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12 - Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James by Joseph. A. Dacus · Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse James

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Speaker 1: Section twelve, comprised of chapters thirty four, thirty five, and
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Speaker 1: thirty six of Life and Adventures of Frank and Jesse
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Speaker 1: James by J. A. Dakis. This Librivock's recording is in
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Speaker 1: the public domain recording by P. J. Lando. Chapter thirty
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Speaker 1: four A dream of love, Frank James cherishes tender sentiments
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Speaker 1: and goes a wooing a fair girl, beautiful and accomplished.
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Speaker 1: Frank's suit encouraged quote fancies bright as flowers of Eden,
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Speaker 1: often to his spirit come winging through the mind's brief sunlight,
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Speaker 1: glad as swallows flying home. Love is the true heart's religion.
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Speaker 1: Let us not its power deny, but love on as flowers,
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Speaker 1: love sunshine, or the happy birds the sky end quote.
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Speaker 1: Frank James was an outlaw, the smooth faced, beardless youth
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Speaker 1: who came from the school where he had pondered over
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Speaker 1: the thoughts of Euripides, who had all Greece for a
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Speaker 1: monument to unite his fortune and venture. His fate with
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Speaker 1: Quantrelle's band. Had become a man bearded and strong, daring
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Speaker 1: and dangerous to his fellow men, and the sprightly intellect
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Speaker 1: that enabled him to lead his class and the youthful
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Speaker 1: ardor which had conjured up classic forms among the sacred
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Speaker 1: relics of Almighty Rome. As his mental vision was turned
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Speaker 1: back through the vista of many departed centuries were now
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Speaker 1: floundering in the muddy pools and reveling in plots and
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Speaker 1: schemes sordid and debasing. He was not old in years,
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Speaker 1: and yet he was ripe in experience. Year after year
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Speaker 1: had chased each other down the steeps of time since
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Speaker 1: Frank James became a soldier of the highways, a participant
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Speaker 1: in the well planned ambushment, and an executioner in the
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Speaker 1: sudden surprise and fatal catastrophe to the enemy who came
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Speaker 1: into the well planned ambuscade. And he he had witnessed,
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Speaker 1: unmoved the agony of victims when shaken by the throes
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Speaker 1: of death. Could this man, whose hands were red with
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Speaker 1: the crimson stains left there by the blood of victims,
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Speaker 1: whose mind was made harsh and hard by years of
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Speaker 1: struggle against organized society, whose conscience must have become seared
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Speaker 1: by the long contact with the rude, rough elements in
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Speaker 1: human nature, whose heart must have become callous by reason
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Speaker 1: of the cruel scenes through which he had passed. Could
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Speaker 1: such a one have tender dreams of love? And yet
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Speaker 1: we might ask why not? The tender affinities of affection,
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Speaker 1: which sprang from psychological causes, is one of the most
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Speaker 1: beneficent schemes of God's benevolence, which traverses all space in
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Speaker 1: its flights and lives, the visible token of man's divinity
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Speaker 1: on earth and his hope in heaven. The hand that
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Speaker 1: would thwart them would interrupt the course of laws based
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Speaker 1: on eternal verities. The fact is, neither time, space, conditions,
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Speaker 1: nor the recognized canons of social life can induce or
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Speaker 1: hinder the inception, growth, or maturity of a passion, which
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Speaker 1: is acknowledged to be the most potent of all to
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Speaker 1: which man is subject. Why then, should Frank James not
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Speaker 1: be smitten in his wanderings? He had met many fair ones,
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Speaker 1: and beauty had smiled on him, But he knew that
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Speaker 1: they were unacquainted with his name and antecedents, and so
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Speaker 1: he refused to be led captive by these whose love
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Speaker 1: might turn to hate when they knew all. It is
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Speaker 1: said that those who know Frank James, that he is
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Speaker 1: endowed with a very superior mind, that his education is
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Speaker 1: very good, that he is able to read the classics,
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Speaker 1: and can converse fluently in both the German and Spanish languages.
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Speaker 1: With these accomplishments, he possesses a handsome person and agreeable features.
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Speaker 1: In conversation he speaks in a soft, low tone of voice,
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Speaker 1: and in private life among his friends his manners are
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Speaker 1: pleasing and well calculated to produce a favorable impression. Frank
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Speaker 1: has been about the world a great deal, and is
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Speaker 1: mingled in refined society not a little. It is his
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Speaker 1: custom to visit New York almost every season, and sometimes
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Speaker 1: he goes to Saratoga, Newport, and Long Branch. Friends of
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Speaker 1: Frank assume that he is, in many respects a superior
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Speaker 1: man to Jesse, that he has more principle, that there
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Speaker 1: is far less of the desperado in his composition. He
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Speaker 1: is cool, cautious, shrewd, and more manly than the other,
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Speaker 1: and is not so reckless nor so revengeful in disposition.
