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January 10, 1910

SOCIETY'S AIM TO

UPLIFT PRISONERS.

National Organization to Be

Formed During Present

Convention.

To make good folks out of bad ones is the object of a convention of men and women representing eight states, which began in Kansas City yesterday and will continue until Wednesday.

The meeting is that of the Society of the Friendless, which has for its purpose the uplifting of men, women and children within prison walls and their conversion tion good citizens when they are released. The society was started ten years ago in Kansas and Missouri, but at the present convention a national organization will be perfected.

The opening meeting of the convention was held yesterday in the Institutional church, Admiral boulevard and Holmes street, and the feature was an address by Fred M. Jackson, attorney general of Kansas, who declared that in enforcing prohibition of the liquor traffic Kansas is doing more than probably any other state in the prevention of crime. Other speakers of the afternoon were Henry M. Beardsley of Kansas City and Dr. A. J. Steelman of Seattle, superintendent of the Washington branch of the society.

J. K. Codding, warden of the Kansas state prison at Lansing, was to have spoken, but was unable to attend the meeting yesterday because of injuries received several days ago. He expects to be present at the session today.

Mr. Jackson was assigned the topic of law enforcement as a preventive of crime. He said, in part:

"In Kansas it is figured that one-fifth of the men in prison are there by accident or thorugh the miscarriage of justice, another fifth is a criminal class andd the remaining 60 per cent are men who may either be saved or become criminals.

"We proceed in Kansas the best way to save this 60 per cent, and that is to enforce the law against the organized liquor traffic. The greter per cent of men in prison go there because of the liquor traffic and the state claims the right to oust any business which contributes so largely to the public expense and to public detriment.

"Some people ask why w do not have a local option law or some other measure than prohibition. When you grant licenses in one part of the state, you bot those who do not want liquor as an element of government. When we have prohibition it should be enforced. The state demands it and I do not claim the least bit of credit for my part in enforcing it. An officer who merely does his duty doens't deserve any credit.

"There result where the law ha been enforced is that society and the man have been repaid. Business men realize the poverty which liquor causes and are against it. What is a saloonkeeper? He is a man who wants to share the responsiblilty of government, who helps run the police power, whose consent is necessary to levy taxes and disburse them. By putting him out of the way, more than half hte counties of Kansas have dispensed with their poor houses and in other counties these institutions are but poorly populated.

HAS PAID KANSAS.

"We have decreased crime and criminals. Has it paid Kansas? The results speak for themselves."

Dr. Steelman, who talked on the reformatory side of the prison, told of the wonderful progress made in the treatment of prisoners and of modern methods for making them good citizens after their release. The first step in the movement, he said, was saving the services of the prisoners to the state and this was succeeded by the idea of saving the men themselves. Dr. Steelman was formerly warden of the Joliet (Ill.) penitentiary.

Mr. Beardsley devoted his talk to outlining the purposes of the society. He said the work of the society is both preventive and to help the fallen.

"Criminals," said Mr. Beardsley, "ought to be on the credit instead of the debit side of the state's accounts. A small amount invested in reclaiming these men brings big returns to the state."

Mr. Beardsley said the work of the society has been costing about $12,000 a year, but that this year $15,000 will be required.

Warden Codding of Lansing, in a telegram to the society, expressed regret at his inability to be present and conveyed his good wishes.

The Rev. E. A. Fredenhagen of Kansas City, corresponding secretary of the society, presided at the meeting yesterday.

Labels: Admiral boulevard, alcohol, conventions, Holmes street, jail, Mayor Beardsley, ministers, organizations, penitentiary, prohibition, visitors

September 30, 1909

CARRIE INVENTS AIRSHIP.

Mrs. Nation Declares She has Aero-

plane at Sterling, Kas.

An aeroplane is said to be housed in an airdome at Sterling, Kas., and will soon be given a trail flight. The inventor is Carrie Nation of hatchet fame. The temperance lecturer was at the Union depot yesterday morning and amused a large gathering in the depot with a description of the machine. The police finally had to disperse the crowd so that passengers could pass back and forth in the station.

Labels: airships, prohibition, Union depot, visitors

July 29, 1909

PROHIBITION VOTE PROBABLE.

But When, in Missouri, Gov. Hadley

Doesn't Know.

"The question of state-wide prohibition probably will be submitted to the voters of Missouri," said Governor Herbert S. Hadley at the Union depot last evening. "Whether or not it will carry I am not prepared to say. It is also a question with the prohibition forces as to whether this is an opportune time.

