----sades caused much sensation in the United States and in. England some years ago.

Mrs. Carrie Nation, whose maiden. Dame was Moore, was born la Kentucky. When still a youug girl on her father's plantation she was in the habit of assembling the slaves in their quarters and delivering a sermon founded upon a test from the Bible; and she continued this practice until she left the plantation to niairy her first husband, Dr. Gloyd. Oα his death she went to live with his mother, whom she supported for many years. During this time the widowed Mrs. Gloyd became noted for her charity; and it is stated that on one occasion she bought a mule to save it from being beaten by its brutal owner.

When her mother-in-law died, Mrs. Gloyd became lire. Nation, and for some time lived quietly with her husband at Medicine Lodge, Kansas. In June, IUOO, she created her tirst sensation by driving to Kiowa, not far from her home, where she smashed the ■windows of three public-houses witli bricks that she had wrapped up in old newspapers. The proprietors of the remaining saloons, when they heard of the presence of the new temperance reformer in their town, made haste to close their doors, whereupon Mrs Nation addressed large crowds from her carriage, and pleaded earnestly for the abolition of the liquor traffic. She concluded by saying that somebody ought to be prosecuted—either herself or the authorities who permitted saloons to be open in defiance of the national health and morals.

From that time Mrs. Nation seldom went out without arming herself with her famous hatchet, and with this She smashed the windows of innumerable public-houses. She underwent twenty-two terms of imprisonment in American gaols, being sentenced no less than seven times at Topeka (Kansas). Her other terms were served at places so far apart as San Francisco, Kansas City, and Pittsburg, not to mention many smaller towns. The "anti-rum campaign" undertaken by Mrs. Carrie Nation naturally called forth many varying opinions throughout the United States; but it is certainly interesting to note that a wave of prohibition swept through the Southern and Western States of the Union after her agitation had been vigorously carried on for some time. So successful, Indeed, was the movement that Mrs. Nation started a temperance organ, the "Hatchet," while she was living at Guthrie, Oklahoma, lad this paper soon had a wide circulation.

Mrs. Nation, who throughout her life displayed all the religious fervour and enthusiasm of the fanatic, always maintained that she bad been commissioned by God to destroy the liquor traffic, and she had no hesitation in availing herself of unusual means for the purpose. It is related that, in the course of a visit to New York, she threatened the ex-prizefighter, Mr. John h. Snlllvan, who was then the proprietor of a flourishing saloon in a busy quarter of the city. Even the bury pugilist felt compelled to retire into a back room until the Irate reformer was persuaded to go away.

In ISO 3 Mrs. Nation created a disturbance at the White House in a vain effort to see President Roosevelt; and in 1908 she paid a visit to England, where she was taken much less seriously than in her own country. When travelling in the London underground trains she frequentl> tbused any passenger who happened to 8e smoking, especially when the offending tobacco was in the form of a cigarette. The London police, however, were firm; and shortly after Mrs. Nation had been fined, after an ineffectual attempt to raise a scene in court, she returned to America. From 1909 onwards her health was not very good, and she had a nervous breakdown.

There can be no doubt that Mrs. Carrie Nation gave a great impetus to the temperance movement in America; bn\; her agitation went so far that it brought about the inevitable reaction, to such an extent, indeed, that illicit distilling Is now rampant throughout the prohibition States.