Prickly Kansans

Kansans are a touchy lot. They don't like it all when people make fun of the state. There has been intense attention focused on the state since before the Civil War. We were "Bleeding Kansas" because of the unbelievable violence of the Border Wars. National editors wrote breathless and exaggerated columns about the wild new state where the fate of slavery might be determined.

Editors started noticing other things. Our states had four constitutions due to fraudulent elections until we settled down politically. The premier national magazine Harper's Weekly couldn't resist writing about Kansas

The bloody saga of the Butterfield Overland Despatch Express cinched our reputation for violence. Begun as a 1865 freight and passenger route between Atchison and Denver, in November a reporter for Harper's riding on the stage sent a breathless dispatch about an ill-fated journey where they came upon at trail of dead bodies, burned stations, missing wagons, and mutilated corpses.

And then there was our weather! By the time we were Ozed our fate was sealed.
From the Heart of Kansas

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