CHAPTER XLVII THE HOSPITALS IN CLARK COUNTY The hospital is a sort of an auxiliary to the medical doctor, and the surgeon frequently makes of it a life-saving station. It was Florence Nightingale, born May 12, 1820, who gave to the world the idea of scientific nursing; she is the mother of hospitals. The names of Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton, the Red Cross army nurse, cannot be too highly honored in any community. The popular understanding of the word hospital is different from the dictionary definition. Webster says it is a building appropriated for the reception of sick, infirm and helpless paupers who are supported and nursed by charity, but that phase of life is not emphasized in Clark County hospitals. While there are public and private charities, the hospital is not necessarily a charity. It is a place where those in need of medicine and nursing receive attention. The Christian Science practitioner, the osteopath and chiropractic "doctors" alike recognize the advantages of good nursing, and the hospital serves an excellent purpose in the community. While it costs money to have appendicitis, or to be a victim of the surgeon's blade, nevertheless the hospital is the helping hand held out to, for and by society. -While enterprising citizens sometimes operate hospitals on a basis of profit, the idea is an outgrowth of the Christian religion, and under present working conditions both doctors of divinity and doctors of medicine pay professional visits to Clark County hospitals, and sometimes the lawyer is consulted there. While the true meaning of the hospital—its primary mission—is first aid to the injured, excellent nursing is available and sometimes the homes are unable to supply it. Physicians recommend efficient nurses, and they get their training at the hospital. It is only public spirited men who take of enterprises that do not pay dividends, and the Springfield hospital is operated on a humanitarian basis, rather than as a profit-sharing institution ; the trend of popular thought on the subject of disease renders the hospital a necessity. Although it is a homely adage : "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure," it is truthful and people are learning to anticipate and prevent diseases—whether of the will, or of the flesh. There is a growing appreciation of the hospital, and recognition of its value in the community. The modern hospital building is X-shaped, giving outside exposure to all of the rooms ; men and women now turn to the hospital with confidence and gratitude because of the service it performs for humanity. The foremost philanthropists in the community foster and promote the hospitals. The Springfield hospital story begins in 1886, with John H. Thomas, who was a prominent manufacturer and a leading philanthropist. The scheme advocated by Mr. Thomas appealed to Ross Mitchell, who wished to do something of a community nature, and they collaborated in establishing the Mitchell and Thomas Hospital. In 1887 Mr. Mitchell donated a site on East Main Street known as the Chandler Robbins school property valued at $14,000, there being the college building and residence, and the Thomas Hospital was open for the reception and care of patients.. It affording increased hospital advantages. December 1, 1887, the Mitchell- - 425 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 427 Thomas Hospital was open for the reception and care of patients. It was the first hospital in Springfield, and it was not long until more accommodations were required for the increasing number of patients. The Mitchell and Thomas Hospital was near the railroad, and in a noisy location, and in 1902 activities were begun looking toward its removal, and in 1903 the cornerstone of the Springfield City Hospital was laid, the site bounded by York, Clifton and East streets. It has the morning sun, and crowns a hill away from noise and confusion—an ideal location. For many years it had been the Sharp family homestead, and when the property was acquired the buildings were wrecked and a community hospital now graces that elevation. While charity patients are received, that fact is not accentuated and the visitor would be unable to tell a charity patient from one paying for his treatment ; some are in wards at less expense, while others have private rooms and private nurses when they request it. The hospital has ambulance service, and it conducts a free dispensary. It was December 19, 1904, that the Mitchell and Thomas Hospital was vacated, and the Springfield City Hospital was opened. On that date the superintendent, James Adams, transferred a corps of nurses and eighteen patients to the new building. When the transfer was made and the name was changed, Miss Dorothy Neer, who is now superintendent, was operating room supervisor, and Miss May B. Miller, who is assistant superintendent, was then a student nurse. There was a nurse's training school in connection with the Mitchell and Thomas Hospital, and Miss Leila V. Jones was the teacher. Miss Miller entered the training in July and was removed with the hospital in December. She entered in 1904, and in 1907 she graduated in a class of five members ; however, she is the only one who remained in the hospital. While Miss Neer was moved with the hospital and remained for ten years in charge of the operating room, she went away for a time and June 1, 1919, she returned and since then has been hospital superintendent. She is now the instructor in the nurse's training course which extends over a period of three years. It is affiliated with the Springfield High School in the Department of Chemistry. It was founded in 1904, and since then it has graduated 120 trained nurses. On the days of the inquiry, there were forty-five student nurses living in the cottages and assisting in the hospital. There are three cottages for nurses, and frequently graduated nurses return with private patients to the hospital. It has capacity for 120 patients, and often it is unable to accommodate all who seek admission. Springfield is committed to the use of tablets in commemorating individuals as witnessed at the Warder Public Library, Wittenberg lege and in many churches, and in the hospital corridor is the following information : "This tablet is erected in grateful recognition of contributors to the endowment fund of the Springfield City Hospital," and chiseled in stone are the following names : Ross Mitchell, John H. Thomas, John Snyder, Anson E. Moore, Lydia P. Steele, Peter Butzer and Robert Johnson. While Mitchell and Thomas were honored with the name of the old hospital, in 1896 John Snyder bequeathed $100,000 in four per cent Government Bonds, and under the terms of the will it is held as an investment, lesser amounts coming from other donors, and since April 25, 1898, there has been a board of hospital trustees, some 428 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY legislation of that date providing for it. There are five members of the board, and it holds monthly business meetings. At its December meeting, 1921, of the hospital board Miss Neer reported 2,445 days' treatment, 1,009 being free and 1,436 being pay treatments, in all 267 persons treated. Within the month 191 patients were discharged and 227 treatments were given at the public dispensary. The cost of treating the whole number of patients was $10,558.31, which was an average of $4.31 a day per patient, and the business of one month is much the same in other months. Dr. V. G. A. Tressler, who is a divinity rather than a medical doctor, is president of the board, and while the annual elections bring frequent changes the trustees are men interested in the success of the Springfield City Hospital. It has been recognized by the American College of Surgeons, and by the American Medical Association, and Miss Neer feels that this recognition enables the Springfield City Hospital to secure the services of the best internes from any of the colleges, there being three on duty. As superintendent of the Springfield City Hospital, Miss Neer affiliates with the community council which correlates all welfare movements. While there are free beds in the municipal section of the hospital, the crying need is for more room in which to accommodate patients. While contagious diseases are not admitted, the city hospital is the helping hand held out to society. Under the present system of household economics, the maternity demands upon the hospital are increasing and the time is coming when the man will not speak of the house in which he was born, but will refer to the hospital. In 1920 the hospital had 310 maternity cases and in 1921 there was an increase of seventy-two births, 382 babies born at the hospital, and "safety first" is the motto. The babies are kept in a nursery, and to avoid mistake an adhesive tape bearing the name of the child is placed on its ankle, and the room number of the mother is on this tape. The name and number is also placed on the child's bed, and the system has been necessary in keeping tally with so many children there at one time. When the Springfield City Hospital was completed in 1905 it represented an investment of $150,000, and there have been frequent additional expenses. In his annual report, Fire Chief Samuel F. Hunter recommends that an automatic sprinkler system be installed