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Speaker 1: Frank James was susceptible to the blandishments of the fair Sex.
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Speaker 1: In the days of his youth in Kentucky, he came
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Speaker 1: near being caught in the silken meshes spread by a
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Speaker 1: beautiful young lady of the bluegrass country who had come
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Speaker 1: to regard him as as a hero whose adventurous career
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Speaker 1: she longed to share. But fate interposed for her sake
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Speaker 1: or against him. Frank found it in his interest to
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Speaker 1: take his departure from Kentucky, and it was not convenient
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Speaker 1: for him to return for two whole years. In the interim,
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Speaker 1: another gallant was attracted to her side and eventually won
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Speaker 1: her affections, and the young lady was married. A story
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Speaker 1: is told by persons who claim to know much of
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Speaker 1: Frank James's private affairs, about a love affair between that
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Speaker 1: redoubtable outlaw and an heiress in New York. She was
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Speaker 1: beautiful and accomplished, and when she met the handsome and
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Speaker 1: gentlemanly outlaw, who was not known in that character to her,
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Speaker 1: she conceived an admiration for him, which was fast ripening
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Speaker 1: into affection. They rode together through the parks and were
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Speaker 1: soothed by the music of the waves. When the twilight
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Speaker 1: and shadows fell as together they strolled along the lonely,
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Speaker 1: But circumstances over which she had no control summoned her
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Speaker 1: away from the side of the western adventurer, and they
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Speaker 1: never met again. So the years passed away, and Frank
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Speaker 1: James found one being long ago who inspired his heart
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Speaker 1: with tenderer dreams of love than any which had ever
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Speaker 1: come to him before. For years, the fair face, with
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Speaker 1: its shadings of glossy brown hair and eyes of deepest
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Speaker 1: azure glancing from beneath their long silken lashes, was imprinted
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Speaker 1: on his mind and shrined in his heart. Frank James
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Speaker 1: had met her many times, and no more touching story
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Speaker 1: of a woman's devotion has yet been told than that
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Speaker 1: of the attachment of pretty Annie Ralston for Frank James,
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Speaker 1: the Bold Border Bandit. In time to come, the writers
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Speaker 1: of the romance of the period covered by the career
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Speaker 1: of the James Boys will recall the name of the
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Speaker 1: fair girl who became the Outlaw's bride and weave around
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Speaker 1: it the choicest flowers of literature. Chapter thirty five, Fair
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Speaker 1: Annie Ralston, the Outlaw's Bride. How Annie Ralston carried off
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Speaker 1: the honors of her class at college, a belle in society,
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Speaker 1: her admiration for Frank James. She quietly collects her effects
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Speaker 1: and leaves her home to share his fate. With Frank quote.
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Speaker 1: The loves and hopes of youthful hours, though buried in oblivion,
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Speaker 1: deep like hidden threads in woven flowers, upon life's web,
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Speaker 1: will start from sleep, and one loved face we sometimes
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Speaker 1: find pictured there with memory's rife, a part of that
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Speaker 1: mysterious mind which forms the endless warp of life. End quote.
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Speaker 1: There are many people about the old town of Independence
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Speaker 1: who cherish pleasant memories of fair Annie Ralston. There are
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Speaker 1: many who knew and loved her long ago, who will
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Speaker 1: not soon forget the beautiful face of the outlaw's bride.
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Speaker 1: And long after those who knew her in the halcyon
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Speaker 1: days of her innocent girlhood shall have passed to the
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Speaker 1: quiet repose beneath the sod, in the silent cities of
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Speaker 1: the dead, her story will be repeated. Many a romance
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Speaker 1: has been based on incidents in lives far less dramatic
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Speaker 1: than has fallen to the fortune or the fate of
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Speaker 1: Annie Ralston. The years which have rolled their cycles round
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Speaker 1: to swell the measure of the greedy past, have not
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Speaker 1: been so many that they have swallowed up the memories
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Speaker 1: which cluster around the name of the gentle Annie and
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Speaker 1: bring sighs to the lips of those who, but a
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Speaker 1: few short winters ago, conned with her the lessons of
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Speaker 1: the sages from the dreary pages of text books when
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Speaker 1: they were schoolmates. People are not all ossified brain, sense
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Speaker 1: and heart. Because God's commentary on his res in revelation
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Speaker 1: was given first, was handed down from a thousand sine eyes,
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Speaker 1: and strewed in green and golden shadowy lines through all
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Speaker 1: the ages. It yet lives and is from under his
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Speaker 1: own hand above, around beneath us, and by it we
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Speaker 1: may understand that holy mystery, how God is love, and
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Speaker 1: love is God like, and we feel and know that
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Speaker 1: never again to us from out the shade of the
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Speaker 1: years can ministers of grace or glad ideals come except
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Speaker 1: through such sweet enchantment. Who then will condemn gentle Annie Ralston,
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Speaker 1: the pet of the class, the warm friend, the glad
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Speaker 1: hearted girl, if she proved at last to be like
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Speaker 1: all her sisters human, what circumstances conspire to induce her
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Speaker 1: to become an outlaw's bride? If we could answer all
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Speaker 1: the questions which might be asked concerning the emotions of
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Speaker 1: the heart, the freaks of the mind, and other phenomena
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Speaker 1: of human nature and the structure of society. Then might
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Speaker 1: we be able to answer why fair Annie Ralston became
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Speaker 1: the wife of Frank James, the proscribed enemy of society.
