The narrative of John Doy, of Lawrence, Kansas ...: Printed for the author.

CHAPTER XII.
ALLEN PINKS.
BUT it is time to say something about Allen Pinks, one
of the funniest fellows I ever met with, and one who contributed greatly to our amusement, and to relieve the
ennui of our long imprisonment in the iron box.
We found him in Platte City jail when we entered it, and
soon appreciated his good qualities. He was very bright
and intelligent; very kind to us, and alleviated our sufferings in various ways.
He was quite a light colored mulatto, of about twenty
years of age, born at Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania; his
grandmother being a German woman, as he informed me.
He had been cook and head waiter on board.of steamboats
on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and had last been
paid off at St. Joseph, Missouri. From there he started for
Leavenworth, walking down the Missouri bank of the river
with a white man, who had been on board the steamboat
with him. At the Rialto Ferry, he was stopped by the ferryman on suspicion of being a fugitive slave, and lodged
in Weston calaboose till he was transferred to Platte City
jail.
Thinking that his free papers were wearing out, he had
left them with a free colored wagon-builder at Independence, Missouri. As it was for the interest of those con