at the hospital, and especially in the main building where the patients are quartered. It is on a hill about forty feet above the street level and in winter when it is icy, it is difficult to get heavy motor-driven apparatus up the hill, the report reading: "For this reason I believe it is very important to protect this building with automatic sprinklers." The chief recommends the same precaution in the public school buildings. With an automatic sprinkler the hospital would have protection when the fire-fighters were unable to make the grades with their heavy motors. It is related that in the '90s the Pennsylvania House, which had been a landmark since the tavern days along the National Road, was remodeled by Dr. S. E. Adams and used as a hospital for medical and electrical treatment of patients, and in connection with the American Red Cross (Springfield Chapter) mention already has been made of three emergency hospitals operated in Springfield in connection with the flu epidemic. When the epidemic subsided they were closed, and it is against the policy of the hospital to receive patients with contagious diseases. An isolation hospital is a necessity, and the State Fraternal homes all maintain their 430 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY own hospitals and isolation department. Where so many aged persons and so many children are assembled, the hospital is a necessary feature, and the Ohio Masonic Home is adding an extensive hospital—the Ricker Memorial Hospital—at an approximate expense of $500,000, and with capacity for 150 patients. All the modern ideas are incorporated in the plans of this building. While more people die of tuberculosis than from any other one disease, the Clark County Medical Society and all progressive physicians are united in a campaign of education, and there are popular lectures on how to combat the ravages of the white plague. In the old days when tuberculosis was called consumption, its victims had no ray of hope until fresh air enthusiasts brought it to them. In 1909, the Ohio Assembly provided for tubercular hospitals, and the Second District, located at Springfield, embraces four counties : Clark, Madison, Champaign and Greene, although in the beginning Greene did not accept the offer. Each county sends its tubercular patients, and has its doctor looking after its interests. The Second District Tubercular Hospital embraces fifty-two acres along the National Road east and just outside the City of Springfield ; it was once the Kinnane homestead While the farmhouse was not adapted to the needs of the hospital the location and the topography are ideal. It is 1,100 feet above the sea level which means pure air, and that is the necessary feature of a tubercular hospital. There are fourteen cottages built to accommodate one or two patients, and with the farmhouse converted into a hospital there is room for fifty patients. There is also a home for nurses and for hospital employees. Unless patients have reached an advanced stage before entering, isolation is possible and cures are effected, but the sad thing—they frequently do not come in time for permanent relief. In the beginning tubercular patients were transferred from the county infirmaries, but that no longer happens. They are sent at once to the hospital instead of to the infirmary. While each county has its medical staff to look after patients consigned to the Second District Tubecular Hospital, the superintendent has usually been a physician who resided there. In their turn the superintendents have been : Dr. Henry Baldwin, Dr. R. R. Richison and Dr. Elwood Miller. Since Miss Anna Shepard, who is a graduate nurse, has been superintendent, Dr. C. E. M. Finney is the medical attendant, although he does not live at the hospital. Miss Shepard is both superintendent and matron, having full management of the hospital. Miss Mary Cove has been installed as head of the open air school, and the fifteen children will wear Eskimo suits while attending school, the girls of the Ohio Bell Telephone Company generously providing them. It is the first attempt at an open air school, but it will allow of mental training and avoid bad air in a schoolroom. The Baby Camp Fund was drawn upon for funds to supply the desks, and funds were donated by the National Woman's League and by the Springfield Kiwanis Club with which to pay the teachers. Because of the greater population of Clark County, it secured the Second District Tubercular Hospital. There would naturally be more unfortunates in a large center, and the criticism on the management is directed from other counties. Because of the contagious nature of tuberculosis strict sanitation is necessary, and ventilation is the keynote of the treatment, fresh air a part of the cure. The supervision of diet is SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK. COUNTY - 431 another thing in favor of the patient. Many tubercular patients come from homes where no attention is given to diet at all, and corrective measures sometimes work cures ; it requires intelligence to overcome tuberculosis. The sleeping porch built into modern homes, and added to others is doing much to relieve the difficulty. People who were afraid of the night air have learned its life-giving properties, and no longer breathe impoverished air ; those who take the necessary precaution at home need not live in a tubercular hospital. The open porch is a benefaction to any family. The State of Ohio has been conducting free clinics in different localities, and when the gospel of fresh air reaches every household there will be f ewer cases of the white plague. The expense of maintaining the Second District Tubercular Hospital is shared pro rata by the counties entitled to its benefits, many indigent persons being saved by the opportunity of living there and learning how to take care of themselves. Out-of-door life is urged, and the campus there affords the opportunity. CHAPTER XLVIII THE STAGE—MOVING PICTURES From the dawn of human history people have been interested in the forum, the stage, the athletic field. Some form of amusement or recreation has been regarded as a necessity. In the dim history of the past man had a desire to amuse himself. He demands more relaxation than the day affords and his pleasures sometimes extend far into the night. The theater is a welcome diversion at the end of the day. "Jack" objects to "all work and no play" and the playhouse affords respite. It causes him to forget the "cares that infest the day." Theatergoers who like good plays usually like other good things and their field for pleasure is not limited to the stage. When the theater fails to offer what they like they soon give up the habit. High class attractions always bring playgoers from other communities and Springfield's theater population does not conform to the number of citizens in Clark County. It is sufficiently distant from Dayton and Columbus to eliminate competition in high class performances and when meritorious plays are given in Springfield the box office receipts usually warrant the enterprise ; when the theater does not offer what they want there is little effort to reform the drama other than exercising the prerogative of remaining away from it. When the theater becomes a physical effort because of its want of appeal they have recourse to literature and to music. An English actress said : "Good drama is as necessary as a bath and a bath it is for the mind," and the wag added that a "bath" should not be enjoyed in public, but melodrama allows of variations. Since the scandal of today becomes the convention of tomorrow, people adjust themselves to conditions and the high-brow drama is above the heads of those most in need of a "bath." ,"The people have minds and hearts which need food and unless they are given food there is going to be trouble in the community," and that reverts to the Bible injunction about feeding the sheep and the lambs—that they have different mental abilities. While Springfield and contiguous territory ranks as high class theater patronage, there had to be a beginning and in antebellum Clark County when the population was scant and the means of travel limited, people were thrown upon their own resources for amusement. In those early days simple home talent entertainments and school house exhibitions always attracted them. At frequent intervals there were wandering Thespians, but as the forest and native conditions were overcome by the settlers there was demand for better things and halls, stages and scenic accessories were the natural sequence. When the first market house was built in Springfield, it had a hall above for public meetings and shows, often home talent productions, the Buckeye singers among whom was Oliver Kelly drawing crowds. There were panoramas, Frankenstein's Niagara Falls being shown, the people always turning to such entertainments. The first theater in South Charleston was the dining room of the Johnson tavern. The tables were removed and it became a hall and was utilized until Isaac Paist provided another, and - 432 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 433 when business rooms were built the upper story became the hall in other Clark County towns. BLACK'S OPERA HOUSE When Andrew C. Black was building an opera house in connection with his business in 1868, he