The Children's Tribute to the Prohibition States: A Prohibition Playlet

The Children's Tribute to the Prohibition States: A Prohibition Playlet

Anna Gordon, Frances Willard’s personal secretary and fourth president of the WCTU, authored many stories, verse, and songs for children. Sales of her books purportedly surpassed one million copies, and her songs were translated into multiple languages. She also edited the WCTU’s journal The Union Signal and the Young Crusader, the newspaper of the Loyal Temperance Legion featuring “pure” children’s fiction. In The Children’s Tribute to the Prohibition States, Gordon celebrated the states that had passed statewide dry laws. “Nineteen young ladies of uniform height dressed in white represent the prohibition states,” and a dramatic reader provides narration. A child dressed in white presents each state with “a wreath of laurel or green leaves.” The reader, the child, and a “color bearer” come forward to “the music of a lively march.” Each state is presented in turn, beginning with Maine. Gordon likely wrote the playlet after the failed attempt at national prohibition legislation in 1915 and before the passage and ratification of the Volstead Act in 1919.

Anna A. Gordon

Anna A. Gordon, The Children’s Tribute to the Prohibition States: A Prohibition Playlet (Evanston, Illinois: National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, n.d., ca. 1916).

National WCTU Publishing House

ca. 1916