I felt the outrage deeply, and would gladly have given
my life to redress the wrongs of the people. As Esther said: "How can
I see the desolation of my people? If I perish." As Patrick Henry said:
"Give me liberty or give me death."
I finally came to the "Carey Hotel," next to which was called the
Carey Annex or Bar. The first thing that struck me was the life-size
picture of a naked woman, opposite the mirror. This was an oil painting
with a glass over it, and was a very fine painting hired from the
artist who painted it, to be put in that place for a vile purpose. I called
to the bartender; told him he was insulting his own mother by having
her form stripped naked and hung up in a place where it was not even
decent for a woman to be in when she had her clothes on. I told him
he was a law-breaker and that he should be behind prison bars, instead
of saloon bars. He said nothing to me but walked to the back of his
saloon. It is very significant that the picture of naked women are in
saloons. Women are stripped of everything by them. Her husband is
torn from her, she is robbed of her sons, her home, her food and her
virtue, and then they strip her clothes off and hang her up bare in these
dens of robbery and murder. Well does a saloon make a woman bare of
all things! The motive for doing this is to suggest vice, animating the
animal in man and degrading the respect he should have for the sex to
whom he owes his being, yes, his Savior also.
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