50

A COLLECTION ON FIRST PRINCIPLES.

[1857.

inspired warmest affection. The Free State men afterward elected him sheriff of Douglas County, and in the war of the Rebellion, he was colonel of a Kansas regiment.

Once more in Lawrence, I saw how debts were collected in the absence of law. A mechanic had sold a street-sprinkler for which the purchaser, though profuse in promises, had never paid. One morning the creditor and two friends, armed with revolvers, met the debtor on the street and made a final demand. The money was not forthcoming, so they unharnessed his horse and drew the cart back to the shop of the original owner. The water-man swore and threatened lustily, but finding a majority both in numbers and weapons against him, finally yielded to inexorable destiny. It was a writ of replevin on first principles.

Much

Ordinarily, disputed accounts were left to referees. business was done on credit; but obligations were met with great promptness. If laws for the collection of debts were everywhere abolished, would it not be better for all honest men? Gambling obligations the only ones which cannot be enforced by laware the only debts always promptly paid.

Lawrence was distinctively a Yankee town. The 'melodious twang' of New England sounded on all the streets. In Lecompton and Atchison were heard 'whar,' 'thar,' and 'reckon;' in Lawrence 'neow,' 'idear,' and 'guess.' During the early troubles, when it was difficult to approach Kansas save through Missouri, the Border Ruffians placed a guard at the chief ferry, and compelled every emigrant who attempted to cross to say 'cow.' If the unfailing 'keow' of the Yankee betrayed him, he was turned back again.

Three thousand years ago the Children of Israel had a test precisely similar. The Gileadites held the passage of the Jordan, and whenever a fugitive sought to cross asked him:

'Art thou an Ephraimite?' If he replied, 'Nay,' they commanded him to say 'shibboleth,'-an ear of corn. If he rendered it 'sibboleth,' they knew he was of the tribe of Ephraim, unable to give the sound 'sh' and killed him on the spot. And thus,' according to the book of Judges, 'there fell forty and two thousand.' Dialect is undisguisable. It is asserted that eighty years ago the county of every member of the British Parliament might

1857.]

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF.

51

be known by his speech. Five hundred years ago, the gentle Dante counted one hundred distinct dialects on the little Italian peninsula. And in the judgment hall the Jews said to the terrirified apostle:-'Surely thou art a Galilean, for thy speech be wrayeth thee.'

I reached Quindaro again, in season to attend a public meeting. There were always public meetings. The people were the victims of oratory. Almost nightly a hand-bell would gather together from fifty to two hundred citizens, who would elect a president and secretary, call upon two or three fluent speakers to harangue them, pass resolutions and then adjourn, to await the record of their proceedings in the next issue of the Chin-do-wan.

This was a temperance meeting. Quindaro was distinctively a temperance town. Lots had been deeded with the express stipulation that they should not be occupied by liquor sellers. Still several low groggeries, fountains of bad habits and worse whisky had arisen to fright the isle from its propriety. All the leading women joined in a petition to the men 'to take speedy and efficient measures for casting out the vile demon.'

The meeting accordingly selected three of its members to appoint a vigilance committee of twenty, to cast out the vile demon.. It was organized forthwith, and sallied out at daylight the next morning. The first saloon was kept by a herculean German who, refusing to give up his keys, retreated behind his bar, pointing two enormous self-cocking six-shooters at the invaders, and swore he would blow out the brains of the first man molesting him or his whisky. Several of the visitors also drew revolvers, but the German's eye was wicked, and they hesitated.

Their leader, a lithe, young man, armed only with a whalebone cane, had served in Lane's army and smelt gunpowder. Turning to his companions, he said quietly:

'Kill him, boys, if he shoots me.'

Then he sprang over the bar and wrested both revolvers from the plucky but overpowered Teuton. But suddenly the German's wife, awakened by the noise, rushed from her bed-room to the scene of conflict, dragging a clothes-line which had caught her foot, and which was about the only thing in the line of clothes adorning her person. She flung hard words, broken English, and

52

'CASTING OUT THE VILE DEMON.'

