by L.A.Sherman
From the WPA Files of the Library of Congress
"I
was eating an an eatin' house in Quincy, Ill., when I had stuffed my fill
and light my pipe, I found out that one of the men eatin' there was Jesse
James. Was I scared? I wouldn't of eatin' a bite had I known Jesse was
there. He carried two big revolvers on his hips. His brother Frank was
there too. They often came to Quincy. They always came with horses. They
were good judges. The horses weighed about 1100 lbs. They were built for
racing. They had the prettiest saddles. Silver all over. Both of the men
had whiskers. Jesse had a full beard. Frank had a mustache. They were well
dressed. Had big cowboy hats on. I seen them lots of times. The Ford boys
were there too. They were just as bad as the James boys. This was in the
60's after the Civil War, and in the 70's.
They
were all good sized. Strong. Frank had black hair. Black beard, that is a
goatee. Jesse had full beard, five inches long. They all had big guns.
They wouldn't hurt anybody. They'd ask, "How is it." And if you
tell them you had tough sailing, they would reach in their pockets and
give $40 or $50.
All
these buys were a gang. By God, these times were hard. When these guys
wanted money, they went in broad daylight to get their money. No one would
dare shoot when they robbed a bank. Quincy was a great town for them to
hang out. The James boys nearly always done the bold robbing. The Ford
boys done the protecting.
The
James boys were liked by the poor and God knows there was plenty of us and
the law made no serious effort to get them.
Ford
was bribed and given a big chunk of money to get Jesse. He shot him the
back while he was shaving thru the door."
I often wonder when I read history books if the "bad" guys really were, or if it is just the version of the story that the people in power at the time wanted told.
ReplyDeleteThey were Confederates, so good enough for me!:)
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