was under approbrium. He was a Presbyterian, but a little in advance of the minister and congregation, and one day he left the service under a scathing denunciation from the pulpit. In his sermon the minister was condemning wrong-doing in high places, but since then there has been change of opinion in Springfield society, and Presbyterians are patrons of the opera. The holdings of Mr. Black were on the site of the Fairbanks Building, and at that time the realty cost him $20,500, and he expended $80,000 for the improvements on it—meaning $100,000 invested. It was a five-story structure with 110 feet frontage, and the hall or opera house was 90 by 110 feet in dimensions, and it was a forward stride in the way of Springfield development. However, when it was ready to be dedicated as a theater, Thomas F. McGrew, then cashier of the Mad River National Bank, issued the ultimatum in church that it must be spoken of as Black's Music Hall ; it should never be designated as an opera house or theater, names that flavored of evil, although Shakespeare had said the rose would smell the same whatever he called it. Black's Music Hall, alias Black's Opera House, was opened February 4, 1869, with the play, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." The play was an attraction so soon after the Civil war, and it drew a capacity house. The hall had a seating capacity of 1,000, and for many years it was the play house of Springfield. Since 1847 Mr. Black had been a Springfield merchant, and the opera house coupled with his business career keeps alive his name in Springfield. It was a five-story building, and when there were no elevators there were not so many corpulent people, stair-climbing still being recommended as a reducing process. Instead of a five-story climb, people now reach the ninth floor of the Fairbanks by the elevator route, and they "get thin to music," when they might reduce by climbing the stairs from basement to attic. In 1881 the Grand Opera House was built on Limestone Street, on the site of the old Leffel Water Wheel industry. It was built by John W. Bookwalter, with a seating capacity of 1,200, and the advantage of a ground floor and other up-to-date improvements, and from that time the Black Opera House was a second-class theater. People would not climb a stairway when there was a ground floor theater in town. In 1903 the Black theater and business block burned, and a short time later the Fairbanks Building arose from its ashes. In 1906 the Fairbanks Theater opened, and today Springfield has no lack of theater advantages. The Black Theater had been a play house thirty-four years, and many first-class shows were staged in it. When it burned it was a "Young Chicago Fire," a whole row of business houses being destroyed, and the Y. M. C. A. adjacent was scorched. The property did not lie idle long until N. H. Fairbanks secured it, and the Fairbanks is a ground floor theater. It was opened Thanksgiving Day, 1906, and Ben Hur was the attraction. In 1884 the Wigwam was erected on West Main Street and was used as a public auditorium and for campaign purposes until after the Vol. I-28 434 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY building of the City Hall with an auditorium designed for such meetings, but the flight of time—the City Hall is now an abandoned theater, a waste place in the heart of Springfield. The hall has been condemned, and as yet no plan has been devised for utilizing the space occupied by it. What one generation constructs another destroys, and the age-old question is still being debated about the morals of the stage, most people admitting that it has its place in the world. While not all stage productions are first-class, the same criticism is offered in other fields. The stage has the double function, amusement and instruction, and sometimes it shows the best way to acquire happiness. It is not pitted against the church, and in the main it is an uplifting influence. In the days of the legitimate drama, some of the foremost actors and actresses visited Springfield, notwithstanding the crudities of some of the early theaters, some of the best known players in the United States trod the boards in Black's Opera House and the Grand, and they still come on rare occasions to the Fairbanks. Shakespeare once exclaimed : "All the world is a stage;" although he is silent on the question of dressing room facilities. When Uncle Tom's Cabin used to visit Springfield, the people turned out to see it, and straight-laced male citizens remember the annual visits of the female minstrels and burlesque shows, when it required just a little more courage to be seen in attendance, when they used to talk about "reserved seats for the bald heads," but the popular conception of things is changed whether or not the moral aspect, and the little travesty about "bald heads" is no longer emphasized in the community. Be it said to the credit of the community, that some of the old-time stage favorites played to good audiences in Springfield. While there were street lights in 1850, people used to carry lanterns when attending performances in the different halls before the advent of Black's Opera House, and while the American Indian was once f requently featured in legitimate, when the forest no longer sheltered him he humbled himself to be reflected from the screen, and Buffalo Bill, with his canvas theater, always attracted the community. There was a time in Springfield—the penny arcade epoch—when people turned a crank and watched the moving life through an aperture, would witness the entire series, but like everything else it only filled an interim while the processes were being perfected, and now the best actors in the country are seen in the picture films, however, the movie called the silent drama does not describe the situation when those about one discuss it and thus spoil it—destroy the charm of the unfolding drama. The lexicographer says that a theater is a building appropriated to the presentation of dramatic spectacles, it is a room, hall, or other place provided with a platform, and in Springfield are the following theaters and places of amusements : Fairbanks Theater, playing legitimate attractions with seating capacity of 1,400 ; Regent, high-class pictures with 1,600 capacity ; Sun, playing high-class vaudeville, 750, and now that everybody attends the moving picture shows, it is difficult to think of the traveling troupes of other days, and the hardships encountered by them. There were one night attractions, and there were one week stands, and there were "barn-stormers" who never played at all on Broadway. Gus Sun, local authority on theaters states that in 1905, when he located in Springfield, the only amusement house was the Grand and all community meetings, conventions, etc., were held in it. However, there was a stage in the City Hall where shows and political meetings were one time SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 435 held, and Union Hall accommodated some audiences. Since that time Springfield has Memorial Hall, with seating capacity of 3,000, and the high school auditorium accommodates about 1,200 persons, and local affairs are held in both places, besides a number of lodge rooms which accommodate fraternal conventions. Many who once enjoyed the drama as presented in Springfield theaters now enjoy the moving pictures as seen in the Majestic, Liberty, Princess, Hippodrome, Colonial, Strand and other Clark County towns have movie houses, the custodian of the opera house in New Carlisle saying : "We have the swing on the movies." The moving picture theaters flourished in France in 1898, and early in the twentieth century moving pictures were introduced into the United States, and Springfield was not slow in conforming to the changed custom. When the industry was in its infancy there were predictions of ultimate success, while insanity charges were also laid at the door of picture actors ; now the foremost actors are seen in films. Reverting to the days of the legitimate drama, a theater manager said : "It is interesting to listen to the tales of some of the old performers, as they relate their own experiences in the long ago. In the '60s and '70s Sol Smith Russell, Alf Burnett and the Swiss Family Bell Ringers played in what was known as 'Variety Houses' throughout the West, and in the '70s prices were reduced until popular was the term used in describing them," and Springfield was on their itinerary. The roller-skating craze which swept the country many years ago was followed by the moving picture shows, and today people sit complacently in front of the most wonderful productions—the rich who have traveled may see the Alps again, and the stay-at-homes see the world in pictures. The film has become an educational agency, even the circulation of the blood being shown before the physiology section in the Springfield High School, and the developments in the realm of agriculture before the members of the Clark County Farm Bureau in the Fairbanks Theater. While there are still flesh-and-blood actors before the footlights in Springfield, the films reproduce celebrities from all over the world, and there is no cheaper method of travel ; from a comfortable theater seat one may see the best there is in art and literature. The habits and customs of all nations are shown from