The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. NationNation, Carry Amelia
History
The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
Nation, Carry Amelia
Nation, Carry Amelia, 1846-1911; Social reformers -- United States -- Biography; Temperance -- United States
We hear, "A woman's place is at home." That is true, but what and
where is home. Not the walls of a house. Not furniture, food or clothes.
Home is where the heart is, where our loved ones are. If my son is
in a drinking place, my place is there. If my daughter, or the daughter
of any one else, my family or any other family is in trouble, my place
is there. That woman would be selfish or cowardly who would refuse
to leave her home to relieve suffering or trouble. Jesus said, "Go out
into the highways and hedges." He said this to women, as well as men.
If the women of Galilee had not left their homes they would not have
followed Jesus. If Phoebe had not left her home, she would not have
gone on the business of the church to Jerusalem. We would have no
woman missionaries--Women now, are forced to go out to save the
homes.
D. L. Moody once said, and which I hardly understood at the time:
"When a wife knew that the man that should be her husband was unfaithful
and corrupt, she was as bad as he if she lived with him." I have thought
much of the meaning of husband. He is one who is a man who provides
and cares for his family, as much as it is in his power to do, but when
he refuses and will not do this, he breaks his marriage vow and becomes
his wife's enemy. A husband is not an enemy. This will place many
women in the roll of living with men who are not their husbands, and
this is so. I do not favor divorce, but it is better to separate, than bring
up children of drunkards or licentious fathers. There is nothing which
is making so much enmity between the sexes as intoxicating drink. This
is the cause of so many divorces. Men who go into saloons generally
visit houses of prostitution. The women they meet there have been
deceived and lost their self respect, become discouraged because men have
made them their victims through treachery and in turn these women
revenge themselves by taking all means to drag these men down. Prostitutes
do not like men; they often hate them. The man who goes there
generally loses respect for the virtues of women, and from associating
with bad women they judge other women to be vile. These men hate
the very women they go to see. Married men who drink are bad husbands,
for they deceive their wives, who soon find it out; and the husbands
and wives cannot be happy. A woman leaves all others for one
man and she wishes his society. In the evening the clubs and drinking
places take up men's time when their families should have it. These
things destroy love and confidence between husbands and wives. 'Tis
not all men's fault, for there are some drinking women.
A man came to me just before I went on the stage at Newport, and
said: "Carry Nation, step aside here, I must speak to you. I am in so
much trouble. Give me some advice. My wife is at home drunk; she
is that way most of the time. We have six children and they feel disgraced.
What can I do? I am almost wild."
I asked: "Did you ever drink with your wife?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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