National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-06
THE MISSOURI BRIGANDS.
THE CHICAGO IETER-OCEAR At
THEIR HEADQUARTERS.

THE YOUNGER FAMILY OF HORSE THIEVES
THEIR sULPHURoUS RESIDENCE-Po-
LITE TREATMENT OF GUESTS AFTER
THEY DETERMINE NOT TO SHOUT oh
HANG THEM.
"Curtis b" writes the Chicago I"ter-Oeean
from Appleton City, No, in the following racy
style:
In one of Artemus Wards lectures he used
to tell of an old frontieTsman, who had built
him a comfortable cabin, and was living alone
with his wife and family far away from all
civilization. The story was given and the
,o,cture was described in the humorist's best
vain. and continued that the man on returning
from a protracted hunt one day, found his
cabin burned by the Indians, his wife and
children gone, and the bones of his stock in the
ashes Of his stable. The old squatter gszed
upon the the scene for a moment, Artemus
said, and then murmured In tones of anguish,
GLOW ridiculousp
The same contrast of language and manners
find in my Investigations here. These people
talk Of their escapades with these ruthans,
their narrow approaches to death at their
hands, and the fact that they suppose the
Youngers have "spotted" them and are watch
ing an opportunity to shoot them down, with
sang froid that is perfectly amusing. They
tell how the Youngers have threatened them;
how they captured them and stood them up, as
they thought, to shoot them, with the same
nonchalance with which South Side belle in
Cbicaco relates of ga little affair." between her
self and her lover.
''Why don't you get out of their way3 Why
don't you leave the countrya" asked man
L. 49,, 81 ham
"Wan," said he, 81 hate to move"
Ihave no need to tell how an ordinary indi-
yidual like myself would regard that reason l
wanted to tell that man he was an idiot, but
thought he knew it better than did, or he
would value his life morel
CAPTURED BY THE YoUNGERs.
In one of my letters referred to an affair
that occurred at Monigaw last fall, when sew
eral men from this place were captured by the
Youngers and their crowd but believe did
not tell the whole story, which is very inter
esting and illustrates the character of the men
with whom Mr.. Pinkerton has to deal: Mr.. z.
will be interested to have it in detail, for be-
lieye he has written to q gentleman here for
the entire circumstances.
Last September some horses were stolen In
Csss county, and several stores broken open by
the same thieves in single night. The rob-
berry was published in all the Western papers,
and will be remembered. Mr.. A. d. Robbins,
of Burdett, Cass county, and j. W. Miller, of
Broslev. where the horses were stolen, tracked
the thieves to this place, by peculiar shoe the
horse wore and popularity in his gait. Here
they secured the assistance Of several gentle
men, and started for Monigaw. The party con-
sisted of these two gentlemen: tom Cobb, u
q young druggist here, with as clear an eye and
nj ia looked into. II nj
Cotton, a young farmer, and Mr. Wycof,
lumber merchant. A few miles below young
man named Hster Joined the party as guide,
and they succeeded in tracing the horse to the
barn of a man named Morrow, who lived just
on the edge of the Honigaw woods.
From here it led them to q blacksmith shop
at Lowry Cfty, small settlement two miles
away, when they lost the trail, but found an
other, made by 8 newly-shod horse. This they
followed back to Morrow's house again, and
concluded they would call on him. He was
there with Kirkpatrick, another of the tribe,
but, after little tussle and several shots, both
got away, and fed into the woods. The party
remained overnight at the hotel at Roscoe,
where Lull is lying, and started after their men
again.
THE COUNTRY.
Ihave given a brief description of the coun-
try, sufficient for the readers of the Inter Ocean
to understand that 1t is q tract of timber ten
miles square, cut up by small streams, and full
ofravines red sandstone lodges, waterfalls, and
caves, reminding one of "John Browns Tract, u
in the northern part Of New York, at the head
of the Cattskills. The soil is barren and rocky,
covered with the timber that usually grows In
such places, and thick with brush.
There are few wagon roads, and these arc
almost always impossible, but the whole tract
is cut up by foot paths, and what are known In
this country as trails. A traveller without a
guide might lose himself here and wander for
Il.
and, as en- old backwoodsman told me, ''they
don't lead nowhere" Occasionally one comes
across q negro cabin, sometimes inhabited,
sometimes deserted. These negroes were for
merly slaves on ''old man Younger's" planta-
ton, of which this forest formed q part
Nearly in the center of the tract are "Monigaw
Springs" flooding out sulphur water of the
strongest and most odorous character.
A large hotel was built at the springs before
the war, and It was quite q resort for invalids
It is a poor wreck now, and uninhabited, al
though found bedsteads and chairs and tables
in some of the rooms. Portions Of the lower
part have been torn away, 90 that could ride
my horse through the lower halls. The house
stands on the top of one of the highest and
steepest peaks, at the base of which runs
sluggish sulphur stream, from the banks of
which the mineral water lie fairly spouting out
The whole cir smells of birthstone and the
surroundings remind one of one of Dante's
Inferno" pictures.
THE ToUNGERs' PRECAUTIONS.
These Youngers, whenever they are in the
country, have spies stationed at all the ap-
proaches to their dens, who give them warning
by bugle blast. No one has ever seen this
bugle, nor the mysterious musician who stands
guard, but it is always heard by persons who
have met the HOungers while crossing the
woods. Lull and his party received the warn
ing about half an hour before the fight oc-
Cured.
BUT, TO RETURN
to my story, and although it reads like romance,
although it smacks of adventure of that pecu-
liar sort Of which Beside is the patron saint, l
can assure the readers of this letter that every
word is true.
left the party on their way from Roscoe to
the woods. They went to old Shutters house
and inquired after the stolen horse. OF course
no one had seen or heard of 1t. Soon after they
nearo the bugle, and they say its notes were
the sweetest music, echoine and re-echoinp m
and down the glens and caVerns till it seemed
as If thousand bugles had been blown. Abont
twenty minutes after they reached the stream
near the hotel and paused at the foot Of the hill
to rest their horses and counsel together II was
concluded that the Cas- county men had better
60 up to the hotel alone and look at the stables
for one of the Younger gang named Wilson. the
same man, believe, who wished to 'spound''
me for writing that "d-n stuff about Us fel-
lows" was living there, and so a large party
might excite his suspicious So the two men
went on, and were gone sometime, Wykof
wondering what kept them, started up the Hill
to reconnoitre. He had been gone but q mo-
nent when the three who remained at the foot,
Cobb, Cotton, and Heter, heard suddenly the
tramp of horses behind them, and
"Hello, therep
One Of them answered the call with a
'tHellof, and they saw five men right upon
them. The leader, who proved to be John |
younger, the man Lull killed, ordered them to |
THROW DOWN THEIR ARMS
and hold up their hands, saying, "Now we've
Cd, we've got you now" and each of the
party leyeled a double barrelled shotgun al
the boys, who threw down their revoIyers TO
the ground. Each of Youngers party, besides
his shotgun, had four revolvers in bis belt
and some had knives. There were two Young
ers, John and "Bob," and Mccoy, and Kirk
patrick, and Morrow, and two men they had
tried to arrest the day before. John Younger,
recognized Cobb, and said
Tom Cobb, amt you old enough to do better
than this?''