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Speaker 1: But we cannot engage in such an undertaking. Her story
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Speaker 1: is brief but full of interest. Before the period of
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Speaker 1: blighting war, which swept like a destructive tornado over the
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Speaker 1: fairest portions of western Missouri, Annie's father, mister Ralston, was
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Speaker 1: a wealthy man, and his home was one of the
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Speaker 1: most pleasant to be found in the vicinity of independence.
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Speaker 1: He was a gentleman of culture and refinement, and his
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Speaker 1: wealth gave him leisure to cultivate all the social graces.
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Speaker 1: His hospitality was unbounded, and no man was more esteemed
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Speaker 1: than Samuel Ralston. Annie was a wee girl when the
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Speaker 1: thunder peal of war burst, in all its lurid terrors
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Speaker 1: all around and about her. It was no period of
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Speaker 1: sentimental dreaming, and she was early accustomed to see and
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Speaker 1: hear of bloodshed and devastation. She must necessarily have grown
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Speaker 1: familiar with scenes which, under ordinary circumstances would have excited
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Speaker 1: her terror, and she had learned to look unmoved on
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Speaker 1: the bloody corpse of the battle's victim. But no storm
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Speaker 1: can continue forever. After the convulsion comes quiet, after the
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Speaker 1: night dawns the day, So at last the war cloud
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Speaker 1: rolled away. Then commenced the work of collecting fragments of
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Speaker 1: wrecked fortunes and rebuilding waste places. But some wrecks were
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Speaker 1: complete and no fragments remained in a large measure. This
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Speaker 1: was the case with the life bark in which mister
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Speaker 1: Ralston sailed down the river of time. Annie grew with
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Speaker 1: the passing years and stood, as it were, with reluctant
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Speaker 1: feet on the boundary where childhood and womanhood meet. The
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Speaker 1: residence of mister Ralston and was convenient to the Independent's
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Speaker 1: Female College, and Annie became a student in that institution.
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Speaker 1: She possessed excellent intellectual gifts, and in her course of
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Speaker 1: study she led her classes. In due time, the prescribed
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Speaker 1: course of mental training was completed, and at commencement fair
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Speaker 1: Annie carried away the highest honors of her class. She
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Speaker 1: was now a young lady, accomplished in all the learning
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Speaker 1: of the school. She sang delightfully and could touch and
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Speaker 1: cause to thrill with deepest harmony the chords of the
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Speaker 1: harp and other instruments. She was a favorite in society
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Speaker 1: at once. And Annie Ralston was handsome, almost beautiful. Her
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Speaker 1: complexion was fair and soft, her features regular and pleasing.
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Speaker 1: Her eyes were large and azure blue, and these soulful
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Speaker 1: orbs looked out from curtains of long, silken lashes of
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Speaker 1: deep brown that lent a charm to her expression. And
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Speaker 1: her long brown tresses well completed this charming picture. Anne.
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Speaker 1: She possessed a symmetry of form and a gracefulness of carriage,
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Speaker 1: which might well attract the admiration of those who knew her.
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Speaker 1: But there came a time when a shadow fell athwart
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Speaker 1: her pathway and eclipsed this star in the social firmament.
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Speaker 1: Annie's father had been ardent in his attachment to the
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Speaker 1: Southern cause, and all who had contended in behalf of
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Speaker 1: that cause were ever welcome to the hospitality of his home.