[1857,

all other loose articles she could lay hands upon, at her unceremoni ous callers. But they unlocked a closet, rolled out and emptied

The Irish keeper of one 'not a drap of the crathur,'

two casks of whisky, and one of brandy. Two other saloons were similarly visited and purged. vowed by all the saints that he had and none was discovered in his house; but a mound of fresh earth, just outside suggested dark suspicions; and from it was exhumed a barrel of whisky, which was soon spilled, to his sore discom. fiture. Neither ale nor beer was destroyed; and just after sunrise the committee separated for breakfast. A few weeks later, I encountered most of them at a champagne supper in the very hotel where they had organized, and from whose front steps some had addressed the temperance meeting which gave them authority.

'Strange all this difference should be,

"Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.'

1857.]

FIRST VISIT TO LEAVENWORTH.

58

CHAPTER IV.

My next trip was to Leavenworth, then, as now, the largest town in Kansas. It was two years and a half old, with a popula tion of four thousand. Fort Leavenworth-two miles above, occupying one of the most beautiful sites on the Missouri-gave it life and stimulated its growth.

Steamers were discharging freight at the levee, new buildings were springing up, all was activity. As yet brick and stone were little used, and timber was a serious want. The chief native species are black-walnut, oak and cottonwood. The latter, which resembles the New England forest-poplar, but is even softer, cutting almost like cork, was largely used as a make-shift. When put in green and left unpainted, it warps wonderfully, making the house twist about like a corkscrew. Pine from Minnesota and western New York was largely in demand at one hundred dollars per thousand. None grows nearer than the Rocky Mountains, six hundred miles to the west.

Building lots, twenty-five feet by one hundred and twenty-five, upon the river landing, were valued at ten thousand dollars. Three or four blocks back, they sold for two thousand, and on the hills half a mile away, for twelve hundred. Prices were fast rising, money plentiful, and everybody speculating. One lot, which cost eight dollars six months before, had just sold for twenty-two hundred dollars. Eleven thousand dollars was now offered for eleven lots purchased for fifty-five dollars a year and a half earlier. Suburban lands three miles from the river, bought during the previous winter for one hundred dollars per acre, were now divided into building lots which commanded from one hundred to two hundred dollars each. Hotels were crowded with strangers, eager

54

A JOURNEY ON FOOT.

[1857.

to invest. Almost any one could borrow gold without security or even a written promise to pay; and the faith was universal that to morrow should be as this day and yet more abundant.

I left Leavenworth on foot. Back of the young, crude, life-full city, the prairie exhibited rapid settlements. Ten miles out, I supped with a family of intelligent Missourians, who had lived here for eighteen months. Half of their quarter-section was fenced and in corn. The claim was not yet preëmpted; they must pay the Government one dollar twenty-five cents per acre before receiving a perfect title, yet they had refused four thousand dollars for it.

The day had been hot as the one in which Sidney Smith declared himself compelled to take off his flesh, and sit in his bones. But the evening air was cool and fragrant, and the night brought its blessing of peace. I could feel and almost hear the brooding stillness that rested upon the wide-spread prairies. At nine o'clock, meeting a lank settler upon a little mule, I asked the distance to Judge Young's, whither I had been directed for lodgings; for on the frontier every farmer has accommodations for man and beast, and welcomes guests, who bring him the latest news from the outside world. The rider, long and ludicrous in the dim starlight, replied:

'Two miles; but I reckon you won't get to stop thar. The Judge is away, and his family is sick. But thar's a place just over yon ravine-Hayes's-whar I think they'll keep you.'

'What kind of people are they?'

'Well,' (hesitatingly,) 'they'll treat you well, and give you good accommodations. A heap of travelers stops thar.'

He rode beside me toward the house. My further inquiries about the family he evaded, replying only that they were from Missouri. We reached the dwelling to be greeted by two ferocious dogs. For ten minutes we shouted and rapped, meeting with no response. There were sounds within, but the door was secured. At last said my despairing guide:

'We mought as well give it up. My place is over here threequarters of a mile. We're poorly fixed for strangers, but it's good enough for us all the time; so I reckon you can stand it a single night. Come, and you're welcome. The fact is,' he continued,