The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-09-05
THE JAYHAWKER.

. 6dlVG WIZ GtillGu oAl 4i4AAi'
THE JAYIAWKER.
AS John j. ingalls, Wrote Him Up
Years Ago, in the Kansas Maya
zine.
1t is not unreasonable to believe that
The student of Kansas history one hum
bred years hence, as he reyerts from
the men and manners of that degene-
rate time to the first splendid lustra of
his native state, Will turn to Genesis
I VIA for consolation and say with
sigh: There were giants in the earth
in those days" The colossal characters
| nurtured in the primeVal conVulslons OF
our politics will have passed INTO my
| thology. Tradition will have lent it's
pensive charm to the eloquence OF car
ney. the unquenchable fire OF Crawford,
! Lanes impregnable virtue Loves ag-
! gressive vigor, the sensitive honor of
/ Clark that tall, young oak OF the kaW,
| whose acorns hattened the swine In
| CaldWells sty-CaldWell who proudly
rose in his seat in the United States
senate in 1872 and hurled back with in
| dignation the charge that he bought his
senatorial toga at a political slop-shop
at, who could forbear to admit that
| there were indeed giants in the earth
in these days.
/ This was the close of the epoch when
| the iayhawk flew in the troubled at
mosphere. ii was an early bird and it
/ caught many Missouri worm. The
! ormse did not object to the innocent
amusement of the bird, but they insist
ed that public opinion must and should
! be respected.
But the bird had a mission, II could
| not be caught with chaH, nor would it
/ allow salt to be put on its tail. 1t pur-
sued its ministry of retribution, protec-
/ tion and vengeance through many
4 bloody years, till the worms We're fain
/ to concede the superiority of thsir
, feathered antagonist and adopt the
/ sentiment of the popular melody, 20,
/ birdie, | am tired now"
The border ruffians in SO constructed
| the eccaleobion in which the jayhawk
I was hatched, and it broke The shell
upon the reedy shores of the Marias des
! Cygnes, Its habits were not migratory,
| and for many years its habitat was
southern Kansas; but eventually it eX-
1 tended it's field of operations northward,
| and soon after the outbreak Of the war
was domiciled in the gloomy defiles and
! lonely forests of the bluffs whose rug
| ged bastions resist the assaults Of the
Missouri from the mouth of the Kaw
| to the Nebraska line.
| The situation was favorable The oc-
casion was suspicious. The new state
| itself intensely loyal, had but two lines
| of Intercourse with it's eastern sisters
one by rail and one by river-both un-
der the control of enemies who consd-
cred the engulfing of trains through
broken bridges and the murder Of UNI
Suspecting passengers upon steamers
from ambush along the shores as hon
orable warfare.
To the west and south extended I'M
peopled and desolate solitudes, open to
sudden invasion. Hostile camphres
burned around the fistulous lakes In the
forests of Buchanan and Platte and the
insolent challenge of the sentinel was
heard al nightfall upon the shores of
the deserted river The memories of
brutal wrongs were fresh in the minds
of implacable sufferers.
The farms and plantations of that ir-
regular triangle known as the Platte
purchase" whose hypothenuse is the
Missouri river. abounded in horses and
herds hogs and cattle-the accumula-
ton of years Of unexanlpled prosperity.
Its fat soil nurtured magnificent or
chards. It's broad fields, cultivated by
race of negroes whose average intel
llgence was superior to that of their
lazy lords. had returned incredible
yields of wheat, hemp and corn. Mon
ey was abundant. Granary, bin and
larder We're overlooking. Spacious
mansions, with airy verandas and porti-
cos, comfortable appurtenances Of barns
and outbuildings, reposed in the tram
quill seclusion of pastured lawns, whose
ancient trees cast a venerable shade
upon the bluegrass swad below
Indifferent roads and lack Of public
conveyances rendered the saddle the
chief dependence for local communica-
ton and resulted in a breed of incom-
parable riding horses, whose peculiar
gait, known as 'single-foot rack, is the
poetry of locomotion A generous diet,
freedom from the worst cares Of life,
and much exercise on horseback during
the greater portion of the year, had
gradually produced race of rudy
and stalwart men. bold and turbulent
by nature in youth, but rendered timid
by wealth and toned down to inaction
in ripper years by too much fat bacon
and 'applejacll and honey"
Slavery, as practiced among them,
had few of its most rrpusve features
but its existence fixed their political
convictions. So they put their sons on
their best horses and sent them south
with plethoric saddle-bags to join the
hordes Of Price, While they themselves
remained at home upon their planta-
tons and avowed their unalterable de-
votion to the Constitution and the I'm
ion.
Amid the commissions of the period,
and with the stimulus of an unappeasa-
BILE appetite for vengeance, such an in
wiling field could not remain long I'M
visited. The temptation was irressti-
BILE and the iayhawk plumed itself for
the quarry. The courts We're closed.
The regular armies were engaged in
other directions
The authorities upon either side We're
too much engrossed to listen to COM
plants. The young men were in the
brush or the camp. All the ordinary
avocations of industry and the usual
pursuits of life were at an end. The ne