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Speaker 1: He had suffered much from the consequences of the war,
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Speaker 1: and perhaps more from the genial convivialities in which he indulged,
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Speaker 1: and which had extended beyond the bounds of propriety. Frank
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Speaker 1: and Jesse James, with their confederates, became frequent visitors at
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Speaker 1: the Ralston home. People saw them there often, and it
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Speaker 1: was whispered softly at first, but shouted aloud later that
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Speaker 1: Pretty Annie Ralston was an attraction for the outlaws and
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Speaker 1: received from them without rebuke their openly expressed admiration. And
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Speaker 1: then her social star paled and finally went out. Frank
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Speaker 1: James became to her a hero worthy of her love,
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Speaker 1: nay her heart's deep adoration. She waited with impatience his coming,
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Speaker 1: and when he was away, and she thought of the
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Speaker 1: hazards which he might make, and the destruction which might
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Speaker 1: overtake him, she grew faint through apprehension. To her, he
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Speaker 1: was assiduous and gentle and kind, whatever might be his
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Speaker 1: disposition toward others, and she gave her heart to him
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Speaker 1: long before an opportunity was presented to her to yield
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Speaker 1: to him her hand. One bright day in eighteen seventy five,
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Speaker 1: some friends who had known Pretty Annie Ralston from the
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Speaker 1: days of her childhood met her at the Union Depot,
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Speaker 1: Kansas City, with many valises and traveling bags in charge.
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Speaker 1: Would she go up in town? Could they render her
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Speaker 1: any service? Were questions which were asked no. At another
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Speaker 1: time she would go uptown, there was nothing they could
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Speaker 1: do for her. Soon she was joined by her outlawed lover.
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Speaker 1: Together they took a train and proceeded to Leavenworth, Kansas,
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Speaker 1: where the vows which they had made to each other
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Speaker 1: were renewed and sealed by legal authority. And fair Annie
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Speaker 1: Ralston became the outlaw's bride, and with him she journeyed
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Speaker 1: toward the yellow Southern Sea, where the sunlight is warm
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Speaker 1: and the breeze is balmy. It was a sacrifice to
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Speaker 1: thus banish herself from that society in which she was
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Speaker 1: so well fitted to shine as one of its brightest ornaments.
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Speaker 1: It was a trial to surrender up the friends and
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Speaker 1: associates of her girlhood, to bid adieu to those who
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Speaker 1: were near and dear to her. It was heroic to
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Speaker 1: cast herself upon the care of the man she loved,
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Speaker 1: on the altar of her affection. Therefore she placed all
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Speaker 1: the idols of her youth, and in her devotion she
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Speaker 1: proceeded to dig a wide, deep grave in which to
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Speaker 1: bury forever the images which she had cherished. And so
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Speaker 1: Annie Ralston became an outlaw's wife. Chapter thirty six, a
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Speaker 1: seventeen thousand dollars haul the train robbery at Otterville, the
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Speaker 1: Youngers and the Jameses. Frank James the planner, how the
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Speaker 1: train was halted, capture of Hobb's kerry, He gives away
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Speaker 1: the gang the escape. It had been some weeks since
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Speaker 1: the people of the West had enjoyed a sensation growing
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Speaker 1: out of the robbery of a train or the plundering
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Speaker 1: of a bank. Frank and Jesse, James and Cole and
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Speaker 1: Jim and Bob Younger with their merry companions, had been
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Speaker 1: unusually quiet for quite a long season. For these restless
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Speaker 1: rovers and adroit plunderers. The gang was increasing in numbers
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Speaker 1: and was now really formidable. Others as Daring, had joined
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Speaker 1: themselves to the noted outlaws, the Jameses and the Youngers,
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Speaker 1: Cal Carter from Texas and Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell,
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Speaker 1: Charles Pitts and Sam Bass and Bill Longley, and the
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Speaker 1: Hardins and the Moors of the Indian Territory and Texas.
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Speaker 1: Divisions of the clan were frequently with Frank and Jesse,
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Speaker 1: James and the Younger brothers in the gang, but apparently
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Speaker 1: merely as a subaltern whose principal employment was to hold
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Speaker 1: the horses of the chief robbers when business required them
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Speaker 1: to dismount, was a young fellow who went by the
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Speaker 1: name of Hobbes Kerry. Before Otterville, the protestations and denials
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Speaker 1: of the Jameses and the Youngers were accepted by many
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Speaker 1: good citizens, and there were numbers of very honorable persons
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Speaker 1: who believed sincerely that these men were sadly slandered. The
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Speaker 1: express robbery at Rocky Cut near Otterville served to remove
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Speaker 1: the scales from the eyes of numbers of these good people,
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Speaker 1: and Frank and Jesse James and the three Youngers were
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Speaker 1: revealed before the public as most dangerous highwaymen. The principles
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Speaker 1: in the Otterville affair were Frank James, his brother Jesse,
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Speaker 1: Cole Younger and his brother Bob, Clel Miller, Charlie Pitts,
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Speaker 1: Bill Chadwell, and Hobbs Kerry. These men concerted the project
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Speaker 1: in southwest Missouri in the lead mining districts. Frequent interviews
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Speaker 1: took place between Frank and Jesse James and Cole and
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Speaker 1: Bob Younger in regard to the feasibility of the undertaking.