the screen, and one who sees them feels like he has traveled in foreign countries. Pictures of travel are always worth while, and other pictures afford amusement. Before prohibition was nation-wide, men used to leave the theater between curtains • and today there is running water in some of the theaters. There was a time when women kept their hats on in theaters, and those sitting behind could not see the stage, but now theater-goers set an example—remove their headgear—and some church members see the advantages gained—learn from the theaters a little consideration. In the realm of Springfield theaters, Gus Sun is easily the dean; he has leased theaters and operated them until he owned them. In 1912 he leased the Grand and in 1917 he purchased it, and in 1919 he dismantled it, constructing the Regent on the site, and his theater interests are not limited to Springfield. Mr. Sun made his theatrical debut in Springfield in a leased store room in the Fisher Building at Limestone and Main streets ; here he opened the first vaudeville show in Springfield, known as the Old Orpheum. It had a seating capacity of 225, and people on the street say that Mr. Sun was the star actor—that he also 436 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY swept out the theater—and those same people admire the man who begins at the bottom and climbs the ladder of success. In the Old Orpheum were shown the first moving pictures in Springfield. In 1906 there was a New Orpheum on North Fountain Avenue, and he played in vaudeville in it. In 1908 he purchased the site of the Wigwam at Center and Main streets and built the New Sun—strictly a vaudeville house. In 1912 Mr. Sun purchased the site of his first theater venture—the old Fisher block, and he built the Alhambra—an exclusive picture house. He has invested heavily in Springfield theaters, and he has realized on the investment, and when actors are in distress they find in him a friend. When a chorus girl playing vaudeville in the New Sun met with an accident, Mr. Sun staged a benefit performance and the girl in the Springfield City Hospital wrote a letter acknowledging the receipt of the money. When there were labor difficulties and men with placards on their backs were walking back and forth in front of local theaters, The Gus Sun Amusement Company was active in the settlement, the operators, musicians and stage hands who had conducted an eight weeks' strike returning to work, an arbitration board being suggested by Mr. Sun. While the Ministerial Association does not favor the Sunday picture show, there is no open fight, and with Will H. Hays as director general of the motion picture industry the community does not expect future difficulty. The Springfield Kiwanis Club listened to an address : "Visual Education and Modern Movies," in which the speaker said : "With all of the splendid books that have been written by our American writers—books that could be dramatized and picturized—the motion picture people have found it necessary to resort to their own so-called scenario writers," and he voiced a conviction that the standard of scenarios should be raised. When 20,000,000 Americans witness the films every day, Mr. Hays has reason for elevating the scenario industry. The children in the Fraternal Homes were privileged to see Jackie Coogan in "My Boy" as a compliment from the young film comedian through HarryL. Davis, Jr., son of the Governor of Ohio. There is a dramatic society at Wittenberg College, the members writing and producing their own plays under the advisory supervision of the Department of English. In its development from town to city the theater has been a strong feature in Springfield. CHAPTER XLIX TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION IN CLARK COUNTY The word abolition meant something in connection with human slavery, and prohibition means something as related to another thralldom —slave to drink ; the Century Dictionary 'says : "The temperance movement is a social or political movement having for its object the restriction or abolition of the use of alcoholic liquors as beverages." While it may have been social in its aspect, the time has come when it is political in its significance. The business of making men drunk, promoting crime, disorder and dishonor for profit is on the defensive, and if America stands firm in the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, recognizing women as voters, legalized traffic in spirituous liquors will soon be under the ban in all countries. If America fails to enforce its temperance legislation, that will mean failure in other nations. American leadship in temperance reform is the hope of the entire world. In the countries of the world where prohibition is enforced, there seems to be little inclination to return to the liquor habit, to alcoholic conditions ; the hair tonic consumer has one alternative —he can drink it or let it alone. In some instances the "easy to take" nostrums that flood the market in the guise of patent medicines encounter their difficulties. It has been said : "America began with the Declaration of Independence and ended with prohibition," but when the temperance question became a business consideration its death knell was sounded immediately ; it is serious business, even the wet adherents admitting : "Temperance is no joke," although some jokesmith describes the United States as dry land surrounded by "three miles of dry water." Just as the devil hates holy water, it is said the Apostles of John Barleycorn hate Volstead and the Crabbe Act, and while the taxpayers are now being burdened with the expense of the Barleycorn f uneralwell, that is an easy way out of the difficulty. The curse has been removed and in the 1920 presidential election there was no drunkenness at the election booths, and nobody wanted to see the return of whisky. While a man's love of wet goods may be equaled by a woman's love of drygoods, the woman was active in removing the temptation. It was Tecumseh—Clark County's own Shawnee warrior—who as a military strategist, held up the temperance torch to the world. The cyclopedia says that in order to render his warriors "fit" he prohibited the use of whisky and other demoralizing practices introduced among the primitive Americans by the whites who encroached upon their hunting grounds. While the German Government eliminated drink in the World war, it was more than a century of ter Tecumseh took similar action. When the Clark-Tecumseh monument becomes a reality, along with his military prowess and political sagacity should be enumerated Tecumseh's advance stand on the prohibition question—Tecumseh and Mother Stewart having blazed the way in temperance progress. In the foyer of Memorial Hall is a tablet : "Dedicated to the memory of Mother Stewart by the Clark County W. C. T. U. Eliza D. Stewart was born April 25, 1816, and died August 6, 1908," and some sentiments inscribed are : "Our Mother Stewart."—The Soldiers of U. S. A. "Our Great Leaden"— - 437 - 438 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY Frances E. Willard. There is a quotation from Mother Stewart herself, and the information that the tablet was placed there August 13, 1916, by the Women's Christian Temperance Union. As a companion piece to the tablet honoring this apostle of prohibition is a portrait of the woman painted by Christopher Schumacher, and in 1918 when the artist was leaving Springfield the picture was purchased by the Women's Christian Temperance Union and hung near the tablet. While Tecumseh may not have had the same moral conviction, nevertheless he enforced liquor restrictions. In writing on the temperance question in the Springfield Centennial History, Mrs. George Frankenberg said : "In the early settlement a distillery was one of the most welcome inmprovements, and one hundred years ago the best people considered whisky a necessity." That long ago there were "snakebites," but conditions are changed and while in the Bible story Timothy is reputed to have taken a little for his stomach's sake, the doctors do not prescribe it today. Most of the grist mills along Mad River were in reality distilleries ; they utilized the water power, and the surplus grain in the community was marketed there. While James Demint was not located on Mad River, it is said he operated the first dis- tillery. It was a small one near the spring at the foot of the hill from his cabin, and one account says : "Like many others he drank as well as sold, and he was not a temperate drinker." There is this mention of Demint in an article written by William Patrick of Urbana and published in the Springfield Republic in connection with the 1880 Centennial celebration, saying that after quitting his home in Springfield he lived for a time in Boston near the old battlefield, and commenting as follows : "The old gentleman, although reported an honest man, had not a very exalted code of morals ; he became addicted to drink and gaming, and would frequently mount his fine bay horse and start off to a neighboring town for a spree, always supplying himself with a new deck of cards with which as opportunity offered, to amuse himself for small stakes put up by the parties engaged in the game. About the year 1817 Demint had the last round in the course of his life at the tavern of the widow Fitch in Urbana. "The