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swearing they will burn out the White men and carry off the White women from Vinita, that is what's going to happen,” growls a settler on the Kansas plain.
“But surely,” I venture to put in, “those Cherokees under Billy Ross are civilised people, not wild animals like Cheyennes and Osages.
Are they not settled on the land?
Have they not farms and sheep-runs, schools and chapels?
Are they not dressed in caps and coats, and called by Christian names?
Billy Ross does not exactly smack of tomahawk and scalping-knife.”
“Ha, ha!”
roars the Kansas settler, “bully for you. I see you'll bite.
Then tell me, stranger, what is the difference whether you call a savage Flying Hawk or Billy Ross?
Will a name wash off war paint, or turn the Indian's yep-yep into Home, sweet Home?
Guess Billy Ross is a savage, like the fathers of his tribe.”
“Vinita is a Cherokee town.
Why should the Cherokees burn their own cabins and sack their own farms?”
“Because they are some cuss.
Look at this news from Texas.
They are expecting an attack by Ross.
The women and children are aboard the ”
1875.
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