Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-05-05
Mob at Parksville, Missouri.

w C have an account OF the destruction by a
mob of the Office of the Parksyile Mo. J
Iuminary, published by George S. Park and
w. j. Patterson. 1t appears the editors did
not comment upon the immigration from the
North to Kansas in terms suitable to the mob,
aud hence the destruction of their Office,
accompanied by other indignities. The st.
Louis Inteilligencer, after referring to the
proceedings Of a meeting, these mobtes, says :
They proceeded to the Office, tore the press
from the building, mounted it with cap labeled
Boston Aid, marched it deliberately through
the streets Of the town, and tossed it into the
Missouri river. They had determined not only
to wreak their vengeance on the mute wheels
and levers Of the printing-press, but to give the
owners thereof a taste of their wrath, also
They dragged Mr. Patterson, one of the editors
of the Luminary, into the street, forced him to
witness the destruction of his property, and
then prepared to tar, and feather, and ride him
on rail. But q guardian and protecting
angel was sent to save the unresisting man
from the mortifying disgrace and degraded
punishment ready to be inflicted upon him by
the enraged populace. His devoted wife clung
to him to the last" stuck to him like leech"
as brutal eyewitness and narrator of the
scene expresses it-and endeavored to defend
him, by her feeble strength, from the fury of
the crowd. She succeeded. Her frail form
was an etfectual shield and saved her husband
from the ind;ction of personal outrage
supposed to be fit only for villains.
But while he was spared the disgrace of tar
and feathers, he was given to understand that
he could remain no longer in Parkvile. The
mob resolved itself into committee, and re-
solved that if he and bis colleague, Mr.. Park,
were found in the county at the end of three
weeks, they should follow their press and find
grave in the waves of the Missouri Mr.
Park was absent at the time, and is, perhaps,
indebted to that fact for his exemption from
the same humiliation visited on his associate.
The Luminary was not an Abotionist paper,
nor were its owners, Messrs Park & Patterson,
freesoilers. One of them-Park, we believe
lis the owner of slaves, and not at all likely
to publish opinions which, while endangering
the slave property of others, would also jeop-
ardlze the safety of his own. But the Luminary
spoke no hard and bitter words against the
Immigrants to Kansas from the North. / did
not call them " hirelings" and "whte slaves"
bought up and sent out by northern capitalists
to plant the standard of Free.soilsm on
the soil of Kansas 1t welcomed all settlers
with open arms, and encouraged emigration to
the new territory from all quarters, because its
owners knew that the rapid settlement of Kan
sas by industrious and thrifty emgrants would
augment the trade, and advance the interests
OF the border towns and cities of Missouri
For this they were spotted" tried by self
constituted jury found guilty, condemned and
ordered to leave the State
Another account states that while Patterson's
wife was clinging to him, and beseeching the
mob to spare him, they took a vote as to
whether they would tar and feather him, and
and small majority decided to let him Off
Among the resolutions adopted by them was
one, that Park or Patterson must leave the
State, but if they went to Kansas they (the
mobl pledged themselves to go there and hang
them wherever they found them. Another re-
solution was to this effect:
"That we will suffer no person belonging to
the Northern Methodist Church to preach in
Platte county, after this date, under penalty of
tar and feathers, for the first offence, and hemp
rope for the second"
This outrageous conduct of the mob, we
are pleased to see is denounced by the St. Louis
press