"My understanding is that the members of the anti-saloon league do not favor the submission of a state-wide prohibition at this time because of the fear that it might be defeated. They are in favor of a slower, and they think surer ways of eliminating the saloons and the liquor traffic."

Governor Hadley was apprised Wednesday of the inquiry made by the prohibition chairman Charles E. Stokes of Kansas City, as to the number of petitioners necessary to secure a call for a special election under the initiative and referendum.

Governor Hadley said last evening that the law under which it is proposed to hold this election is the one which was held up in the house, and which he personally insisted should be passed by legislature.

Governor Hadley believes, however, that if the question is submitted, that the anti-saloon league people will join forces with the state-wide prohibition people.

Labels: alcohol, Herbert Hadley, prohibition, Union depot

June 29, 1909

ON A HUNT FOR WHISKEY.

Mrs. Myra McHenry Would Down

Traffic With a Pen.

Mrs. Myra McHenry, co-worker and one-time associate of Carrie Nation, was here yesterday. Mrs. McHenry is going to Lexington, Mo., where she will visit her sister, Mrs. Thomas Young, and incidentally take a whack at anything that looks as if it needed whacking.

"I am on a hunt for whisky," she said. "There is no more of it in Wichita, and I must find other fields. Mrs. Nation and myself, while we strive to attain the same ends, are not alike. She is a 'hatchet smasher' and I smash with the pen.

Mrs. McHenry has been in jail thirty-three times.

Labels: Lexington, prohibition, visitors, Wichita

June 7, 1909

PLANS ALCOHOL RUB

WITH BEER PLUNGE.

FRANK JONES'S SCHEME TO

OUTWIT PROHIBITION.

Suggestion Comes After Visit to

Topeka, Where Turkish Bath Es-

tablishments Have Monopoly

in Alcohol Business.

"During my recent visit to Topeka," said Frank Jones, formerly of Caldwell, Sumner county, Kas., "I believe I discovered a serious flaw in the prohibition law. While the lid, to all intents and purposes, is squeezed on thoroughly tight, I was informed that the leading Turkish bath establishments at the capital are still advertising alcohol rubs.

"Now alcohol is alcohol and whether you drink it or have it put into you by rubbing it through the pores seems to me to be a distinction without a material difference.

"Of course, I never heard of an alcohol rub making anyone intoxicated. Still the flaw in the prohibition law is there and why cannot the Turkish bath men take advantage of the law and elaborate on their programme?

"The unlimited advertising that Topeka would receive, were the plans which I have in mind, put into execution, almost takes me to the first train for that town with a view to buying up all the real estate on Kansas avenue. The plan? I knew you would be getting your oar in when I began to talk real estate.

WHY LIMIT TO ALCOHOL?

"The scheme is simple enough. If alcohol rubs are allowed, mark you, rubs, why limit the rubbing to alcohol? By that same rule could the Turkish bath man not rub a man with German cologne, Holland gin or corn whisky? You would be rubbing it in, wouldn't you? Of course you would.

"I hatched this beautiful plan while we were leaving Topeka, bound for Kansas City. The conductor told me that the train was running at the rate of 65 miles an hour and I told him that if the engineer was as dry as I was he'd be running 100 miles an hour. At the present stage of the game one can not leave Topeka too rapidly.

"If the suggestion is adopted the Turkish bath managers will immediately rearrange their establishments and inaugurate an entirely new procedure. There will be the bath, naturally. We have to have the bath. That misnomer will have to stick. Very few men who buy a Turkish bath anywhere need a bath. They need a rest.

"After the bath the big show begins. The attendant simply asks his customer what sort of a rub he wants. By that he will mean rye or bourbon.

THEN THE BEER PLUNGE.

"Following the rye or bourbon rub the victim, I should say the bathee, will be led to the champagne shower bath and from there to the beer plunge. Then from the beer plunge the happy man is taken to the cooling room de luxe, in other words, the cold storage.

"Under these new regulations the Turkish bath house will be an institution of many parts. The prescription that I have just written is intended for men of means. There is nothing in the law which says what shall be in the tub. Therefore, the patron of the modern Topeka Turkish bath can purchase a plain ticket, entitling him to one Old Crow tub bath. If he wants to go a little stronger he can order an extra in the form of a gin fizz spray.

The piece de resistance of the entire joy rule is the beer plunge. Therein would lie competition in the Topeka Turkish baths. It would be a seductive bait for the breweries. The agents will simply be falling over themselves in an effort to get the respective establishments to use their beer in the plunge.

MEN WOULD NEED MUZZLES.

"Furthermore, the bath men will become active. In my mind's eye I see Kansas avenue lined with Turkish bath establishments and such alluring electric signs as:

" 'This house changes the beer in its plunge daily.'

