I began to look around for something that would
break it. I was standing by a billiard table on which there was one ball.
I said: "Thank God," and picked it up, threw it, and it made a hole in
the mirror. While I was throwing these rocks at the dives in Kiowa,
there was a picture before my eyes of Mr. McKinley, the President, sitting
in an old arm chair and as I threw, the chair would fall to pieces.
The other dive keepers closed up, stood in front of their places and
would not let me come in. By this time, the streets were crowded with
people; most of them seemed to look puzzled. There was one boy about
fifteen years old who seemed perfectly wild with joy, and he jumped,
skipped and yelled with delight. I have since thought of that as being
a significant sign. For to smash saloons will save the boy.
I stood in the middle of the street and spoke in this way: "I have
destroyed three of your places of business, and if I have broken a statute
of Kansas, put me in jail; if I am not a law-breaker your mayor and
councilmen are. You must arrest one of us, for if I am not a criminal,
they are."
One of the councilmen, who was a butcher, said: "Don't you think
we can attend to our business."
"Yes," I said, "You can, but you won't. As Jail Evangelist of Medicine
Lodge, I know you have manufactured many criminals and this
county is burdened down with taxes to prosecute the results of these dives.
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