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Show THE TRAGEDY OF CARRIE NATION BY HER FORMER PRESS AGENT When the newspapers ot June 10 flashed the news that Carrio Nation, the Kansas saloon-smasher, had died at Leavenworth, Kan., the night before a pitying smile went over the country. coun-try. The notlco of her death served . A only to bring back to the minds of the " l public the Carrie ot ten years ago the fiery, fearless, saloon-smashing, journalistic joke, who served to hit the national sense of humor as the nemo of the screamingly ridiculous. And therein lies tho grim tragedy ot tho life of Carrio Nation. Tho pathos of this gray-haired, broken-hearted, " fanatical old woman Is Inseparable from the humor she aroused. Both ; pathos and humor were with her through tho years when sho thundered thunder-ed damnation to saloonlsts nnd wreaked destruction to their places ot business. It was many times more In ovldcnco at her death-bed, when, broken In spirit and mind, sho breathed breath-ed her last with none of thoso with whom nnd for whom sho had fought to sootho her dying hours. Two nieces, a strango hospital surgeon and a head nurse wcro her only attendants. Tho two dominant features ot Carrie Car-rie Nation's character wero diametrically diametri-cally opposed. On tho one side was ' tho crusader, tho leader, the fearless fanatic boldly defying tho world, greedy for money nnd seeking tho best method for getting It; allvo to the value ot advertising nnd quick to grasp tho dramatic and sensational; a grafter of the lowest kind; a miser In her love for gold; a glutton for publicity; a leech; u money-vamplre. On tho other hand was her simple motherly character, as lovable as that ot any woman I have over known. .Sometimes sho would make one wonder won-der how sho could bo tho termagant she was. She rarely referred to her smashing tour, andwhen sho did It was with a quiet little laugh, her gray eyes sparking and her fist clen-, clen-, .m ched as sho would describe how the ' v men would fleo tho saloon by tho rear door when sho entered the front. Tho waste, tho injustice, tho criminal side of her actions, never seemed to enter her head. Many of Carrio Nation's sensational sensation-al deeds wero inspired by her press agents or tho press agonts of tho theatres In which, during a few years, sho worked. Sho was keen, too, In making her contracts. Sho received from 250 to $1,000 a week for lecturing lec-turing at theatres, and always with tho privilege of selling In tho lobby her llttlo gold hatchet pins and the history ot ' her life. This privilege would net her from ?100 to J250 a week extra. Tho first work I did for her was na a press agent for a theatre In Atlanta, Ga. Tho house was putting on sensational plays at popular prices, and Carrio Nation was signed for two twenty-minute lectures each day, for which sho received fG00 for the week with tho usual lobby privileges. Tho houso manager chose "Ten Nights In a Bar Room" and Mrs. Nation's profits pro-fits for tho period amounted to nearly .?1,000. In splto of tho money sho made, sho refused absolutely to stop at a first-class hotel. Sho preferred rather to go to n cheap place, because, she said, sho needed her money more than the hotclkcepers did. Not a single suggestion made by me, with a view to making her stay In Atlanta moro sensational, was rejected re-jected by her. Sho arrived Sunday night and carlyMonday morning began her crusado. There was a big advertisement adver-tisement for clgarottcs in a. drug store window In tho center of the city, in which a man mado up to represent a manikin, with electric wires attached, smoked cigarettes. I suggested that Mrs. Nation pull him out of tho window backwards. Of course thoro was a big crowd In front of the window and the llttlo old woman saw her first chance for a sensation. She marched determinedly determined-ly Into the store, stopped In tho center cen-ter and began a tirade against cigar-otto cigar-otto smoking. Then, when tho storo became crowded with peoplo Bhc went to tho window, opened tho back of It, grasped tho performer Inside- by tho scruff ot tho