WAKARUSA WAR — PREPARATIONS. 
125 
after suggestions from the trio of young men, who have now been 
on guard four nights in this part of the town, making our house 
head-quarters, “ that Shannon will not fight; ” that “the Missouri¬ 
ans will run at the first fire,” and that “ they, having been taught to 
believe the Yankees are cowards, will find their mistake; ” that they 
are expecting to get land-warrants to pay them for their trouble in 
coming here, but may get an actual preemption claim six feet by 
two instead; we are all of our old opinion that there is really 
very little actual danger. They may take the trouble to come 
here, some coming hundreds of miles, with their threats, their 
whiskey and their old shot-guns, — giving them a right to the name 
with which our guard has christened them, “ The Shot-gun Bat¬ 
talion,”— they may come with their music, in the shape of an 
old violin, and a rough, fierce-looking biped, to whom soap and a 
razor are unknown, clad in buckskin breeches, and red shirt; but 
the inspiration of the “ Arkansas Traveller,” among these half- 
drunken creatures, will never equal the “ moral suasion,” or the 
wholesome fear of a few Sharpe’s rifles. 
Our house was full last night, and of the capacity of our Kan¬ 
sas homes our eastern friends have no idea. Doctor brought several 
strangers home with him at a very late hour. 
A startling incident occurred last night. One of our picket 
guards was fired upon. Two of the guard were sitting together, 
when a party of Missourians approached and fired six shots at 
them. Our men had strict orders not to fire, unless the emer¬ 
gency was desperate, and so bore the insult with remarkable pru¬ 
dence, and obeyed orders. 
Our people are acting strictly upon the defensive, and these 
provocations are continually offered us to provoke a collision. 
They are endeavoring to draw them from the position which 
all the world will justify, that they may have a pretext for the 
destruction of Lawrence, which is really the whole cause of the 
invasion. 
A clergyman was with us last night. He had come in from a 
neighboring settlement, and has been a resident of Missouri 
twenty-seven years. He knows them well therefore; their cruel 
and desperate characters. With the few who came with him to 
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