I Heard A Sweet Voice Say

On This Day In History
1900: Prohibitionist Carry Nation smashes a bar

Quote Of The Day
"God was certainly standing by me. I smashed five saloons with rocks before I ever took a hatchet. Men are nicotine soaked, beer besmirched, whiskey greased, red-eyed devils. No man who drank or smoked could ever come nearer to me than the telephone."
(Carrie Nation aka Carry Nation, Carrie A. Nation, Hatchet Granny.)

So, today marks eleven years of blipping. I look forward to at least that many more. It's so enjoyable, and the community is so friendly. I shall continue with On This Day In History (making sure I don't repeat the same event from the two previous years' blips) because I find it interesting, hopefully other people do, and because it helps ensure I don't keep photographing the same kind of things over and over as I try, no matter how tenuously, to connect the image to On This Day In History.

The photos on the collage I have made show the Chinese Zodiac paintings which are revealed each December 1st at Ikuta Shrine in Kobe. Next December the Year Of The Dragon painting will be revealed. Following that, one of my questions will be answered, that being, "Do they recycle these paintings or do they get fresh ones painted every year or perhaps every twelve years?"

Regarding today's, On This Day In History. I find this rather fascinating. Carry Nation is a much mocked and maligned figure, often portrayed as a granite-faced, Bible-thumping, battle-axe and party pooper. However,  this article paints a very different portrait of her which I am inclined to believe. I'll summarise the main points if you do not care to read the entire article.

First, she did not hate people who drank. She actually gave clothing, shelter, food and care to the drunk and the destitute in the hotel that she owned. No, Carry hated the people who sold alcohol illegally in "Dry" Kansas, which had been under prohibition for twenty years. She pleaded with the sheriff many times to close down the illegal bars in Kiowa which was where the people that she cared for obtained their liquor. It was only after many attempts to get the sheriff to do what he was duty bound to do that Carry destroyed the bars with rocks.

Now, Jesus overturned the market stalls and threw the traders out of the temples. He is lauded for being filled with righteous anger. Carry Nation did something quite similar and she is portrayed as being menopausal, frigid, hysterical, pre-menstrual or a self-denying lesbian. Lucky for Jesus He wasn't a woman.

Was she stony? Frigid? Apparently, she adored her first husband and they had a passionate love life. Later, when her husband turned to heavy drinking, the passion died and Carry wrote in her diary about how she was "hungry for his caresses and love." Another reason why Carry did not hate drinkers, but what drinking did to people when it was pedalled to them.

Rather than being a Bible-thumping, fundamentalist Protestant, she actually attended many different churches and often found herself in conflict with the overly-judgemental and "respectable" priests and parishioners because she helped so many "despicable" drunks, blacks and prostitutes. One time, the priest and many of the congregation at the Medicine Lodge Christian Church tried - and failed - to throw her out of the church when she refused to denounce a woman as an adultress in the middle of a fiery sermon based solely on the word of her alcoholic husband. Can you picture it? What an awesome woman!

When Carry Nation went to England for a speaking tour, the Brits were shocked that she did not meet their preconcieved idea of a "violent and notorious saloon smasher." Instead, they were impressed by her "remarkable wit," her "strenuous vigour," her "good sense of humour, a wise, general outlook upon life, a kindly, even modest, and unassuming manner," with "the light of a visionary in her eyes."

That is how I will picture her, and not the monstrous hag depicted by sexist tabloid journalists who resort to denegrating stereotypes whenever a woman asserts herself and speaks truth to power. Carry was not strident and shrill, she was the "sweet voice" who tried to save D.W. Washburn