atment I had got at
the hands of citizens of Missouri.

Having completed my business in St. Louis I turned my face toward my old
field of labor in the "Military Tract," _via_ the Illinois River. The
reader will believe that my reflections were full of anxieties. What
would the brethren say of me? Were my prospects blighted from this time
forward?

CHAPTER IX.

The brethren in Illinois were at the first amazed at what they heard,
and did not know what to think or say. Before they could make up their
minds, the following editorial appeared in the _Schuyler County
Democrat_, published at Rushville:

ELDER PARDEE BUTLER,

The gentleman who was placed on a raft in the Missouri
River, with a proper uniform for a Northern fanatic, is in
Rushville. We saw handbills posted around town stating
that he would hold a meeting in the Christian Church. We
are informed he will deliver a series of lectures, in
which, _of course_, he will give vent to his indignation
toward the people of Kansas, Judge Douglas and the
Administration. We thought Schuyler county was the last
place which a _Northern fanatic_ would visit for sympathy.
We hope that those that go to hear his lectures, which
differ with him in their sentiments, will not interrupt
him or give him any pretext by which he could denounce our
citizens.

To the above notice of myself I made the following reply:

[For the Prairie Telegraph.]

MESSRS. EDITORS: _Sirs_--I find the above notice of myself
in the last issue of the _Schuyler Democrat_.

While in Kansas I diligently worked six days of the week,
and on Lord's day spoke to my neighbors, not in reference
to affairs in Kansas, but in reference to our common
interest in a better and heavenly country. I do not know
that I indicated my political proclivities, in any word or
allusion, on any such occasion, But I did, in private
conversations with my neighbors, avow my intention to vote
for Kansas to be a free State, and gave my reasons for so
doing. _This was my only offence._

What must you think of yourself, sir, in this notice you
take of this transaction? And you pretend to be a
conservator of public morals! If there is in town a
clergyman that will consent to teach you a few lessons
upon the items of justice and gentlemanly behavior, I
suggest it may be to your advantage to put yourself under
his tuition. You may perhaps learn that it is neither just
nor gentlemanly gratuitously to insult a man, because yo