The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-04-16
NlscEnMg9.
THE WESTERN LOwRYs.
A Story OF Blood, Punctuated with
Pistol Shota.

Pistol Shots.
THE CAREER OF THE JAMES AND YOUNGER
DEsPERADoEs-CoUNTIE TERRIFIED IN
To Observation-Disclosures OF THEIR
LAwLEss LIvEs-DYING WITH THEIR
BOOTS ON.
From special correspondence to N. Y. World.
APPLETON CITY, No., March %.
1t is quiet Sabbath and the land is
fair with early spring. Beautiful prairiee
stretch away to belts of forest, and on the
southwest the country swells and breaks
into little hills. The land is goodly land,
and the railroad runs through it, bringing
civilization and commerce to the doors of
its dwellers. But there is from almost
immemorial time curse upon the country,
and on either hand of the two shining lines
of iron that vanish in the distance into
shining needles, there is hardly a section
of land that has not been wetted with
the blood of a murdered man, and the
graves of the dead are more numerous
than the houses of the living. The South
west has been settled by outlaws, who be-
| queathed their names, feuds, and weapons
TO younger outlaws. Civilization to them
has humanlzing mission; all that it has
meant was more deadly instruments Of Of
| fence, Cofhns, guns, and buckshot seem
to be all that the railroad has brought into
the country. Men go armed to the teeth
up and down the roads, and acquire respect
and repute from their rufianism. This is
especially true, OF course, of the country
| lying back of the railroads. Here the
bands that laid waste bleeding Kansas
wees organized, and here Quantrell re-
cruited for his raid on Lawrence. Feuds
r., Ill / l.
dal and criminal energies of the population
are bent upon "civiized folk who carry
baw-bees in their pouches and wear breeks
on their hinder ends" There are organ
ized bands of horse thieves, train robbers
and highwaymen, each having his head
quartel5 and possessing perfect chain of
communication along the approaches there
| to. Three or four of these men will set out
on hersebacks with shot-guns and revolv-
ers, ditch train or rob store couple of
hundred miles away and then ride day and
| night back to their Businesses, where they
| lurk until instinct sends them out on an
other raid. Their DISCUSSES and the fact
| that they commit their crimes far away
from home make impossible to identify
them beyond the fact they "come from
Southern Missouri and are cannected with
the James band" or the younger band"
or some other band. They are closely pur-
sued; they rally reinforcements and beat
back their pursuerS; if detectives venture
after them they have word of their coming
long ere the officers can arrive, and are
prepared to run or fight, as the exigencies
| of the case may dictate. Between terror
and sympathy the local population be-
friends them and their reign of terror will
continue unchecked until they are thinned
out in broils and encounters, or till regi-
iment is marched into Clay, Cass, st. Clair,
and the adjoining counties, and a regular
battle of bandits, proven and suspected, is
/ instituted
There have been pre-eminent men in
crime in the south of Missouri who were
reared in the days of border rufianism and
/ passed their bloody bacealaureate in the
| rebellion. Anarchy and lawlessness were
then at a premium. Deserters and strag-
glers from either army and outlaws who
made war on both combined to write such
3 history of blood as Is rarely recorded
if such history ever was, will, or can be
written, that is. Where murder is a mat
ter of daily occurrence people omit to take
| cognizance OF what IN more civilized parts
of the country would thrill the world for
weeks with indignant horror, and where
| the population is ignorant and credulous
the most distorted and exaggerated tales of
terror are sure to be circulated, and in
course of time to become current as truths
which it is as impossible to disprove as
believe, Besides, thess desperaaoes az q
matter Of policy set ahoat the most Mum
| chausen-lke of these stories. Each yarn
about cutting the threats Of prisoners or
single handed resisting and butchering a
| dozen pnrsners RnsWers the purpose of Ler-
rlfying the neighborhood into a healthy
silence or sympathy, and makes further
exploits easy. The story of the "Tiger of
Che Ozarks" might be told had space and
time-the outlaw who made his treasure
house, arsenal and fort in cave in the
hills and shot down every man he met,
defying and declmatlng a company of
troops sent to hunt him down. Two Uni
| ted States soldiers, one an Iowa cavalry
man killed MIN. Playing the role Of Ark
| ansans who have been pressed to serve in
the Union army and had deserted and were
trying to get home, they went to email
cabin tenanted by woman whose husband
the Tiger had killed. Here he was accus-
toned to take his meals: The soldiers
were unarmed and the Tiger came in q
walking arsenal, enough to make them
shiVer without the additional fact being
taken into consideration that they had
| lain dll ulBn5 III IH0 COl0. lucy lOlu bQSlE
miserable tals and sought aid to reach their
friends. He said that Yank or Seeesh were
the same 20 him, he hadn't spared a man
yet and wasn't going to begin then They
pleaded that they would perish of hunger
and cold, and he said if they were killed
at once they would be saved so much suf-
fering. Finally he said he would until he
had eaten his breakfast and then decide
whether or not to kill them. All this
while he had been sitting between them
with his gun on his knees and no oppor-
tunity had presented itself for an attack.
Suddenly he leaned forward to take coal
from the hearth and light his pipe, and the
Iowa cavalryman se-zing the tongs dealt
him blow on the head and knocked him
into the fireplace. His comrade seized an
iron or az iron dish-I write from memory
three or four years old-and both the men
throwing themselves on HIM pounded mis-
skull until it wac broken In q dozen places
and his face mashed to a bloody pulp. so
that he was blInd-you couldn't see where