neck and yanked him to tho floor. Tho manlktn wns so surprised sur-prised that ho became galvlnlzcd Into In-to tho liveliest lay-figure lmaginablo and tho crowd roared. Tho next day tho window was empty, and remained so for the rest of Carrio Nation's stay In Atlanta. j I suggested to her that Governor ! Hoko Smith was an Inveterate smoker. : "Is he? Well, let's go to see him," sho said. "It'll make good newspaper ! talk, won't It?" Wo went to Hoko Smith's office, but that gentleman was too shrewd for Mrs. Nation. Ho recognized her when she opened his door without being announced, an-nounced, and Immediately threw his cigar Into a cuspidor. Mrs. Nation was satisfied to glvo him a mild reprimand, repri-mand, and wo left for more fertllo fields. Down to tho police station the lit-the lit-the woman marched, followed by a crowd, which Jeered and laughed at heir. When wo wont Into tho station tho chief wns seated at his desk Binok-ing Binok-ing a big black cigar. Mrs. Nation went up to him, grasped tho cigar and crushed it In her hand, "Don't you know you are smoking yourself into hell?" she creamed. Then sho lit Into In-to the chief and gavo him tho warmest warm-est ten minutes "he had experienced for somo time. Of courso tho newspapers wero full ot Mrs. Nation's doings, and none could be more pleased at the publicity public-ity Uian she. She would get out on street at 7 o'clock In the morning and work until tho matinee. I asked her onco why she did It. "It's good advertising, adver-tising, son," sho smiled. "It gets the people into the theatre, and wo need tho money." Mrs. Nation cleared nearly $150,000 from her lectures In churches and theatres, Sho would refuse, however, to go to a church If a theatre made her a hotter offer. A minister onco upbraided up-braided her for this, but sho snapped him up with, "When 1 fish, 1 go where tho fishes are." It Is n bitter commentary on her llfo that sho died leaving an estate of only $10,000. All tho money she nindo went to support useless tracts and grafting editors of various so-cal- led prohibition papers. One paper, published in Washington, D. C, nto up thousnnds of dollars of her money. Sho even mortgaged her homo, sho told me, to help keep this pnper going. go-ing. Her cstato consisted of n few houses nnd lots In Shawneo and Guthrie, Guth-rie, Oklahoma, an insurnnco policy and a bank account of $1,000 In Alexandria, Alex-andria, Vn. Her only danghter, Mrs. Charllon A. McNab, received the cstato. cs-tato. Tho Woman's Christian Tompor-anco Tompor-anco Union ot Kansas yiu left Mrs. Nation's autobiography, "Book of My Life." Mrs. Nation died of paresis, brought on by n nervous breakdown from worry over a lawsuit to recover money duo for her lectures. Sho dies as sho had lived after sho found horsclf famous. fam-ous. Sho was obsessed with tho deslro to' got money. I havo always been in doubt whether or not sho wns sincere In her prohibition fight or whether sho Baw In It a method for gnln. Sho wns either n shrewd, unscrupulous business woman, or sho was Insane. 1 nm moro Inclined to believe, from tho 'contradiction sin her character, that sho lost hor mind boforo her first saloon-smashing expedition. It wns Carrio Nation's boast that when sho died tho Lord would raiso up other women to "carry tho nation." Tho pity ot her llfo shows tho futility futil-ity of a hopeless task. When sho died her own Kansas, which sho mado "dry," wns overrun with bootlegger.! and dives. She witnessed tho prohibition prohibi-tion wave surge over the South At hor death sho saw the reaction, nnd that the Southorn States had begun to repent re-pent tho laws which they found Impossible Im-possible to enforce It was theso facts l is said, that went far toward mnk-Ing mnk-Ing her n broken, disappointed old woman during her last years, when any ono could lend hor without resistance. resist-ance. Tho hopelessness ot hor efforts to establish a reform through fanaticism, fanati-cism, tho censeless demands of tho blood-suckers who lived from her earnings, her lonely llfo and her deah without friends to comfort her made tho tragedy In Carrio Nation's life. |