" 'An innovation for Topeka: The only Turkish bath plunge in the world using daily in its immense plunge imported beer.'

" 'The beer in our plunge changed daily and guaranteed under the pure food and drug law, etc.'

"What do you think? Isn't she a whopper?"

"I was thinking this," was the reply. "I used to live in Topeka. Do you know what would happen if this Utopian Turkish bath scheme of yours should be put into effect?"

"Haven't the remotest idea," said Mr. Jones. "Appears to be a grand scheme."

"Well, the Topeka city council would hold an extraordinary session and pass an ordinance requiring every man in the town to wear a muzzle."

Labels: alcohol, bath house, prohibition, Topeka, visitors

January 19, 1909

MONSTER CHOIR WILL SING.

2,000 Voices Training for the Com-

ing Gypsy Smith Revival.

The largest chorus ever heard in Kansas City, except the one which sang for Eva Booth here two years ago, had a rehearsal last night at the Central Methodist Episcopal church, South, at Eleventh street and the Paseo.

A thousand voices sang "Onward Christian Soldiers," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and other patriotic and devotional songs. The rehearsal last night was the third and last that will be held before the district local option meeting that will be held in Convention hall next Sunday at 3 p. m.

The chorus was organized for the purpose of singing at the two weeks' revival meeting to be held in Convention hall beginning February 13.

Professor Crosby Hopps, well known as a leader of choruses, will lead the monster choir. Four thousand dollars has been subscribed from various churches to defray the expenses of the singing. Members will get reserved seats in the hall at the Gyspy Smith meetings.

Labels: churches, Convention Hall, Eleventh street, music, Paseo, prohibition

September 22, 1908

PROHIBITION'S OPENING GUN.

Eugene W. Chafin, Candidate for

President, Will Open Campaign.

The opening gun of the Prohibition party's campaign in Jackson county and Missouri will be fired at the New Casino hall, 1021 Broadway, tomorrow night. Eugene W. Chafin, Prohibition candidate for president, will be here then to deliver one of his campaign speeches on "The Platform of the Prohibition Party."

Mr. Chafin is returning to the East from a tour of the Pacific coast states and the Northwest, where he has been campaigning. Ex-Governor John P. St. John of Kansas and Dr. C. B. Spencer, editor of the Christian Advocate, will preside at the meeting.

Labels: Broadway, politics, prohibition

August 28, 1908

LEE'S SUMMIT TO HAVE SALOON.

Contestants Over License Fight in

Presence of County Court.

There was almost a fight in the county court room yesterday afternoon when W. H. Carr, who represented the protestors in a Lee's Summit license case, struck, Ernest Bennett, who appeared for the applicants. Carr landed a light blow on the face after a lie had been passed, but the men were at once separated. The application for a saloon license was made by S. L. Coley, who had been at once enjoined by protestors. The court granted the license, on a showing there were 239 signatures for the petitioner and 207 for the protestants.

Labels: county court, courtroom, prohibition, saloon, violence

April 20, 1908

BOWDEN WILL STOP

THE 'BOOZE' JOINTS.

CHIEF IS DETERMINED TO DRIVE

THEM OUT OF BUSINESS.

Three Arrests Were Made Yesterday,

and the News Caused Other

Blind Tiger Operators

to Close.

The police of Kansas City, Kas., are prosecuting the crusade against the keepers of "blind tigers," and individual "drunks" vigorously. Between midnight Saturday night and sunup yesterday morning three "blind tigers" were raided, in which the alleged proprietors and eleven patrons were taken into custody and locked up at No. 3 police station. In addition to the arrests made in these raids twenty-six individuals were arrested and locked up at the different police stations on the charge of drunkenness. All of these offenders will be arraigned before Judge J. T. Sims in police court this morning, an it is more than probable that the court will follow out the administration's policy in its efforts to rid the city of this particular class of lawbreakers.

"I propose to make it my personal duty to see to the elimination of all 'blind tigers,' petit gambling games, and the like, which now infest the city," said Chief of Police Bowden last night. "I was out until 1 o'clock yesterday morning with a squad of patrolmen in plain clothes, and I propose to keep the good work up until the town is cleaned up of this class of offenders. Police Judge Sims is tendering material assistance to the department in showing those convicted but little mercy, and we hope to put a stop to the illegal sale of 'booze' on the Kansas side of the state line."