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Speaker 1: The Jameses were the original suggestors of the enterprise and
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Speaker 1: from what information we've been able to gather. The youngers
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Speaker 1: did not at first entertain the suggestion favorably. Indeed, it
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Speaker 1: was some time before it was finally agreed that the
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Speaker 1: attempt should be made. Then the bandits discussed the route
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Speaker 1: to be taken and the place to be selected for
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Speaker 1: the scene of this notable robbery on the Iron Highway.
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Speaker 1: All these were settled in due time, and everything was
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Speaker 1: ready to carry out their well matured plan. Jesse James
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Speaker 1: was the leader, the others merely acting in concert with
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Speaker 1: him and taking their places in accordance with his suggestions.
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Speaker 1: The expedition left the scene of their plotting about the
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Speaker 1: first day of July eighteen seventy six. Before leaving, the
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Speaker 1: band separated into two parties. Jesse and Frank James, Bill
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Speaker 1: Chadwell and Bob Younger composed one, and Cole Younger, Charlie Pitts,
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Speaker 1: Clell Miller and Hobbs Kerry made up the other. The
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Speaker 1: journey through the country was made leisurely enough. The two
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Speaker 1: parties traveled by different routes and had no difficulty in
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Speaker 1: securing lodging places. Sometimes they traveled in the night to
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Speaker 1: make the distance to the house of a friend in
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Speaker 1: good time. The next day, on Sunday, July third, there
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Speaker 1: were four of the bandits at Duval's house. Tuesday, a
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Speaker 1: part of the band were in Cali, and after lingering
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Speaker 1: about the place for a part of the day, they
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Speaker 1: mounted their horses and rode to a house four miles
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Speaker 1: north of the town, where four others of the robbers
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Speaker 1: were stopping. A heavy rain came on that night, and
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Speaker 1: so the robbers stayed nearly all of the day on
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Speaker 1: the fifth and remained during the night. There is no
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Speaker 1: evidence that the people where they stayed had any knowledge
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Speaker 1: of the character of the persons whom they received under
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Speaker 1: their roof. However, Jesse James and Cole Younger were acquainted
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Speaker 1: with the gentlemen, but not under their names. On the
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Speaker 1: morning of the sixth, the raiders mounted their horses and
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Speaker 1: rode west in Pears. The James boys traveled together, Clell
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Speaker 1: Miller and Hobbs Kerrey rode by each other. Charlie Pitts
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Speaker 1: and Coleman Younger formed a pair, and Bill Chadwell and
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Speaker 1: Bob Younger followed another route in company. These all traveled
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Speaker 1: different roads. The place of meeting previously agreed upon was
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Speaker 1: a spot about two miles east from the bridge across
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Speaker 1: the Lemene River, and the time appointed was at three
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Speaker 1: o'clock Friday evening, July eighth. There were designated stopping places
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Speaker 1: on all the roads. The Jameses under assumed names were
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Speaker 1: acquainted personally with a number of very respectable people along
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Speaker 1: the route traveled by them, and therefore had no difficulty
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Speaker 1: in obtaining comfortable quarters and receiving a hospitable welcome. And
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Speaker 1: so of the others of that band on mischief bent.
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Speaker 1: They all had good quarters on Thursday night, and as
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Speaker 1: only two traveled together on a road, no suspicion was
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Speaker 1: aroused on account of their presence. The robbers came by
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Speaker 1: pairs to the rendezvous. They had all assembled by four
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Speaker 1: o'clock in the evening. Some of them went without their
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Speaker 1: dinners that day. Here the whole band remained until sundown
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Speaker 1: on the evening of the eighth. The place selected was
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Speaker 1: at a deep cut known as Rocky Cut, about four
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Speaker 1: miles east of Otterville in Pettis County, Missouri, on the
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Speaker 1: line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Three of the band,
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Speaker 1: Bob Younger, Clell Miller, and Charlie Pitts were detailed to
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Speaker 1: capture the watchmen at the bridge. Bill Chadwell and Hobbs Carry,
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Speaker 1: it appears, were assigned the duty of taking care of
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Speaker 1: the horses. A dense piece of timberland adjacent to a
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Speaker 1: field was selected as the place of concealment. The express
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Speaker 1: train bound east was due at that spot about eleven
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Speaker 1: o'clock at night. The robbers did not arrive at the
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Speaker 1: designated rendezvous until some time after the curtains of night
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Speaker 1: had been drawn over the scene. At little after nine o'clock.
