SMASH LADIES, SMASH
This next turn was not a fighter in the fist-i-cuffs sense of the word, but rather a fighter for moral decency. Her name was Carrie Nation, and she was known across the globe as “the Saloon Smasher.” Her fight was for the abolition of alcohol at a time when alcohol was the ruin of the age. “Smash, Ladies, Smash!” was her Battle cry.
Carrie Nation the Saloon Smasher held a public meeting at the Panopticon in December 1908 to warn Glaswegians of the evils of drink, quite a tall order in Glasgow
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| Carrie Nation |
Standing at nearly 6ft tall and weighing 180Ibs, Carry Amelia Moore Nation, Carrie Nation as she became known, was a lady not to be meddled with.
As a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement, she had been jailed on numerous occasions for entering saloons in the United States New York City Glasgow
Her life had begun on the 25th November 1846 in Gerard County, Kentucky. Her childhood was quite normal and when she left school, Carrie trained to be a teacher. This was not a successful avenue for Carrie who found her temperament constantly being challenged by her pupils, so when she married in 1867, she gave up teaching to become a good wife and hopefully in time a mother too. Her first husband was Dr. Charles Gloyd, a physician and together they had one daughter, Charlene.
Gloyd was an alcoholic and his excessive drinking kept his wife and daughter poor. When Charlene became sick and died in infancy Carrie blamed her husbands excessive drinking. Unable to reconcile her feelings about her husband’s alcoholism, her marriage to Charles was not to last and within a year she had left him.
Ten years later she remarried, this time setting her sights on a man 19 years her senior who was also a well respected pillar of the community; he was David Nation a minister. Under his influence Carrie became a devout woman and through scripture and her dedication to God, her calling became clear, she must lead the war against the vices of tobacco and liquor.
In 1880 the voters of Kansas Kansas Kansas
And so her career as a saloon smasher began.
Soon people from other counties urged Carrie to “Save their towns from saloons”. She promptly obliged using stones and bricks wrapped in newspaper, but before long she purchased herself the small hatchet for which she would become famed. The hatchet became a symbol of her mission and pewter hatchet brooches went on sale, her thousands of supporters bought the brooches to show their support and the resulting income paid Carrie’s numerous jail fines. Between 1900 and 1910 the pious lady was jailed thirty times!
Even Carrie's enemies were compelled to acknowledge that her extraordinary methods had produced definite and concrete results. In less than six months she did more to enforce prohibition laws than had been done by churches and temperance organisations in the years before or since.
Sadly Carrie Nation died penniless on June 9th 1911 at Levenworth , Kansas
As mentioned at the beginning of this piece, Carrie appeared at the Panopticon January 1908. The following was recorded by the press:
“On Saturday week, Mrs Carrie A. Nation, previous to her departure for Aberdeen, visited Mr Pickard's Panopticon, and although the American saloon smasher only made up her mind the day previous to visit the old “Brit” as this establishment has been termed for the last half century, and notwithstanding that the time advertised for the hall to open was 6.30, as early as 4 o’clock crowds began to wend their way to the Trongate. By five o’clock it was necessary for the chief constable to dispatch a brigade of gentlemen in blue, under the command of inspectors and sergeants, in order to regulate the traffic, the Trongate at this hour being a mass of humanity all eager to gain admission as soon as the doors opened.
At six o’clock it was quite evident that the crowds lined up were in excess of the capacity of the hall, but still they came from all directions, adding themselves to the three long queues which already existed.
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| The Britannia Panopticon |
By 6.15 further squadrons were requisitioned from the Central Police Station to regulate the crowd and traffic, for trams had been held up for fully half an hour owing to the dense mass which was so anxious to get in, if it was only to get a glimpse of the notorious Bar Wrecker. At 6.30 Mr Pickard instructed his staff who were in readiness, to pass the waiting crowds through the turnstiles, thus preventing any rush, disorder or panic, and great praise is due to his men for the able, manner in which they handled the crowd. By 6.45 it was necessary to post up “House Full” much to the disappointment of thousands of people who would have liked to gain admission.
At seven o’clock sharp the sacred concert commenced, it wasn’t until eight o’clock that Mrs Nation arrived in Mr Pickard’s motor car, having been detained at the Primitive Methodist Church Scotland