The chief says he will work every night for an indefinite length of time with the plain clothes squad, and visit every section of the city. In the raids made early yesterday morning, Jim Pullum was arrested in his place of business, across Kansas avenue from the Swift Packing Company's plant. Seven male frequenters and two women were taken into custody, the men being taken to jail and the women allowed to go home. Nealie Butler, who conducts a restaurant near Kansas and Packard, was taken in tow along with four frequenters.

The raids of Saturday night and early yesterday morning were noised around the city yesterday, and many of the proprietors of "blind tigers" closed. The crusade, however, is being kept up, so the chief states, and those who shut their doors yesterday figuring that the closing would only be a temporary move, may expect trouble the minute they resume business.

Labels: alcohol, Kansas City Kas, Police Chief Bowden, prohibition, restaurants

April 16, 1908

OLD SOLDIERS WANT

CANTEEN RESTORED.

"PROHIBITION IN THIS CASE A

SERIOUS EVIL."

So Declares Colonel Hunt of the Leav-

enworth Home -- Disreputable

Dives Now Get the

Old Men's Money.

Old soldiers are alarmed over talk in Washington of another anti-canteen rider going on the appropriation bill for the homes. The last time an appropriation was made for the homes Congressman Bowersock of Kansas, since retired, managed to tack onto the bill a provision that no liquor be sold on the grounds of homes. In this condition the bill went through, affecting every home in the United States. Immediately there was a protest, but the provision was carried and the canteens were abolished. Then the blind tigers flourished and they are still flourishing. There is no law against canteens at soldiers' and sailors' homes. The only prohibition was caused by the Bowersock amendment. The amendment died with the appropriation bill, so that as it now stands, liquors may be sold on the home grounds, always under the management of the national home officials.

"And we want no more Bowersock amendments if the good of the homes is to be considered," said Colonel R. H. Hunt, quartermaster of the Leavenworth home yesterday. "We never sold anything but weak beer. The Bowersock amendment closed the beer canteen, and that compelled the veteran to go outside for his drink. He went where he could get whisky, and to the capacity of his purse, so that drunkenness increased amazingly and the evil effects by comparison were shocking. It takes nothing of a savant to realize that a man can be kept better by limiting him to beer when watching his own offices than by turning him loose in the 'Klondike,' as they call the contraband places near our home in Leavenworth, to be filled with 'forty rod' and permitted to get as drunk as his money will permit."

Colonel Hunt said that there were no figures to show the effects of the home canteen, where beer only was sold, and the non-superintended dives where the veterans drink are beyond control.

"In the absence of figures you must take the word of of the officers of the home. At the Leavenworth home every officer has but to favor the restoration of the canteen, one of those most anxious to get the canteen back being the Catholic clergymen at the post. He sees the effect more directly than any of us by reason of the individual attention he gives so many of the inmates. It is a hard matter to teach old dogs new tricks. No one congressman and no one congress can change the habits of a man of 60 years. The veteran who for ten or forty years has been accustomed to his glass of beer once in a while cannot be changed from it now without locking him up or taking all his money away from him.

"At the national homes we served nothing to the veterans but 4 per cent beer. We not only limited him to that, but we sold him none before breakfast, none after supper and none during meal hours. The veteran was always within his own grounds, surrounded by his friends and those responsible for his good conduct, and so was always entirely in hand. As it is now, under the operation of the Bowersock amendment, he is out of bounds, where we do not see him till the divekeeper has got his good money out of him and his bad whiskey into him, and the veteran suffers from both causes its consequence."

Labels: alcohol, Leavenworth, prohibition, veterans

March 13, 1908

SENTENCES ILLEGAL VOTER.

Two Years for Veteran Who Voted

Twice in Independence.

Stephen H. Powell, a veteran of the civil war, charged with voting illegally at the recent local option election in Independence, pleaded guilty before Judge W. H. Wallace yesterday in the criminal court and was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. Powell will probably be paroled on account of his age and the conditions under which he violated the law.

He tells his story to the Prosecuting Attorney I. B. Kimbrell very frankly:

"I was drunk on election day," Powell says. "I don't remember whether I voted once or a dozen times If anybody saw me vote twice, I can't deny it, because I don't know what I did."

"Which way did you vote, for or against the local option" asked Kimbrell.

"I started out to vote 'wet,' but can't say what I did do."

Labels: alcohol, Civil War, criminal court, Independence, Judge Wallace, prohibition, Prosecutor Kimbrell, veterans

February 18, 1908

LOOKS DARK FOR WALLACE.

In the Eleventh Hour He Is Being

Deserted by Reform Element.