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Speaker 1: Younger Miller and Pitts when down to the bridge and
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Speaker 1: were hailed by the watchmen. They were close upon him,
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Speaker 1: and with drawn revolvers and fearful oaths, they commanded him
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Speaker 1: to surrender. The helpless watchman could not do otherwise. They
22:55
Speaker 1: took him in charge and secured his signal lanterns. What
22:59
Speaker 1: are you going to do with me, asked the astonished watchman.
23:02
Speaker 1: You keep still, was the reply. But you ain't gonna
23:05
Speaker 1: hurt me, he inquired, What do we want to hurt
23:07
Speaker 1: you for? We want that money on the train. That's
23:10
Speaker 1: all we care for, was the reply he received. The
23:13
Speaker 1: whole party walked up the track to the mouth of
23:16
Speaker 1: the cut. It was about half past ten o'clock. A
23:19
Speaker 1: heap of rocks and a number of old cross ties
23:22
Speaker 1: were piled across the rails. Then the cunning brigand sat
23:26
Speaker 1: down quietly in the darkness to await the coming of
23:28
Speaker 1: the train. The horses of the robbers were about fifty
23:32
Speaker 1: yards away, ready to be bestridden and fresh enough to
23:35
Speaker 1: make a long journey if that should be necessary. Crouched there,
23:39
Speaker 1: they were silent as the broken fragments of rocks which
23:42
Speaker 1: lay scattered around them. They had not long to wait.
23:46
Speaker 1: A distant rumbling was heard, like the first low mutterings
23:50
Speaker 1: of thunder before the storm cloud appears. Then it grew
23:53
Speaker 1: louder and shriller, like the raging wind. It was the train.
23:58
Speaker 1: The robbers were not asleep. Charlie Pitts had been detailed
24:02
Speaker 1: to display the red lantern the danger signal as the
24:05
Speaker 1: train came thundering around the curve into the cut. He
24:09
Speaker 1: performed his part of the program well precisely. At the
24:13
Speaker 1: right spot the train came to a standstill. The engineer
24:17
Speaker 1: had reversed his engine and put on the air brakes. Instantly,
24:21
Speaker 1: the train was boarded by a number of masked men
24:24
Speaker 1: said to have been twelve at least all heavily armed
24:27
Speaker 1: guards were placed at each end of the cars, and
24:30
Speaker 1: the leader boarded the express car compelled the messenger, under
24:33
Speaker 1: threats of immediate death, to open his safe, and then
24:36
Speaker 1: the contents were emptied out into a sack and the
24:39
Speaker 1: car was thoroughly searched for valuable packages. The result was
24:44
Speaker 1: about seventeen thousand dollars were secured and carried away for
24:48
Speaker 1: the use and behoof of the robbers. The whole transaction
24:52
Speaker 1: was completed in less than an hour. The passengers were
24:56
Speaker 1: greatly alarmed during the time of the detention. The robbers
24:59
Speaker 1: stationed at the the ends of the cars, kept their
25:01
Speaker 1: revolvers bearing upon the passengers and would not allow them
25:05
Speaker 1: to stir a finger under threats of death. Every moment
25:09
Speaker 1: they expected their turn to be robbed would come. But
25:12
Speaker 1: the robbers appeared to be satisfied with the amount realized
25:15
Speaker 1: from the plundering of the express car, and when they
25:18
Speaker 1: had accomplished that job thoroughly, they released the train, sought
25:22
Speaker 1: their horses, and rode away. Several shots were fired during
25:26
Speaker 1: the time the train was standing for the purpose of
25:28
Speaker 1: keeping the passengers in a state of alarm. The news
25:33
Speaker 1: was telegraphed from the next station to Saint Louis, Sedalia,
25:36
Speaker 1: Kansas City, and other points. By this event, the whole
25:40
Speaker 1: country was thoroughly excited. The detective forces of Saint Louis,
25:44
Speaker 1: Kansas City, Chicago, and even the cities of the Atlantic
25:48
Speaker 1: Sea Board were taken by surprise and aroused to make
25:51
Speaker 1: efforts to capture them. The railroad and express companies offered
25:56
Speaker 1: large rewards, and the governor of the state took measures
25:59
Speaker 1: to aid in the suk pursuit of the brigands. Meanwhile,
26:02
Speaker 1: the men who had created all this furor of excitement
26:05
Speaker 1: rode through the darkness with their treasure bag. When the
26:09
Speaker 1: first faint blush of dawn streaked the east, the plunderers
26:12
Speaker 1: of the express car at Rocky Cut were twenty miles
26:15
Speaker 1: away and just turning off the main highway into the
26:18
Speaker 1: dim recesses of a large forest. After traveling more than
26:23
Speaker 1: a mile into the woods, the brigands came to an
26:25
Speaker 1: open space. Here they dismounted. Jesse James had the treasure
26:30
Speaker 1: bag during the journey. Frank James, Coal Junger and Charlie
26:34
Speaker 1: Pitts had relieved each other alternately in carrying the precious burden.
