Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/115

kept very quiet, coming up here to supply us with plenty of very fine apples, potatoes, poor butter, and ordinary flour; making quite a thriving business out of it, and, as I have supposed, settling down into the conclusion which we all do, when we learn to know people—that they are better than we expected. Last week, however, a man living about six miles from here upon a claim, while walking towards a blacksmith's shop, was shot down by a party of Missourians, without any provocation. The border Missourians are a horseback people; always off somewhere ; drink a great deal of whiskey, and are quite reckless of human life. There is no necessity for hard work to those who have long lived in this country, the earth yields so very abundantly. They ride fine horses, and are strong, vigorous-looking animals themselves. To shoot a man is not much more than to shoot a buck. After killing this poor Yankee, they stood around him till they saw a man approach, and then rode deliberately away. He who first came to the dying man went immediately to Mr. Branscome's, where the man had boarded. The two carried the body home. Nothing was done about