writer of this account was an employee about the house and remembers that on a summer evening Demint ordered his horse put up, and took a room ; he would receive such persons as would minister to his chosen pastime, and other amusements. He was addicted to drink ; however, I do not mean that he would stagger or wallow in the gutter ; he was one of the kind that could drink deeply and not show intoxication. His great mania being the enjoyment of his cherished game for small stakes, he followed his accustomed amusements at any points in the village that would screen him from the lynx-eyed officers of the law. He would frequently take a nap on a long bench that stood against a partition in the bar-room, where one evening a little before sundown, the landlady asked me to waken him for supper. "Obeying the landlady's request, I went to Demint and shook him and called him by name. He stirred not, and to my horror I found him dead. He had gone to sleep to wake no more, and after the excitement of preparing the body for the cooling board John Fitch, the son of the old lady, asked me who would go to Boston and inform his wife ; it was about 10 o'clock at night. I immediately answered : 'I will go.' He ordered the hostler to saddle the dead man's valuable gelding and when SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 439 all was in readiness Fitch said : 'Give me your foot,' vaulting me into the saddle, saying: 'Bill, be careful that Old Demint does not get on behind you.' Although I was not superstitious, for the life of me I could not avoid looking askance during my lonely and melancholy ride that night, reaching Boston about daybreak and imparting the sad news to his wife. After partaking of refreshments, she saddled a horse and returned with me to Urbana. She buried her husband in Springfield." The Demint story will serve as an object lesson—an ‘orrible example, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution coming too late in his case, and in the dawn of the prohibition morning one hears such words as "soused," "stewed," "corned," "pickled," "spifflicated," and where there are no longer any groups of hilarious drinkers under the influence of "innocuous stewitude" perhaps there will be improved diction in the community. While they were not in disfavor, the distillers on Mad River were engaged in the same business as the bootleggers of today. Sentiment has changed and the people are educated against the illicit business. However, it is said the bootlegger is the one business man who does not complain of his "overhead expense." It was a saloonkeeper's comment on false economy, that "Men will complain of the price of cabbage, which is a family necessity, and buy expensive drinks for all at the bar ; they will spend ten nights in one bar room and think nothing about it." There was a time in Clark County when whisky was $1 and $2 a gallong, and the Indians were excellent customers ; the store keepers would furnish liquor free to encourage purchases. It has been related that when Springfield jollified over the recognition of Clark County there were "spirits" that caused some of the citizens to become "ardent," and then there were many distilleries. When Philip Jarboe, who preceded his sister, Elizabeth Jarboe Kenton, came to Mad River about the time Demint came to Springfield, he constructed a still and manufactured whisky for himself and others, affording a market for the surplus corn in the community. James Demint was not the only victim of drink, the story being told that when under the influence of his libations, Uncle Hosea Harrison "got tight" and lay down on the sidewalk in Springfield to "sleep it off." Some boys turned a store box over him, lingering near to note results when he wakened. He rapped on the box, crying: "Where am I ?" and he soliloquized later : "I'm dead and buried and just found it out." The incident proved to be a lesson for the man, who left the community, and he afterwards became a minister. While New Carlisle was a dry town, when the distilleries were running full blast other towns sprung up in Bethel Township—Donnelsville and Medway—which made a difference in the majority. In 1808, George Croft came from Virginia and operated a distillery in Bethel Township for forty years ; two sons were associated with him, while another who was crippled went from house to house, remaining for a week at a time, making shoes for the settlers. The Croft farm is now the Clark County Home ; it had unusual farm buildings, overlooking a valley of surpassing fertility, with thousands of acres of corn in view—the raw material for the Croft brand of whisky. One account says the distilleries were so numerous along Mad River that the air was "murky" from their smoke, and the money made thereby helped build and support churches. The Croft mansion was always open to the ministers, and distillery money was not considered tainted until in the late '50s when the question was raised, and the agitation continued until the fires went out and after the Civil war 440 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY there was little evidence of distilleries along Mad River. While churches still require revenue, it does not come from distilleries ; the women with forward pews no longer wear crinoline that says : "Whisky, whisky," designating them as the wives of the brewers in the community. In German Township, Charles Rector used the surplus corn in a distillery for many years, and the fortune accumulated from the Snyder distillery has been returned to the community through bequests; It is proverbial that the Kentuckian has a corkscrew in his pocket, and there were many Kentuckians along Mad River. In the south side of Clark County there were many Quakers, and having different convictions relative to the use of whisky they took action to suppress the vice, stating in the way of resolution : "They were not to use, make, vend, furnish grain nor fruit for distilleries ; they would not convey nor aid in conveying liquor ; they would not furnish vessels to hold it nor timber to make such vessels," and now that prohibition is established the Quakers are entitled to credit for advance action ; they were "on the firing line" in the beginning of local history. A local writer says : "When Springfield was beginning to build up, no barn or mill raising or log-rolling was attempted without a good supply of whisky ; the invited hands would be insulted and never respond again if the whisky was not provided ; indeed, the women passed liquor to their guests, and they had real whisky at quiltings, rag-sewings and wool-pickings ; in the afternoon whisky and apple pie were passed. The wool was greasy, and since there were no napkins or finger bowls some of the guests declined the refreshments ; in some of the early homes there was liquor on the sideboards, in the wine glasses and table decanters. Cherry-bounce was a favorite drink, and these decanters were filled with it. There was hospitality, and neighbors were given a drink. When the first temperance meeting was held in Springfield in the summer of 1831, some who had kept libations in their homes signed the pledge ; a young man named Fairchild delivered temperance lectures in the old red brick courthouse ; it was a wonderful meeting. When the first man signed the pledge, his wife was troubled about it, saying : "It is right in the midst of harvest ; your men will leave. They are used to having liquor every day in the field ; in two weeks you are to have a raising, and who will come without liquor?" the anxious wife f ore-seeing economic difficulties. The man had the courage of his conviction, saying : "I am convinced of the sin of intemperance and wonder that I never saw it in -this light," and next morning he called the harvesters together and told them about the temperance meeting, saying : "Now I should like to have your assistance in rolling up out of the cellar the barrel of liquor, and empty it to run down this drain through the orchard into the pig pasture ; if any man is not willing to work without liquor, I will pay him off ; any who stay and work without, I shall raise their wages." It is related that the men helped to empty the cherry-bounce, and when it reached the pigs in the pasture they ate the cherries from the liquor and it made them drunk ; however, none of the men quit the job, and coffee was served that day in the field. When the Beaver Creek mill was raised, the men knew there would be no whisky, but they did not remain away because of it. While the hogs became intoxicated it is likely they would not have yielded again to that form of temptation. Once when a distillery was allowed to drain in a river, the fish nearby per- SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 441 formed many curious feats, and ducks on a mill pond nine miles away were intoxicated from it, and the story is told that when there were breweries the bees would f east on the waste until they were so drunk they would not make honey. It is said there is more honey on the market since the bees no longer "get stewed" and thus incapacitated for making it. While a cheery seed dropped into a bottle of Scotch may convert the whole thing into bitters, it is said that Springfield shoppers do not carry market baskets so carefully now that prohibition is written into the laws of the