Record Data
Source citation
Orville Chester Brown, Letter from Orville Chester Brown, 1856, Spencer Kellogg Brown, His Life in Kansas and His Death as a Spy, 1842-1863, As Disclosed in His Diary, Smith, George Gardner, editor, New York, NY: D. Appleton & Co., 1903, p. 380.
Type
Letter
Date Certainty
Estimated
Transcriber
Michael Blake
Transcription date
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
About the same time he wrote, "The piano arrived, 22d inst., at Kansas City, on the Genoa, and the inclosed letter will show you what the `Border Ruffians' are `up to' just now. Each boat gets overhauled by the `Law and Order' Committee of Lexington." This was an allusion to an incident as annoying at the time as it was amusing to the Browns afterward. "The great box which contained the piano for Spencer's sister awakened, as it went by steamboat up the Missouri River, the suspicions of Southerners. `More Sharpe's rifles!' The box must be opened. It was landed on the levee at Kansas City. A great crowd looked on in breathless silence. The top of the box was violently removed. The men surged towards the centre to get a peep. A piano! Nothing more! The lid of the instrument was raised. Only the keys and wires of harmony appeared. No rifles, no pistols, no cutlasses, or bowie-knives. The voice of one of the leaders broke the silence -- `Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.' The piano was allowed to go forward to its destination. Because of its history the famous John Brown said that if it belonged to him one thousand dollars should not buy it."