The National tribune., 1905-10-19

prison door where she was he received
q tongue flashing that ne would not soon
forget-at least. / always got such Q
berating.
dent that caused the death Of three or
four girls Mrs. Gray asked me to get
her q pass for her and her two little
girls to visit a friend I'm town for the
day. and I did II. That little act OF
kindness has always been . pleasure to
me, as 1t saved the lives Of Mrs. Gray
and her two little daughter. The build
ing where the women prisoners were
kept at Kansas City, was q large struc-
ture In McGee's Addition, that the Gov
eminent had taken possession of to be
used for all purposes. The central part
OF the building was brick. three stories
above the basement. The basement
walls were built of brick, which was the
real cause of the building falling down:
although the talk at the time, and since
the war, among some people. was that
IL was plot to blow the building UP
TO Kill the women prisoners. That Is
simply absurd.
The building stood on q hillside. so
that the rear was not as high above tho
ground by one story as the side facing
the street. A stairway outside led to
the second story, about seven or eight
feet from the ground. sentinel was
always at the head Of the stairs.
The women, from some cause, d.d
not live as happily together as they
should, and We locked the partition
doors. so that they could live peacefully
apart.
few minutes before the building
fell l went up into the rooms where
the girls were to see If everything was
right. As 1 passed through the first
room the Oldest Anderson girl said 70
me that the house was going to fall
down. 1 asked her what made her
the dust is falling through the cracks
In the plastering!" / said: "If that is
SO, you had better get out of here"
passed on to the other rooms, and had
returned on my way out. as far as to
the front room, where the oldest An.
derson girl and one other girl were,
when the house came down with q
crash.
From that time on I was frightened
so badly that / cannot tell just how /
got out: but the wall on that side of the
house did not fall for several seconds
after the other walls collapsed. The
window Of that room was out, to give
plenty OF air. The girls were between
me and the window. We all three
went out Of the window so near togeth-
er that we lay in heap as we fell to
the ground several feet below. The
fall knocked the breath out of US for
some time. When / recovered my senses
two or three companies of soldiers were
in line i'm front of the building.
The noise, confusion and the awful
dust that raised from the ruins caused
the report to be circulated in the camps
that Quantrill and the Andersons had
come to liberate the prisoners, as they
had threatened several times L am
not able to say how many of the girls
were killed or what became of those
who were saved, as our company was
several miles away from the city be-
fore the bodies were taken ont of the
ruins, and 1t was many months before
l was back to the city again.
l want to say that in my Judgment
the Anderson brothers were much more
to be feared as fighters than was Guam
trill. Bill Anderson was killed at
Roachport, Mo-, in the Summer of 1854,
fighting, with his bride rein in his
teeth and a revolver in each hand
Asher S. Childers, Co. c. 18th Kan.
Cav, Salem, w. Va.