Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/319

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302 REV. PARDEE BUTLER of the Missouri river and set him adrift. There was a flagstaff on the raft with a banner which had written on it: "Eastern Aid Express;" "The Rev. Pardee Butler Again for the Underground Railroad:" "The way they are served in Kansas;" "For Boston;" "Car- go Insured, Unavoidable Danger of the Missourians and the Missouri River Excepted;" "Let future emis- saries from the North beware;" "Our hemp crop is sufficient to reward all such scoundrels." The raft landed about six miles down the river. It is generally understood that Mr. Butler was tarred and feathered before being put on the raft; but it was the following year. On April 30th, 1856, Mr. Butler had driven from his farm, and upon ar- riving in Atchison a lot of men gathered around, stripped him, tarred him all over, and for lack of feathers used cotton wool; then he was placed in his vehicle and ordered to leave town. It hardly seems possible that fifty years ago men should have permit- ted themselves to get so worked up over a question upon which men differed. And to think that fifty years ago there was not a railroad or telegraph wire in Kansas, and now — ^well, you must see to under- stand! In closing this chapter, and being so near the city of Atchison, it seems meet to quote from Frank A. Root's "The Overland Stage:" "In the early '60s he saw a yoke of buffalo in Atchison; they were driven by a ranchman from the Republican Valley. They were domesticated and very tame and worked well." This may seem like a fish story, but Mr. Boot is a re- liable gentleman; and why ■honld they not be broken