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 17 --(Special.) The Missouri Anti-Saloon League has passed word along to its organization in every part of the state to oppose Judge Wallace of Kansas City for the Democratic nomination for governor, and support Judge J. L. Fort. A league leader said today that Wallace may defeat the cause unless Republicans nominate H. M. Beardsley of Kansas City or some other man upon whom they can unite.

The league is further agitated by the report from Charles E. Stokes of Kansas City, chairman of the state prohibition committee, that the Prohibitionists mean to put a state ticket, from governor down, into the field.

Labels: Judge Wallace, Mayor Beardsley, politics, prohibition

February 16, 1908

TO NAME A "DRY" TICKET.

Missouri Prohibitionists Will Be in

the Field Next August.

"I am being frequently asked by persons representing all parties as to the probable action of the Prohibition party of Missouri in reference to nominating a state ticket, since some of the candidates of other parties have declared for the submission of a prohibition constitutional amendment," said Charles E. Stokes, chairman of the Prohibition state central committee, yesterday. "In reply to all such inquiries I would say most emphatically that the Prohibitionists of Missouri will place a complete state ticket before the voters at the August primary. Candidates will also be named on the primary ballot in every political division of the state where it is possible to have them under the new primary law. There are seventy counties, eleven senatorial districts and eight congressional districts where nominations can be made and the opportunity will be improved."

Labels: alcohol, politics, prohibition

February 10, 1907

LEAGUE IS MAKING STATE DRY.

Bushnell Tells How It Carries On Its

Prohibition Work.

In an address before the congregation at the Hyde Park Christian church, Westport avenue and Main street, yesterday morning, Rev. A. Bushnell, superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League, told how Missouri was going dry. He said in part: "Members of the Anti-Saloon League have gone from place to place, making a thorough canvass of the state. That they have accomplished much is shown from the fact that sixty-eight counties of the eighty-one which held local option elections have gone dry. Of the cities fifteen out of twenty-seven have voted dry. This is very encouraging.

"It may be seen from this that our fight is a good one. Our weapon is the local option election. It is after all the strongest implement of warfare which we could use, for it shows what the people, not the people's representatives want. The local option victory is only a beginning of the real work. We want the people everywhere to organize for the enforcement of laws and to get the men into office who will stand true fo rthe work of the anti-saloon principles everywhere and always."

Labels: alcohol, churches, Hyde Park, Main street, ministers, politics, prohibition, saloon, Westport

November 30, 1907

THEY WILL WORK FOR SALOONS.

Mayor of Independence and Citizens

Organize for the Fight.

An attempt to defeat local option in independence at the election to be held December 3, more than seventy-five business men and prominent citizens, including Mayor J. R. Prewitt of Independence, held a meeting in the court house there last night and organized for the purpose of fighting the local option movement.

Committees composed of twenty-five voters were appointed for each of the four wards. Mayor Prewitt was chairman of the meeting, and in a brief speech said he thought local option in Independence at the present time would be a blow to business and would be very impractical. He expressed the belief that the population of Independence in general is heartily in favor of the saloon.

Labels: alcohol, Independence, politics, prohibition, saloon

October 9, 1907

IN FAVOR OF LOCAL OPTION.

Independence Mass Meeting Calls for

a Special Election.

Citizens of Independence packed the city hall last night to debate the question of local option. The Law and Order League, which called the meeting, is advocating a special election to vote on a "wet or a dry" town, under the local option law. It was the sense of the gathering that the election should be held.

James Mack Chaney, chairman, was instructed to appoint a committee of three to formulate plans for the election. A petition will have to be circulated and presented to the mayor and council. If it passes, the election wil be called.

Among the speakers last night, in addition to Attorney Chaney, were Rev. L. J. Marshall of the Christian church, and Albert Bushnell of the Anti-Saloon League in Kansas City.

There were nine saloons in Indeependence, and they have been having hard sledding lately. Recently the city council passed an ordinance raising their city licenses from $700 a year to $1,500. The total which each saloon must pay annually now, city license, county license, governmetn tax and incidental fees for filing applications, is $2,300 a year.

Twenty years ago Independence went "dry."

Labels: alcohol, churches, Independence, Independence city council, ministers, prohibition, saloon

July 6, 1907

ANTI-SALOONISTS ABSENT.

Nine Licenses Granted by the

Independence Council.

The Anti-Saloon League was not represented last night at the Independence city council meeting, and nine applications for saloon licenses were granted.

The council announced the tax levy for 1907, as follows: General revenue, 1/2 mills; electric light extension, 1/2 mill; sewer extension, 1/2 mill; interest and principal on electric plant, 1 mill; water works judgement, 2 mills; hydrant rentals, 1 mill.

Labels: Independence, Independence city council, prohibition, saloon