Life, 1911-12-14 · page 19 of 40
Life — December 14, 1911 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Article: "A Lesson for Kansas"** This article critiques the 1911 tarring and feathering of Mary Chamberlain, a schoolteacher at Lawrence Centre, Kansas. "Respectable" community members stripped and tarred her for alleged moral misconduct. The piece argues this vigilante violence reveals Prohibition's dangerous intolerance: Kansas's effort to legislate morality through alcohol bans correlates with mob enforcement of social conformity. The article mordantly notes the perpetrators received only token punishment ($500 fines, one year imprisonment maximum), yet ironically credits Kansas for prosecuting them at all and learning that "sober men" commit despicable acts—undermining prohibitionists' claim that alcohol alone causes immorality. **"Soft Snap" Section** A brief jab at President Taft, claiming his administration made the presidency seem effortless compared to Roosevelt's characterization of it as laborious. The cartoon's specific meaning is unclear without seeing accompanying images. **Side cartoon:** Appears unrelated political commentary about an escaped lunatic.
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*L] “ny Jove! it’s LUCKY I MET YOU. MY WIFE GAVE ME THOSE TO POST THREE DAYS AGO” A Lesson for Kansas K ANSAS has an interesting bit of evidence that alcohol is not the sole cause of crimes. It does not appear that alcohol was a factor in the tarring of Miss Mary Chamberlain, the school teacher, at Lawrence Centre. The man who stripped and tarred her have had to explain about it. Give Kansas credit for that. Three of them were put on trial last month. A witness against them said: One of them, I don’t remember which, asked me if I would take Mary Chamberlain out that night, that they wanted to tar her. The; d they had heard bad stories about her. I said no; she had never done anything to me. witness helped the other dastards to schoolmistress, about whom they had Nevertheless, thi trap and tar the “heard stories.” Kansas is a Prohibition State, and very proud of it. The great objection to State Prohibition is that it is too meddlesome, too intolerant, too prone to let a majority force its view on an unwilling minority, and so detri- mental to sane thinking and bad for manhood. It does something, no doubt, to make intoxicants scarce and bad, but what is its effect on human character? Men of good PE social position in a Kansas community caught, stripped and tarred this girl whose conduct they thought they had reason to disapprove. Was that a by-product of the intolerance and famnati- cism that is characteristic of Prohibition? Can the impulse to regulate the deportment of school teachers with tar be connected with the impulse to regulate the potations of men by extreme pro- hibitive legislation ? That is a question the Kansas Prohibitionists may well ask themselves. They cannot elimi temptation from life, and if they could they would do harm and not good, for liberty to choose between good and evil is essential to the formation of character. The utmost penalty that can be inflicted under Kansas law on these “leading citizens” who tarred the girl is a year’s imprisonment and a fine of $500, but it is explained that the law is lax because nobody anticipated such a crime. Well, Kansas has learned something. She has learned what despicable possibilities of conduct there are in sober men. She has learned, per- haps, that alcohol is not the only thing that de- stroys manhood. Give her credit, however, for not liking the lesson. She has not tried to hush the matter up, but has brought the misdemeanants to trial, and convicted them. Soft Snap NDER President Roosevelt the impression got about that the Presidency was a very labori ous office. Under President ft this impression has been dissipated. We know now that the job is one whose duties a traveler can attend to in his spare moments. Escaped Lunatic NO ONE INSIDE AS NUTTY AS THAT 1 WISH 1D STAYED WHERE I Was.