294 
KANSAS. 
governor, and that he would let the pro-slavery party do as they 
pleased, and that now was the time to burn out, kill and drive 
every free-state man from the territory. 
“I am a pro-slavery man myself, but I want things done honor¬ 
ably, and give you the warning now. Do not delay, for they will 
be in Topeka in a very few days. Respectfully, 
“ James Bkown. 
“ P. S. — This is not my proper name, but what is said is true.” 
Several women, whose lives had been passed amid the influ¬ 
ences of slavery, were a novel study. One who boarded in the 
hotel, a lady in manner, seemed anxious to know all that was 
transpiring in and around the house, and to gain such knowledge 
did not hesitate to listen at the doors of other people’s rooms. 
One evening, three several times was she found standing in the 
dark passage-way near a room, where several of the free-state 
people were chatting socially. 
Another, a young girlish thing, full of quick wit and ready 
repartee, though as uncultivated as the unhewn rock, occasioned us 
many a laugh. She was a native of this far west, and it seemed 
to be as natural for her to swear as to breathe. Almost every 
sentence, besides the oath, either began or finished with the asser¬ 
tion “ I am a real border ruffian.” She talked a good deal of a 
proposed visit to her husband’s parents in Vermont, and won¬ 
dered “ what they would say when they saw a live border ruffian.” 
There was another person, whose languid airs and affected 
manner of speech would entitle her, in the great world of fashion, 
to the name of lady. The subject of temperance lectures being 
one day incidentally introduced, she said, “ It was^ not because 
her husband was a seller of liquors that she never attended such 
lectures, but where she had lived it had not been considered 
respectable for ladies to attend them.” She concluded by saying 
“ that in these days of isms she supposed some would attend 
them.” 
There was another woman, native-born, who came to the 
house, occasionally, at the time it was passing into new hands. 
She owned one of the colored “ boys,” who was hired in the 
hotel. She came to make some arrangement with the new pro- 