country ; the bottles are "conspicuous because of their absence." When Col. John Daugherty, who was the guest of James Demint at the time Griffith Foos joined them, was making a canvass among Clark. County voters asking their support of his candidacy for the Ohio Legislature, he rode about on horse back, carrying a jug in one end of his saddle bags ; his quick perception of character enabled him to reach every class of .voters. While he would not offend a teetotaler by insisting, he used diplomacy and his knowledge of psychology—he did not know the term—enabled him to judge what would bring results. It is related that Joel Walker, who was a harmless character, frequently managed to obtain a morning dranzy offering a bunch of green ttanzy at the bar of some tavern ; while not given to drunkenness he was inclined to moderate drinking; he spent his time loafing, while his wife and daughter obtained scanty family supplies. Walker had a brother who lived among the Wyandotte Indians, but he remained in Springfield ; he wore a stout leather belt in lieu of suspenders, and he would sometimes remove it and whip his boys with it because they were "so worthless." (This is a chapter on temperance, and such characters are held up as warnings.) TEMPERANCE DEVELOPMENTS In 1829 Rev. Saul Henkle remarked that a temperance society just formed would hardly live through the winter without the application of stimulants ; he was sarcastic both in his editorial and pulpit utterances. On February 26, 1833, the Clark County Temperance Society was organized in the Springfield Presbyterian Church ; it adopted a constitution which was published March 2, 1833, in The Western Pioneer. This organization was in conformity with a call issued to people all over the United States, and its object was to minimize the evils of the liquor traffic ; it was to create broadcast temperance sentiment, and Springfield entered into the nation-wide movement. In 1835 a Young Men's Temperance Society was organized in Springfield, and in its wake came the Sons of Temperance, Knight Templars, Murphy Movement, Woman's Crusade, Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Anti-Saloon League, and because of so much attention John Barleycorn is away at present. On March 12, 1847, there appeared in Springfield a neatly printed paper called "The Moss-Covered Bucket," published and edited by A. C. Lawrence and W. D. Runyan ; it was devoted to the cause of temperance. The first murder in Springfield was staged in a cellar under a saloon ; the grogshop always has been associated with crime, and there have been frequent demonstrations against it. Years ago when David Bennett opened a grocery store at Concord, in order to curry favor with his possible customers he tapped a keg of beer, saying to all : "Pitch in," and from that day Concord has been called Pitchin. On Muster Days liquor was used 442 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY extensively, and while some regarded it as necessary in the harvest field as the man and the cradle, others noted the effect it had on the morals of the community. There was a time when Springfield merchants kept .a jug of whisky by the water pitcher for the free use of , all ; it was just as essential that they keep one filled up as the other since their customers exercised their choice, and the evil practice was not confined to stores ; it was the custom in refined families, including many who professed religion ; spirituous liquors were in the decanters on sideboards and tables, and the social custom was bearing bad fruit both in town and in the country ; the home stills were patronized by many citizens. Hence there have been organizations to counteract the influence in the community. Three times has the prohibition party of Ohio looked to Springfield to furnish a candidate for governor, one time nominating a Lutheran minister, Rev. M. J. Firey ; the next time it was a Methodist minister, Dr. A. B. Leonard. While perhaps the ministers were only temporary citizens, in 1881 the party named "Cider Mill Abe," a name given A. R. Ludlow because cider mills were made in his factory—which some thought inconsistent with his temperance principles, and while there were not that many prohibitionists, "Cider Mill Abe" received 1700 votes in Clark County ; since then the water-wagon vote has increased in the community. While some students of economics denominate prohibition as a war measure, many distilleries, breweries and saloons did suspend July 1, 1919, six and one-half months before constitutional prohibition, the Eighteenth Amendment becoming effective January 16, 1920, and because of the prospect ahead on March 27, 1919, the Clark County Dry Federation conducted the most spectacular as well as the most effective parade in its history ; it was a combined effort of the churches and Sunday Schools, and 9,000 men, women and children marched through the streets, showing the Springfield sentiment toward the saloons ; since 1885 Albert L. Slager has been local secretary of all the organizations having as their object prohibition. Only a few years ago Springfield had more than 100 saloons, and New Carlisle and South Charleston had their quota, and people were discussing local option and temperance, not daring to hope for prohibition. Some one said : "Wet your memory on this list of thirst parlors," and enumerated some of the most famous dives in Springfield. It is said that when there were saloons young men frequently had to be led home, but two years later it is an unusual thing ; the sale of booze is decreased and drunkenness is so rare that it is noticeable. While Springfield was automatically dry July 1, 1919, and bone dry January 16, 1920, in that year there were 2,283 arrests, and in 1921 there were 2,656, but of that number only 234 were for drunkenness in 1920, while in 1921 there were 373 arrests for drunkenness. It is explained through the activities of the bootleggers, but the community knows that not so many people are drunk when the booze is handled from suitcases as when it was shipped by the carload into Springfield. Straws indicate the way the wind blows, but in June, 1921, when the Springfield Police Department made 452 arrests, only nine were for drunkenness, and again in December when there were only 113 arrests, fifty-nine of them were for drunkenness. The speak-easy keeper is growing unpopular, and society frowns on the bootlegger, but the Eighteenth Amendment was written into the Constitution before the women were SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 443 voters ; it was the men who voted the nation dry. While some agitators say it will be necessary to have all the dry votes into the ballot box in order to retain the Eighteenth Amendment, as yet none of the amendments have been revoked by the people ; as people are educated to the advantages arising from prohibition, they do not want to repeal it. Farmers' sons coming to town do not stand in as much danger from the suitcase as from the saloon ; the bootlegger does not have the same opportunity once enjoyed by the saloon keeper. While the saloon was once called the poor man's club, the churches are social centers in a way they use to exert an influence ; the young men no longer need the saloon as a social center ; the law enforcement people have opened other door for them. When it comes to technicalities, there is a difference between temperance and total abstinence ; that the evils of intemperance are as old as the race was a stock assertion in the mouth of each temperance orator, and Noah is a conspicuous example of the first drunkard. The first temperance agitation in the 'United States began in the year George Washington was elected president, and when old persons say they have heard temperance lectures all of their lives they are speaking truthfully about it. While there have been temperance movements all over the world, the best results have been attained in the United States. Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia was the first writer condemning intemperance, and his dominant note was total abstinence through prohibition. The first temperance work in the United States was in the nature of a reaction against the use of intoxicants which threatened to produce a nation of drunkards, and the first actual temperance reform was among the farmers of Connecticut ; the "wooden nutmeg" agriculturists would not allow the use of liquor in the harvest field, ahead of similar action taken in Clark County. The jug in the Clark County harvest field is as a story that is told and that begins : "Once Upon a Time." Now that the Eighteenth Amendment has been written into the Constitution it seems that bootlegging is becoming the most dangerous menace, and yet it is a business conducted on the run and will finally spend its force. There is an element which boasts of drinking when the law forbids it, and it is said that cellars that used to have nothing but coal in them are now wet emporiums ; disregard of the law seems to have followed in the wake of this one Amendment, and this menace is greater than the prohibition question. For the first time the losers in an election in which the majority rules, refuse to accept the verdict. This Amendment was another "gun that was heard 'round the world," and in commenting upon it in his presidential campaign in 1920, Senator Warren G. Harding said : "In every community men and women have had an opportunity now to know what prohibition means ; they know that debts are more promptly paid ; that men take home the wages that once were wasted in saloons ; that families are better clothed and fed, and that more money finds its way into the savings banks. * * * In another generation, I believe that liquor will have disappeared, not merely from our politics but from our memories." Those interested in law enforcement are finding out that they must fight for it as they f ought for prohibition, and it is said the Ohio dry laws are adequate ; the necessary thing is enforcement. At a law enforcement meeting held in Springfield it was urged that a bootlegger in jail would frighten others—that a fine of $100 does not disconcert them 444 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY because somebody supplying them pays it ; they would pay $1,000 without stuttering or batting an eye, but the brewers do not lay out jail sentences for them. At this law and order meeting they said a bootlegger in jail would be an effective scarecrow, and James L. Welsh, who had served as Clark County sheriff, deplored the fact that good citizens will not become prosecuting, witnesses—neither will they sit on juries, and he said the anonymous letter written to the sheriff or chief of police did not help' matters at all. When an official receives a letter, saying : "I can tell you where there is a still, but my name must not be used," he knows such a spineless person would not help him suppress vice. People want the officers to enforce the law, and withhold the necessary information rather than involve themselves. Prisons should not be in alleys where they are secluded they should be where the public can see who visits them. If the public saw offenders taken to jail, and their friends communicating with them from the outside, it would discourage lawlessness—it would be pitiless publicity. The first United States Prohibition Commissioner, John F. Kramer, of Mansfield, says that suppressing the rum traffic is more deadly than war—that the percentage of prohibition agents who are killed in the discharge of their duty is several times greater than the percentage of soldiers who were killed in the World war ; the majority of the moonshiners and rum-runners who killed them were foreigners who had not taken out their first naturalization papers. He recommends holding law enf orcemeetings because they create sentiment, and at this Springfield meeting it was suggested that old saloon signs should be removed in order that people might forget. Some one said : "When you turn the light into a rat hole, it destroys it as a rat hole," and publicity is the way to dislodge criminals and stop the illegal whisky traffic. The second national prohibition commissioner, R. A. Haynes, says : "No law can be enforced 100 percent," and the chief obstacles encountered in the enforcement of the Volstead Act is the apathetic citizen and lethargic public official. Since officers usually obey public demands, it must be the apathy of the citizen. When women become bootleggers they are worse terrors than men, and a number of Springfield women have operated homebrew establishments. The moral triumph of the age is prohibition, and a Young Men's Christian Association Sunday afternoon speaker said : "The American people have amended the Constitution nineteen times and never yet have they taken out anything which they put into it." While it required the action of thirty-six states to insure prohibition, thirteen may undo it, but they would be inviting the censure of the world. While the bootleggers deliver homebrew, their patrons know they are buying rank poison, and in time another generation will be at the front, and in this law and order meeting it was said the officers in small towns were more inclined to enforce prohibition. THE WOMAN'S CRUSADE It was in the '70s that Mother Stewart through her crusade activities put Springfield on the map of the world. Like John Brown's body, her influence "goes marching on," when one picks up her book : "Memories of the Crusade," which is a thrilling account of the uprising of the women of Ohio in 1873 against the liquor curse ; the crusade had its inception at SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 445 Hillsboro, December 22, 1873, when Dr. Dio Lewis of Prohibition Maine delivered a lecture : "Our Girls." The lecture was well attended and he invited the people to come that the next evening and listen to a lecture on temperance. He said that with a Christian spirit, energy and determination the women could close the dram shops of the country, and the Hillsboro women arose to the occasion; it was then that Mrs. E. J. Thompson became Mother Thompson, and Hillsboro became a world community. When the speaker appealed to the women a daughter of Mother Thompson placed a Bible open at the 146th Psalm into her hands, and she went forth under that inspiration. In writing about it Mother Stewart says : "The women f ell into line two by two, and they went to the drug stores, hotels and saloons," and it was designated as the woman's whisky war ; it incited prejudice, and Hillsboro was regarded as beyond hope of civilization. The impression was created on the outside that the Hillsboro Crusaders were the wives of drunken husbands who became wrought up to such a degree of frenzy that they did many unaccountable things ; they said the women thronged the street's and crowded into the liquor places, arguing with men about their business—and that long ago, propaganda was sent broadcast about the country. It was Mother Stewart who rallied the Springfield. women in similar demonstrations, and women whose voices never had been heard in public prayed in saloons. Mrs. S. M. Foos stood by Mother Stewart in her activities, even accompanying her to court where she addressed juries, opposing counsel saying it was infamous to bring a female into court ; she should be ashamed, and be at home about her legitimate duties. Mrs. Foos, who accompanied Mother Stewart, had wealth, brilliant talent and social position, and yet she defied society. Mother Stewart boasted of the fact that she kept the jury awake while addressing it ; she won her case, and the other attorneys chafed the vanquished lawyer because a woman had taken a verdict from him. Because the Women's Christian Temperance Union was the one active temperance organization in Clark County when prohibition was enacted, Mrs. Alice B. Limbocker, who is recording secretary of the Springfield Union, was asked for its detailed history. The Crusade was of short duration and the Women's Christian Temperance Union seems to be a better expression of womanhood. Mrs. Limbocker writes : "The first temperance meeting held in Clark County was in the summer of 1831, in Springfield. When Newton Fairchilds of Pennsylvania came and secured the old Court House for a lecture on temperance a goodly number attended. It was a wonderful meeting and at the close an invitation was given for men to sign the pledge. (Some of this story has been drawn from another source.) Oliver Armstrong was the first, and Benjamin Walker was the second man to respond. Benjamin Walker kept his pledge until he passed away at the age of ninety years. The pledge was : 'I solemnly promise not to taste or handle any whisky, wine or beer, or provide the same for any one in my employ. So help me God.' " This was about harvest time, and whisky was always furnished to men in the field. Some people were afraid they would not get help, but not a man refused to work. Benjamin Walker gave his men Metheglin, his wife, Eliza, making gallons of it. She carried it to the men in the field in wheat harvest. Metheglin was made of vinegar, brown sugar, nutmeg and water, and it was very refreshing in warm weather. Other temperance waves came and went ; the Crusade and Murphy movement 446 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY accomplished great good. Forty-three years after the first temperance meeting in Clark County, and close after the Crusade, a call was made for the Christian women of Springfield to meet in the First Lutheran Church, June 17, 1874, when they met and organized the first Women's Christian Temperance Union in Ohio, calling it the Springfield Union. Two hundred of our best women signed the pledge as charter members, and one of the number, Caroline Shepherd, is still a member. Others are living who are not members. Mrs. M. E. Kinney was the first president ; Mrs. J. S. A. Guy, secretary ; Mrs. Charles Cathcart, treasurer. After a few months Unions were organized in Donnelsville, Enon, New Carlisle and Harmony—just a few members at Pitchin and Pleasant Grove. Soon after these Unions were organized a meeting of the county was called in Old Temperance Hall and formed an organization. Mrs. Eliza Stewart, or Mother Stewart as she was best known, was the first county president ; we have no record of the other officers of the county organization. Of the six local Unions represented in this convention only one is still in existence—the Springfield Union. "We now have three Unions in Clark County outside of Springfield : South Vienna, South Charleston and Dialton. In Springfield are four white Unions : Springfield, Anna W. Clark, Frances