The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-08-06

view with Cole Younger in regard to
the Mortified bank raid. 1t is surmis-
ed the man called Howard is intended
to mean Jesse James and the man
Wood indicates Frank James. The
story is doubly interesting to people
In this vicinity and is here given with
out any alterations whatever.
"In telling the story of the Northfield
bank robbery and it's frightful results
l have only to say that there is no
heroism in outlawry, and that the man
who sows is sure to reap. After Lee
surrendered l tried my best to live
at peace with the world and earn a
livelihood. I'd been made a guerilla
by q provocation that few men could
have resisted. My father had been
cruelty murdered, my mother had been
bounded to death, my entire family
had been tormented and all my rela-
tions plundered and imprisoned" said
Cole Younger.
"From the mass of rubbish that has
been written about the guerilla there
is little surprise that the popular con.
ception of him should be a fiendish,
bloodthirsty wretch.
"Yet he was in many cases, if not
in most, a man who had been born to
better things and who was made what
he was by such outrages as Osceola,
Palmyra and by hundred raids in
less famous but not less infamous,
that were made by Kansans into Mis-
souri, during the war.
'sWhen the war ceased those of the
guerillas who were not hung or shot
or pursued by posses till they found
the hand of man turned against them
at every step, settled down to become
good citizens in the peaceful walks of
life, and the survivors of QuantrelPs
band may be pardoned, in view of the
black paint that has been devoted to
them, in calling attention to the fact
that of the members of Quantrell's
band who have since been intrusted
with public place, not one has ever
betrayed his trust.
"As for myself and brothers wish
to emphasize that we made an honest
attempt to return to normal life at the
close of the war, and had we been
permitted to do so the name of Young
er would never have been connected
with the crimes that were committed
in the period Immediately following
the war;"
"That my life was good or clean l
do not assert. But, such as it was it
was forced upon me by conditions over
which I had no control. Before final
judgment is passed upon the men of
nv kind who were with me in those
days 1 ask that the fact be considered
that we were born in days when hat
red was the rule and reared among
scenes of violence.
"But I have been accused of many
crimes of which I have not been
guilty, and 1 am willing to take my
oath that the crimes that were charged
against me in Missouri were not mine.
Never in all my life had l anything to
do with any of the bank robberies in
the state of Missouri which had been
charged against myself and brothers.
SIN the fall of 1868 my brothers,
Jim and Bob, went with me to Texas.
The next two or three years we spent
in an honest life, my sister joining us
and keeping house for us at Syene,
Dallas county. In 1870 and 1871 Jim
was deputy sheriff in Dallas county.
He and Bob sang in the church choir.
At that time Bob, who was only II,
fell in love with one of the young
ladies in the village.
81 went down to Louisiana, and the
story was told that 1 killed five men
and shot five others because l had
been robbed by lot of crooked cattle
men. There is just this much truth
about this incident: There was a
crooked race, with me as the victim,
After the race | fought duel, but not
over the race.
"The duel was forced upon me by a
man named Captain James White. He
circulated a scandalous tale about the
young woman Bob was in love with.
l sent word to him that he would have
to apologize or fight. After the race
I referred to White and l went to a
neighboring plantation and fought it
out. At the first shot his right arm
was shattered at the shoulder. When
he thought he was dying he apologized
and admitted that he had circulated
the story for the purpose of forcing a
fight upon me-"
at was about this time that the
Kansas City fair was robbed. This
was charged against the Younger broth
ers, although not one of us had any
thing to do with it. Bob felt so keen
ly the notoriety that resulted from my
duel and from the stories of the Kan
sas City robbery that he left Dali
las, and later Jim and I followed him.
About this time my brother John, who
was only fourteen years old when the
war closed, was forced into a quarrel
and murdered as wantonly as man
was ever murdered in the history of
the west.
"When 1 was on the Pacific slope
Missouri adopted the famous Drake
constitution, which prohibited Confed-
crate Sold;ors ooJ s,,p,no tb;,ors fro,,,