It will amuse
you." At length we could see the smoke of the city of St. Louis, and I
gave back to this stranger the book he had loaned me. He said: "No,
thank you." I was startled, and said with some surprise: "I do not know
why you should do this to a stranger." He laughed and said: "You are not
so much a stranger as you think. Your name is Butler, is it not?"
"Yes."
"And they mobbed you at Atchison?"
"Yes."
"Well, please call on me at the office of the _Missouri Democrat."_
"And what is your name?"
"_They call me B. Gratz Brown_".
And so Providence had prepared the way for making my appeal to the
people. B. Gratz Brown had the preceding winter, at Jefferson City,
either given or accepted a challenge to fight a duel; but the public
authorities had interfered, and some business connected with this matter
had called him to Jefferson City. But whence had he his knowledge of
the mobbing at Atchison? The _Squatter Sovereign_ had been issued
immediately after they had put me on the raft, and had contained the
following editorial:
On Thursday last [it was Friday], one Pardee Butler arrived in town with
a view of starting for the East, probably with the purpose of getting a
fresh supply of Free-soilers from the penitentiaries and pestholes in
the Northern States.
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