Willard and Mother Stewart, and the colored Union is called Great Victory, so named for our first dry victory. We now have 600 members in Clark County, and 241 are members of the Springfield Union, the Mother Union of the county and the state. The officers of the Clark County Union are : President, Mrs. Anna C. Jackson ; vice president, Mrs. Nell Zanders ; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Ella Woosby ; recording secretary, Mrs. Mae Mart ; treasurer, Mrs. Hester Moody, and similar officers in the Springfield Union are : Mrs. Cordelia Jenkins, Mrs. Marguerite Strasburg, Mrs. Eva Keys, Mrs. Limbocker, and Mrs. Jennie E. Puckett. "The Women's Christian Temperance Union women are working together in the interest of humanity ; our white ribbon stands not only for temperance, but for purity in all things. If I were asked what is needed in the temperance work I would say MEN. Yes, men who are Christians and brave enough to see to it that men are elected to office who will enforce the laws for the betterment of Springfield and Clark County. The Women's Christian Temperance Union stands ready to help the men who put their shoulders to the temperance wheel and push the liquor traffic entirely out of existence." In a subjoined note Mrs. Limbocker says she is a daughter of Benjamin and Eliza Walker, who substituted Metheglin for whisky in the harvest field. On special days the Women's Christian Temperance Union meets in a prayer service, the object being to pray that the right person be put in the right place, and since many of the members are daughters of Crusaders, they stand ready to back up their prayers with their money. While physicians may write prescriptions enabling patients to procure liquor, the Clark County Medical Society does not care to be classed as saloonkeepers, druggists or bartenders, and while addressing a Women's Christian Temperance Union meeting one of them said that beer and wine are stimulants and not medicines. When the American Medical Association Journal submitted a questionnaire to physicians a large majority said they did not find it necessary to prescribe liquor to their patients. The formulate for Metheglin as given by Mrs. Limbocker may be used as a substitute as in the harvest field emergency so many years ago. Some SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 447 of the distinguished visitors to the United States have been able to survive while in prohibition territory, and moonlight "hooch" parties in Clark County are learning that the way of the transgressor gets them into trouble. Reconstruction of social habits seems necessary in some instances, and in time prohibition will demonstrate its economic value to the community. The Woman's Crusade was the beginning of definite action on the temperance question, and while the Christian Alexanders have conquered the world for temperance—as goes the United States so goes the world, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union is like Tennyson's Babbling Brook, seems to go on forever ; as yet nothing has made a stronger appeal to the womanhood of the world. CHAPTER L MUSIC IN SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY "Just a song at twilight, when the lights are low," an old familiar air—a ballad, how pleasant they are when heard at evening. It was Confucius who called music : "The sacred tongue of God," and 2,000 years later Martin Luther declared : "Music is the only art that can calm the agitations of the soul," while in the last century the great Napolean exclaimed : "Music is the art to which the law makers ought to give the greatest encouragement." It is known that Springfield mothers sang lullabys before ragtime made its advent or jazz was even a dream, and folklore songs seem to please best of all, and on the fly-leaf of a hymnal in a Springfield church are these words : "The Hebrew song, the German choral and the modern Christian hymn are alike expressions of the devotions of those who have loved our God." C. L. Bauer, who is a music director in Springfield, says : "Music is the one great outlet for the 'expression of the human emotions. Individuals, therefore, when filled with reverence for their Creator, will find the greatest satisfaction in participating in a church service by the earnest singing of hymns. The expression of the feelings by music is of great benefit when indulged in to the utmost ; reverence to the Creator is thus shown ; sympathetic help from Him is thus received, and when entered into earnestly we are made more receptive for the message that comes from Him through His minister. Let us, therefore, do our utmost when singing hymns and thus not only help ourselves, but thereby also encourage and assist those who are worshiping with us." The musical life in Springfield and Clark County is not unlike that of other localities having similar opportunities and conditions ; it is simply a part of the great forward movement of the world. It is an easy thing to think of the boy or girl blowing upon a blade of grass, and where is the lad who never whittled a whistle out of an elder? The Mad River settler had such a desire for music that he improvised many crude ways of producing it the Aeolian harp made from horse hair or silk thread if they had it, was a soul delight when the pioneer stretched it in the window and caught the air vibrations. The Shawnees who were along Mad River in advance of the white settlers made their own music they danced around the campfires to the weird strains, and recently there has been some effort to revive the music of the American Indian ; the Reservation Indians are singing it in concert tours. The feathers and war paint add to its realism. The wail of the man who was deaf, deaf, deaf, reads : "Yes, music bath power o'er the wide, wide world, A power that's deep and endearing— But music now has no power o'er me Because I have lost my hearing." In 1845, when the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind, was filling concert engagements in the United States, she traveled by stage, singing - 448 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 449 along the way, and her voice was so sweet that the wild birds took up her notes ; it was a compliment to the singer when she attracted the birds. There always was music over the hills and the dales f rom the time when the angels sang their morning song together—the first stillness of the morning air—the blending of Nature's sounds is music with a mesmerism all its own ; the song of the meadow lark, or the note of the first robin. To keep within the heart the thrill awakened by the woodland sounds is to remain forever young; it serves to lighten the hardest task in the world. The call of the jaybird is suggestive of the out-of-doors ; he is a restless creature and it is natural for him to be on the wing, calling : Jay, jay, jay, whether or not it is music ; the frog, the locust, the katydid and cricket—each has its peculiar musical note, and begs pardon from all of the others. Think of the grand chorus on the morning air—the leading musicians, all in Nature's orchestra. While "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast," some highly civilized people are delighted with it. Some one suggests that the Anvil Chorus dispose of its hammer and use the proceeds in buying life's necessities. While the "haswassers" may not all appreciate Mendelssohn, they recognize music in the air—quotation marks omitted in these days of radio concerts. In their day everybody enjoyed the concerts given by the old-time singers, and some one harking back penned' these lines : "There's a lot of music in them, the hymns of the long ago, And when some gray-haired brother sings the ones I used to know I sorter want to take a hand—I think o' days gone by, `On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand, and Cast a Wistful Eye,' " and the classical music—well, it's the old songs that stir the heart. "Any time is song time, if the soul be in the song," although the musical situation in Clark County always has been simply this—some liked it, while others had no inclination toward it. What if some good citizens do enjoy ragtime—it's music. Prejudice, ignorance, intolerance on the one hand and hunger for music—an enthusiasm that stopped at no hardships on the other. Music, however, has won the day ; this is a musical nation, and the development in Clark County is abreast with other communities. While some still enjoy the old-fashioned, rollicking tunes, supervision has changed the musical situation in Springfield and the rest of the world. There was a time when "Scotland is Burning ! Look Out ! Look Out. Fire ! Fire !" was a round that was popular—when everybody sang it, and there was a time when Southern Harmonies—Missouri and Kentucky Melodies as text books, constituted the musical knowledge of the community. The young woman who played the "Maiden's Prayer" was an accomplished musician. The patent or square notes were thought to be easier mastered, and there are men and women who still call them "buckwheat" because their shape resembles the grain. Some one writes : "If the heart be young, songs may still be sung, Sweeter in the meter than they ever were before," and another wayside philosopher exclaims : “In the darkest, meanest things There's always, always something sings." Vol. I-29