Кэрри Нейшон: биография женщины, разрушавшей бары топором ради борьбы с алкоголем

Carrie Nation was a temperance advocate famous for being so vehemently against alcohol that she would use hatchets to smash any place that sold it. She spent most of her life in Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri, but she lived in Arkansas for several years near the end of her life; her last public speech was in Eureka Springs. Her house in Eureka Springs was made into a museum called Hatchet Hall for a time, then turned back into a private residence. Carrie Moore, whose name is also spelled Carry, was born Nov. 25, 1846, in Garrard County, Ky., to George and Mary Moore. Young Carrie grew up under the care of her father's slaves. At the start of the Civil War, the family moved to Texas, stopping near the Pea Ridge battlefield in Benton County on the way. Carrie was sickly at the time. The young adult Carrie married a doctor, Charles Gloyd, on Nov. 21, 1867. Her parents did not approve of the marriage because Gloyd was an alcoholic. Their marriage was unhappy, especially since their only child, Charlien, had a mental disability, which Carrie believed was caused by her husband's drinking. She left him, and he died only months later. Her second husband was David Nation. Their marriage was not happy, either; they argued about religion, and he was eventually asked to resign as preacher of his church because his wife stirred up trouble. In 1877, the Nation family moved to Texas, although Carrie did not want to go. The couple divorced in 1901, having had no children. During this time, Carrie Nation had already been speaking against tobacco and alcohol. She especially disliked alcohol, most likely because of her experience with her first husband. She referred to alcohol as "evil spirits." On one occasion, at a store owned by a man known as O.L. Day, she rolled a keg of whiskey onto the street, opened it with a hatchet and set it on fire. She would go into any place that sold any kind of alcohol, even for medical purposes, and get rid of it. She broke windows and mirrors, and destroyed kegs of beer and whiskey with her hatchets. Nation was arrested many times in several states, including Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. She spent time in the Little Rock jail, and she was arrested in Hot Springs in winter of 1907. She was released when she made a deal with the mayor to speak at the opening of a new subdivision, for which he paid her $50. She made an additional $60 selling souvenir hatchets. In Little Rock in 1906, she took a tour of 26 saloons and bars. Some people followed her on her travels across the country and helped her smash these establishments. Nation's daughter, Charlien, was committed to the Texas State Lunatic Asylum in 1905. Nation tried to move her to Austin, Texas, and then to Oklahoma, but she finally brought her to Hot Springs, where Charlien stayed only a few years. When Nation wrote her autobiography, "The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation," at age 60, she was living in Oklahoma, and she wrote that she planned to stay there. However, she bought her home in Eureka Springs not long afterward. She wanted a quiet place to live and said Arkansas reminded her of Scotland, where she had recently traveled. In the time she lived in Eureka Springs, the house was both a boarding house and a school. She did most of the cooking herself and provided religious instruction for her boarders. The school was founded in 1910 and was called National College, although it did not offer classes at a college level. Nation's final speech was in Eureka Springs on Jan. 13, 1911. She had recently experienced health problems, but the speech had been going well. Suddenly, she stopped and gasped out, "I have done what I could," and then lapsed into a coma. She was taken to Evergreen Place Hospital in Kansas, where she remained in poor condition until her death on June 9, 1911. Doctors said the cause of death was paresis. She was buried in Belton, Mo. Her grave was unmarked for many years until the Woman's Christian Temperance Union erected a gravestone with her name and the quote: "Faithful to the Cause, She Hath Done What She Could." A fountain was built in Nation's honor in Wichita, Kan., not far from one of her first acts against alcohol. Ironically, the fountain was destroyed only a few years later when the driver of a beer truck lost control and ran into it. -- Anastasia Teske This story is taken from the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas, a project of the Central Arkansas Library System. Visit the site at encyclopediaofarkansas.net. You're one step away from the full story. Log in or create an account to continue reading.