Carrie Nation at the Britannia Panopticon: Smash Ladies, Smash!

As part of the conference, we are organising a visit to the Britannia Panopticon Musichall on the afternoon of Sunday 12th December (for more information see here). As part of the visit, onsite curator Judith Bowers will be giving an introductory talk about the Panopticon and its history. Judith has kindly given permission for us to reproduce part of her book Stan Laurel and Other Stars of the Panopticon (available here) on this blog. It tells of a colourful incident in the Panopticon's past involving the famous temperance campaigner, Carrie Nation:

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! Underneath Britannia’s Balcony floor we have uncovered blank temperance pledges dropped by members of the audience which we believe are remnants of her 1908 visit.

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 and smashing all the bottles of alcohol with a hatchet! No-one stood in her way, even the prize fighter John L. Sullivan was reported to have run and hid when Nation burst into his New York City saloon. In 1908 - 09 she extended her crusade to Europe, Glasgow being at the top of her hit list!

     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 adopted a constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture of intoxicating beverages, except for medicinal purposes. Kansas saloon keepers, however, did not adhere to the law and neither did the majority of the male population. Carrie asked God to use her to save Kansas and God told her to “Go to Kiowa” which she did and there she smashed her first saloon on June 1st 1900.

       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 where she is buried beside her mother. Her epitaph reads; “She Hath Done What She Could”

     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.

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, Alexandria Parade where she had been lecturing that evening. Her arrival was signalled by cheers and hooting from the crowds outside, and some difficulty was experienced as the police tried to keep the crowds back, while the motor car was run up to the side entrance of the Panopticon. A few minutes later the sprightly old lady was on the platform, and here another ovation was in store for her. Carry bowed her acknowledgements and with a smile upon her face and a bible in her hand she addressed the crowded meeting, explaining how she started her crusade against drink, how she smashed the saloons in the States with her hatchet, and what induced her to visit her cousins on this side of the ’Herrin’ pond’. She described her experience in Scotland, where she had seen women and children half clad and foodless, which were the results of that hellish curse drink. At the conclusion of her lecture she thanked Mr Pickard and the audience for the cordial welcome she had received, and hoped she might be spared a visit to the old “Brit” again shortly. She left the mass outside, as she journeyed along to her hotel. We hear on good authority from some of the oldest inhabitants of the Trongate that this was the largest gathering ever witnessed in this part of the city.”