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Kansas Temperance: Much Ado About Booze, 1870-1920
Kansas Temperance Much Ado About Booze 1870-1920 Author:Kenneth J. Peak, Patricia A. Peak, Patricia Peak Bootlegging and opposition to temperance have long flourished in far southeast Kansas. The Head Counsel to the Kansas State Temperance Union, in 1907, wrote: I have been in this section of the country less than twenty-four hours and I am convinced that you have no idea of the magnitude of the work to be done here. [The saloon keepers] have... more » been in power so long and are so ably led that they consider themselves invincible. The day-to-day encounters between "wets" and "drys" eventually assumed the air of war in Crawford and Cherokee Counties of Kansas, with shooting and stabbings a nightly occurrence. But "cleaning up" that corner of the state would be a daunting, expensive, and dangerous undertaking. Even the nearly impervious Carry Nation "the Kansas cyclone" would find her mettle tested. The deeply religious, energetic, temperance leader would have a memorable impact on the history of temperance, traveling across the state, becoming what has been called "a little mad," as she smashed up the "joints." But in the resilient Balkans area of southeast Kansas, at Girard, Carry Nation would find herself virtually ignored by citizens and newspapers alike, receiving "scant mention" in the "wet" newspaper of the area. Authors Ken and Patricia Peak have made known for the first time the development of the Balkans temperance movement in southeast Kansas, focusing on the nature of an ethnically and culturally diverse populace, both temperate and intemperate.« less