Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/81

 of the story of Gideon's night exploit in overthrowing the altar of Baal. The killings were certainly committed in true Biblical fashion,—with rude curved swords "made like the Boman shortsword," which Brown himself had carried to Kansas from Akron, Ohio, where they had belonged to a militia artillery company then disbanded. Brown had previously had the swords fastened on sticks to use as pikes, but for this occasion he had separated them from the sticks and ground them to a good edge. Brown evidently had a sort of Berserker fondness for a good blade, as two or three subsequent incidents in his life proved.

This fearful deed on the Pottawatomie sent a thrill of horror through the whole country. The Free State leaders repudiated and condemned it, but before long admitted that it was putting backbone into their people. Terror was certainly struck into the Pro-slavery ranks. It soon became perfectly well known that