26:39
Speaker 1: Now they had reached a safe place, and the spoils
26:42
Speaker 1: of the adventure were about to be divided. Frank James
26:46
Speaker 1: acted as master of ceremonies on that occasion. Whether the
26:50
Speaker 1: divide was an equal one, we are not advised, and
26:53
Speaker 1: perhaps we shall never know. The envelopes were torn from
26:57
Speaker 1: the express packages, and the money divided into separate heaps,
27:01
Speaker 1: one of which was given to each of the men
27:03
Speaker 1: who had participated in the exploit. The ceremony of dividing
27:07
Speaker 1: the money having been gone through with and Jesse James,
27:11
Speaker 1: Cole Younger, Frank James, and Charlie Pitts having parceled out
27:15
Speaker 1: to capture jewelry among themselves, the robbers remounted and separated
27:20
Speaker 1: into pairs, each pair selecting the route which pleased them best.
27:25
Speaker 1: In the daytime they rode in the woods and along bypaths,
27:29
Speaker 1: and in the night they returned to the highways and
27:31
Speaker 1: were soon secure from pursuit because they went at once
27:35
Speaker 1: among friends who, if they were acquainted with the character
27:38
Speaker 1: of their guests, never gave away anything. An outrage of
27:43
Speaker 1: so daring a character was not slow in producing effects.
27:47
Speaker 1: The news had been flashed afar on the lightning's track.
27:51
Speaker 1: The Chief of Police of Saint Louis, the marshals and constables,
27:54
Speaker 1: and county sheriffs were aroused to unusual activity. The people
27:58
Speaker 1: everywhere were excited by an event of so sensational a character.
28:02
Speaker 1: A keen pursuit was inaugurated. Watchful eyes and open ears
28:07
Speaker 1: were in every town and hamlet throughout Missouri, and even
28:10
Speaker 1: in adjacent states. This time it appeared the robbers would
28:14
Speaker 1: be surely compelled to remain hidden, far from the habitations
28:18
Speaker 1: of man, but secure in their retreats. The shrewd leaders
28:22
Speaker 1: of the raid, Jesse and Frank James and Cole and
28:25
Speaker 1: Bob Younger and Charlie Pitts, laughed at the efforts of
28:29
Speaker 1: the officers of the law to capture them. They enjoyed
28:32
Speaker 1: reading the newspapers containing accounts of their daring feat and
28:35
Speaker 1: made merry of what they were pleased to term the
28:38
Speaker 1: stupid work of the damned detectives. The robbers had one
28:42
Speaker 1: thing on their minds which gave them some concern. The
28:46
Speaker 1: cub robber Hobb's kerry was scarcely shrewd enough to evade capture,
28:51
Speaker 1: and they feared not brave enough to withstand the pressure
28:54
Speaker 1: which they knew would be brought to bear upon him,
28:57
Speaker 1: to make him squeal on his associates. What if Carrie
29:00
Speaker 1: should fall into the hands of the hunters? And was
29:03
Speaker 1: it not extremely probable that he would? These were questions
29:07
Speaker 1: which they asked themselves, and in time they framed an
29:10
Speaker 1: answer in the form of another question, what if he
29:14
Speaker 1: does we don't know the fellow we have said. The
29:17
Speaker 1: passengers and trainmen were passive witnesses of the proceedings of
29:22
Speaker 1: the robbers, But there was one person on the train
29:24
Speaker 1: who was not afraid to resist. That individual was the
29:28
Speaker 1: train newsboy. Johnny, as he was called, had a small
29:31
Speaker 1: pistol of a cheap grade, with which to defend himself
29:34
Speaker 1: against all enemies and robbers in particular. Now the opportunity
29:39
Speaker 1: had come to display the latent heroism which he knew
29:42
Speaker 1: he possessed. Johnny did not believe in being plundered, and
29:46
Speaker 1: though his weapon was not very dangerous, he believed he
29:49
Speaker 1: could do some execution with it. At any rate. He
29:52
Speaker 1: would try. From the car window, where he had taken
29:55
Speaker 1: a position, he opened fire on the marauders. His first
29:58
Speaker 1: shot was ineffective, and the bandits derisively encouraged him to
30:02
Speaker 1: try again. When they discovered the youthful appearance and diminutive
30:06
Speaker 1: size of their assailant, Johnny took them at their word
30:09
Speaker 1: and blazed away again. The robbers were well satisfied and
30:13
Speaker 1: good humored, and they laughed and jeered at the little
30:16
Speaker 1: hero who had exhibited so much courage. They told him
30:19
Speaker 1: he would do for a train robber himself when he
30:22
Speaker 1: was a little older. Johnny insisted for a time that
30:25
Speaker 1: he knew he had shot one of the robbers badly.
