Grafton Sentinel
May 2, 1907
Daily Sentinel, Saturday
The show wasn't the only attraction in Grafton last evening [April 26]. When train No. 12 came in on the Parkersburg branch about six-fifty o'clock, Mrs. Carrie Nation, of country-wide hatchet-saloon-smashing fame, stepped to the depot platform, and from that time on until train No. 4 departed for the east, at ten-forty o'clock, she had her share of the big crowd that had gathered in the city during the day. Mrs. Nation's coming had been announced by a telegram that arrived at about five o'clock, and in which she requested that a meeting be called for some public place, but there was a little timidity on the part of those who might have been interested, and her welcome was somewhat of a January Thaw nature. However, little things like that don't bother the festive Carrie, and she had no more than alighted from her train when she proceeded to make it warm for cigar smokers on the depot platform. Unaccompanied, she wended her way to the Central hotel, registered, and then turning to the proprietor who was smoking placidly, she remarked, "Yes, that's right; smoke away what little brains you have!" She then introduced herself and in a few moments a big crowd had gathered in the hotel lobby. From there Mrs. Nation was later escorted to the Court House, some one having asked permission of the sheriff, and bell was rung and it wasn't long until a crowd had gathered. Mrs. Nation, in addressing her audience, gave much of the history of her life since she was "told by God to take up her hatchet and smash saloons." She said she had quit using the hatchet. She told how many time she had been in prison and in police court and of her trials and tribulations. She said that people say she is crazy, but that she knows she isn't. During her address she pretty severely criticized the Republican and Democratic parties, blaming them with about every sin the world is heir to. In closing, she sold souvenir hatchets and books of the story of her life, the former at twenty-five cents each and the latter at fifty cents a-piece, and in this way she cleaned up enough of "the needful" to carry her on her way rejoicing. While Mrs. Nation's address was very much disjointed, it nevertheless abounded in strong sentences and assertions and many of her sayings, while rough and in a manner uncouth, carried with them the "truth that hurts." Possibly all who heard her would not have missed it for anything, and many who did not know she was in the city were sorry this morning, and would have gone to the court house had they known of her presence. Mrs. National left on train No. 4 for Washington, D. C., where she expects to remain for some time.