The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-04-08
wHTTE-HATRED. LI4HT-EYED COUNTRY
BOYS,


tall. gaunt, and awkward, but they be-
came the nucleus of QuantrelIs band.
Killing and burning was business WITH
them, and they followed 1t from Gay &c
day with terrible ear2estness, Inc poy s
soon made their names notorious, ana
the iayEaWkers sought revenge AFTER
the usual custom Of border warfare
The father of the boys wss shaooWed
from place to place, and, finally, just al
ter he had come into possession OF sew
eral thousand dollars. was mobbed at
his home one night, killed and roDbed.
The mother was forced to fire her own
home. and. with the flames lighting up
their path, the avengers rode Oft. FROM
this time the whole Younger family
was outlawed. The boys with Quantrell
revenged their fathers death, and the
iayhawkers hunted down the mother
and the children. After the burning OF
the home in Cass County, the woman
rot her children about her in q miserable
shanty in Lafayette County, and there
passed the winter The jayhawkers fol
lowed the trail as hunters would that OF
a she-wolf and cubs. They surrounded
the shanty in the hope OF finding the
guerrillas, but failing III that. chased IL
to the bush the next of the boys, John
Younger, only Il years of age. From
Lafayette, the few remaining helpless
members of the family were driven into
CLAY County. From that time until the
end of the war it Was a series OF per
sectttions on one side and Of bloody re-
taliation on the other.
Upon one occasion the guerrillas en-
countered band Of jayhawkers, num-
bering thirty Or more. A dozen were
killed in the charge, and, IN the hight,
nearly score of the jayhawhers were
captured. They were taken into camp,
and the question of their fate soon Set
tied After supper, and while the dusk
was coming on, Cole Younger got out
AN ENFIELD RIFLE,
captured in the fight that day. 1t was
the first of the pattern the guerrillas
had seen, and they discussed its merits
eagerly. Opinions differed as to the
new piece One of the guerrillas had
heard that it would kill at the distance
of mile. Younger argued if this was
SO, the force of the discharge must be
terrific. Another of the band iestingly
suggested that, If the new gun would
kill at a mile, ball at short range would
go through ten men. In matter-Of-
fact tone Younger got up from the sad
die upon which he had been sitting with
the remark that the thing was easy Of
demonstration. With a word or two of
explanation, he took fifteen Of the prison
ers out under guard to a large whlte-oak
tree. and, with the aid of a comrade, be-
gan to arrange them in single file. Then
he passed the rope along the line and
bound them securely, the rear man with
his back securely against the tree. The
faces OF the prisoners paled, and some
of them began to beg, but the gllerrillas
paid no more attention to them than if
the sounds were rustl1ng leaves, while
the rest OF the band sat quietly about
the campfire, smoking their corn-cob
pipes and curiously watching the oper-
atlons Of Younger. The line was finally
fixed to his notion and the begging ceas-
ed. The living file bugled out firm
without waver. They knew the end
had come, and waited grimly. Younger
took the new Enfield III his hands, play
ed with the lock and trigger an instant
to get ''the hang of it, and then care
fully measured off Is PAGES from the
front Of the file, wheeled about, looked
calmly and soberly In the faces of the
doomed men, and then fired. The first,
and third men
DROPPED LIMP AND LIFELEss
without groan. Muttering contemptu-
Gus condemnation of the new rifle,
Younger, without moving from his
tracks, continued his experiments. Seven
times the rifle was discharged, each time
|
on the merits of the Enfield, and, when
the last shot was fired, the fifteen jay
hawkers lay In a great inanimate heap
upon the dead grass.
The nerve of these Youngers under
the most disadvantageous
is one of their peculiar traits. They
seem not to know what it is to be over
powered. The readers of The Tribune
will remember the encounter of a year
ago which led to the death of Capt.
Lull, of Pinkerton's force, while look
ing for the Youngers in the vicinity of
Appleton City. Two of the Youngers
had overtaken Capt. Lul and his com
rades on the road, had halted them, and
called upon them to drop their arms. Tt
was supposed they had complied, and
one OF the 9oungers dismounted to pick
up the weapons. The other-John
Youngers-sat cooily upon his saddle,
with one leg thrown carelessly over the
pommel ana his gun in his lap. Lull,
Ills opportunity, drew out
derringer, and, quick as
flash fired upon John Younger. The
ball struck him full in the throat, tear
ing open the iugular vein. With the
life blood pouring out in a great gush-
ing stream, John Younger actually
himself in the saddle,
threw forward his gun, aud with dehber-
ate aim poured a heavy load of buckshot
into Capt Luh's chest and then drop
ped dead on the road. Lull was saved
from immediate death by his horse run
ming into the brush. This is the story
of that fatal encounter as the remaining
Younger describes 1t, and it is probably
the correct version OF the encounter.
This was not the first time that John
Younger had shown that strange charact-
eristic of the genuine border desperate.
the almost superhuman faculty OF