The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-16
AMONG THE BOOKS
ssOrder No. IL of Interest to
kansans.
Deals With the Missouri Bor-
der Conflict.
SOUTHERN STANDPOINT
Kansas Soldiers Are Handled
Without Gloves.
Words of Justification for the
Border Ruffians.

The Century company has just pub
lished in book form Mrs. Caroline ABB
bolts story ''Order No. H. which ran
as a serial in the magazine. The book
should be an interesting one to every
person who lives in Kansas but espec-
tally so to those who participated in
the sanguinary conflict on the border
from 1856 to 1854
While the book will interest the
Kansas people who participated in
those bloody days it does not follow
that they will be pleased with its tone
or its atmosphere. In fact there is a
strong probability that the Indignation
of the reader who has the days of
bloodshed wildly in his mind will be
aroused by the book It is almost OUT
Tageously one sided in it's portrayal Of
the border warfare even going to the
extent of Justifying the murderous
Quantrell. Mrs. Stanley makes a fee
Bile effort to give a picture of the acts
Of the Missouri cut Threats but her
language is tempered with excuses for
them. 1t may be that she did not take
the trouble to investigate for she tells
the old exploded story about the mo-
tive that prompted Quantreu. Here 1T
Is as told by Mrs. Stanley, the words
being attributed to Jesse James:
Away back yonder in 1856 when
Quantrell was a right young man, he
and his brother started overland 10
California They got as far as Kan
sas, near Lawrence, when a band of
Jayhawkers fell on them and killed
his brother and robbed them, and left
0uantrell for dead. But he WASH t.
reckon they've wished a good many
times since then that he had been.
Well he came to after awhile, but he
couldn't move, and he lay there two
days and nights by the dead body of
his brother, keeping away the coyotes
and the buzzards. At the end of that
time an old Indian found him and
buried his brother and took Quantreil
home to his wigwam and nursed him
back to life. The boys say that those
two days and nights made a demon of
that man. You wouldn't know It
though to look at him. He's as mild
looking as a preacher.
He didn't seem to care to live for
anything but revenge. While he was
getting well in the old Indian Wigwan
he laid his plans. He made a vow
that every man in that gang should
die as his brother had died. And how
do you suppose he made sure of them
He Joined that band of Jayhawkers
himself. They didn't know him. They
had left him for dead, you know; and
he had changed his name and every
thing like that. Then he got them to
talk about those two men they had
killed and how they. had done it. And
he listened and bfded his time. We'll
one day a Jayhawker in that band was
found dead with a hole in the middle
of his forehead. Nobody knew who
did it and Quantreu or Hart as he was
called then, didn't know any more than
the rest. 1t was not long before there
was another and after awhile another
always with the one bullet that had
gone home.
After awhile they got frightened
and disbanded. It didn't make any
difference. Quantrell had them spot
ted then and the same shot followed
them. The boys say that whenever he
kills a man he ties a knot in a silk
cord he carries. There were 80 of those
men. They say there are % knots
now
Investigation has proved that there
is no foundation whatever for the
story and that Quantrell, originally a
free state man living in Miami county
joined the border ruff1ans apparently
with no other motive than the fact
that this association offered him better
opportunities for taking human life.
The only outrage which Quantreu
rufhans was an accusation that he has
taken q horse that did not belong tC
him. He had no brother and never any
relatives in Kansas.
The author invents a story of a raid
into Missouri on August 20, 1853, one
day before the Quantren raid and
massacre. She tells of farm houses
burned and people massacred and
draws a picture which will soften the
reader for the brief account of the
Quantrell massacre which follows.
There is no doubt whatever that Col
Jennison was all or nearly all that The
author makes of him. There is also
no doubt that there We're atrocities or
the Union side and it is not evident
to the casual reader why General Lane
burned Osceola but Mrs. Stanley has
failed utterly if she attempted in hel
story to give an impartial account O.
the outrages committed on both sides
She writes as a Missourian and see,
things through southern eyes ans
hears only the ex parte statements q
the sufferers from the raids of fret
state men. She has evidently not ia
ken the trouble to examine the rec
ords of 1856, ST, SO and so to ascertain
what Kansas suffered from Missouri.
So far as '.order No IL itself is con
cerned it should be really made a sub
title for the book for it does not fur
nish the main theme. Order No. 7
was issued by General Thomas EwinE
of LeaVenworth and viewed through
the lapse of 40 years it appears harsl
and unnecessary. Its purpose was t,
break uD the retreats of guerrillas VIII
were making raids into Kansas an,
committing murders on every hand. J
is evident that the order was harsi
and fell with a heavy hand upon tn
weak and helpless but there is no rea
son why it should have occasionei
b1oodshed and the Union officer
claimed it did not. Here is the orde
itself:
Headquarters District of the Bord a
Kansas City, Mo, August %, 1858
F7irst-An persons living in Cass
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