30:28
Speaker 1: Charlie Pitts, Bill Chadwell, and Hobbs Carry made a forced
30:32
Speaker 1: march to southwest Missouri late Saturday night. They forded Grand River.
30:37
Speaker 1: After going a little distance from the river, the three
30:40
Speaker 1: robbers dismounted, threw themselves on the ground, and slept soundly
30:44
Speaker 1: until morning. Here Carrie's horse, which was well broken down,
30:48
Speaker 1: was abandoned the saddle he hid in the brush in
30:51
Speaker 1: the Grand River. Bottom Carry, at this point separated from
30:55
Speaker 1: Pitts and Chadwell, they remaining in the Grand River forests,
30:59
Speaker 1: while he proceeded to Montrose Station on the M K
31:03
Speaker 1: and T Railway. He had not long been there when
31:06
Speaker 1: a train bound south came along. He stepped on the
31:09
Speaker 1: car and went down to Fort Scott, Kansas. Finding a
31:13
Speaker 1: clothing store open, he purchased a good suit of clothes,
31:16
Speaker 1: which he donned at once. With valise in hand, he
31:20
Speaker 1: boldly entered a hotel called for supper, which he partook of,
31:24
Speaker 1: and then proceeded on the train to Parsons. Took lodgings
31:28
Speaker 1: there where he remained until four o'clock next morning. From Vinita,
31:33
Speaker 1: to which he went. From Parsons, he proceeded to Granby,
31:36
Speaker 1: where he had a good old time with the boys.
31:39
Speaker 1: From Granby to Joplin, and from that place to Granby again,
31:43
Speaker 1: and then away down in the Indian territory, Hobbs carry
31:46
Speaker 1: went without remaining very long at one place. Wherever he
31:50
Speaker 1: went he drank, And whenever he drank whiskey, he talked
31:54
Speaker 1: and showed his money and boasted. He was liberal with
31:58
Speaker 1: the boys, and had money for the Pharaoh deal, and
32:01
Speaker 1: was for the time a hail fellow. Well met with
32:03
Speaker 1: all but the eyes that were looking and the ears
32:06
Speaker 1: that were listening. Putting this and that together by an
32:09
Speaker 1: act of cogitation, concluded that Hobbes Carry knew about the
32:13
Speaker 1: rocky cut business. It was not a mistake. The detectives
32:18
Speaker 1: pulled Carry, and when he had time to reflect, he
32:21
Speaker 1: unfolded his mind and told of his friends and their
32:24
Speaker 1: ride at night. He proved to be quote a good peacher,
32:28
Speaker 1: as the police say, And whatever may be the slight
32:32
Speaker 1: inconsistencies of his narrative of the Otterville affair, the events
32:36
Speaker 1: at Northfield, Minnesota, a few months later confirmed the truthfulness
32:40
Speaker 1: of Hobbescerrey's story in all the main particulars. Of course,
32:44
Speaker 1: the James boys and their friends were swift to denounce
32:48
Speaker 1: Hobb's Carry as a fraud, and his stories of the
32:51
Speaker 1: midnight ride and the flaring of the danger signal before
32:54
Speaker 1: the train as pure fabrications of a diseased or wicked brain. Meanwhile,
32:59
Speaker 1: the Jameses and youngers had not gone far away. The
33:03
Speaker 1: former found friends and a safe retreat in the eastern
33:06
Speaker 1: part of Jackson County, and the latter retired to Saint
33:10
Speaker 1: Clair County, where they rested in contentment for a season.
33:14
Speaker 1: The Jameses have friends yet in a certain neighborhood in
33:17
Speaker 1: that section of Jackson County, men and women who despite
33:21
Speaker 1: their known character, and the edict of outlawry against them,
33:25
Speaker 1: would receive them into their houses and treat them not
33:28
Speaker 1: only with ordinary hospitality, but with marked consideration. End of
33:34
Speaker 1: Section twelve.