Biographer T.J. Stiles

The Lexington Stage Robbery, 1874
In August 1874, the James brothers and Jim Younger held up a stagecoach that connected a railroad depot to the Missouri River ferry at Lexington, Missouri. Presented here are a series of excerpts from primary sources describing that event and its aftermath.

The Sources
1) Prelude: An excerpt from an article in the Lexington Caucasian, August 30, 1873, about the James brothers feeling at home in Lexington.
2) The Robbery: An excerpt from an article in the Lexington Caucasian, September 5, 1874, describing the robbery.
3) The Hunt, Part I: Letters from the St. Louis police department to the acting governor of Missouri, describing the selection and progress of a special agent who was sent to capture the outlaws.
4) The Hunt, Part II: A newspaper account from the St. Louis Globe, October 4, 1874, describing the agent's chase after the bandits, and their ensuing gunfight.
5) Zerelda to the Rescue, Part I: Jesse's mother intimidates a witness, as shown in two newspaper articles.
6) Zerelda to the Rescue, Part II: Jesse's mother re-establishes his alibi, and gives political cover to the Democratic Party, in an interview with the Lexington Caucasian, October 17, 1874.

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Prelude: The James Boys in Lexington
Lexington Caucasian, August 30, 1873
Introduction: The town of Lexington, Lafayette County, Missouri, was friendly territory for the James brothers. Heavily Confederate during the Civil War, it was home afterward to a newspaper distinctly rebel (and racist) in its sympathies, the Caucasian. The article excerpted here appeared a year before the stage robbery, but it demonstrates two things: The popular support that allowed Jesse and Frank James to move freely in Lexington, and the support they received from Confederate-Democratic newspapers.

"AT HOME IN LAFAYETTE
The Bank Robbers and Train-Ditchers Visit Lexington Almost Daily.
...It will not be a prideless reflection to the few who may sympathize with the high-handed actors, to know that Missouri leads the whole Unionite malefactory in the heroic splendor and perfect sangfroid of her gallant highwaymen. The old highly colored but unreal narratives of ... the French and yankee novelists are rendered insipid by comparison with the bold exploits of those who ... have made successive and brilliantly executed ten strikes on a half dozen banks in as many states; here knocking over a teller, and walking off leisurely with a bank's burglar-proof vaulted treasure; there hurling a thundering train into a ditch and hustling off the passengers, numbering thirty to one, and penning them like sheep...; here to-day, over there to-morrow, and back again the next day. We reassert, when it comes to a comparison of what Western Missouri can do in the way of furnishing blood-stirring incidents, the whole country and the world sink into insignificance. These old bushwhackers never fail, and then their coolness and indifference 'between drinks' wins our admiration.

This brings us to the statement of a fact which will hardly be credited but of which we think there need be no doubt. Two or three members of the band known as the train and bank robbers have been several times in the city of Lexington since the execution of their last exploit in Iowa; in fact, they have been in the city three times during the present week! There is but little doubt that three of these bold fellows rode into Lexington last Sunday evening, one of whom attended the services of the Methodist church, another stopped at a house of ill-fame, while a third acted as mounted sentry. They united later in the night and disappeared. ... A gentleman of this city, who was with several of the leading spirits of the band during the late war, and who knows them personally and well, states that two of them, known as the James brothers, were in the market-house in this city last Monday evening. He recognized them instantly. They remained some time and were cautious in their movements, never going together, but ever having each other in easy striking distance. On this information, a party was gotten together late in the evening and pursuit given, but these bold fellows only laugh at the authorities, and seemingly invite their sleepy enterprise, by bearding the legal lion in his lazy lair."

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The Robbery
Lexington Caucasian, September 5, 1874
Introduction: The article below, appearing in a weekly newspaper, describes a stagecoach robbery that took place on August 30, 1874, on the north bank of the Missouri River. The robbery could be seen by crowds in Lexington, which sits on a high bluff on the south bank of the river. Several points are worth noting about this article: First, the main witness, Mattie Hamlett, confused the names of the perpetrators. She switched Frank and Jesse (it was Jesse, not Frank, who came into the town at the end of the war, badly wounded), and referred to Jim Younger as "Will," when there was no brother by that name. Second, Jesse was playful and self-assured, as he so often was during robberies. Third, note how this Confederate-Democratic newspaper went out of its way to praise the outlaws.

"MISSOURI'S GAY BANDITS.
———
THE GENUINE JAMES BOYS AND ONE OF THE YOUNGERS.
———
THEY MAKE A DASH INTO THE SUBURBS OF LEXINGTON.
———
Clean out the Passengers in the Railroad Omnibus, and Meet an Old Acquaintance.
———
In all the history of medieval knight-errantry and modern brigandage, there is nothing that equals the wild romance of the past few years' career of Arthur McCoy, Frank and Jesse James, and the Younger boys. Their desperate deeds during the war were sufficient to have stacked a score of ordinary novels. ... But even this wierd, flashing record, combining the endurance and fleetness of the Bedouin Arab with the savagery of the Cossack and the gallantry of true knighthood, has been eclipsed by their exploits of recent years. They have become pet institutions of Missouri. Their fame has become national, aye, world-wide. Ever since the war closed, and left them outlawed, they have borne themselves like men, who know they have only to die, and have determined to do it without flinching. For the last two or three years, the whole country has rung with their daring and hardihood. These four or five men have absolutely defied the whole power of Missouri. They have laughed at her governor, and mocked him with epistles of burlesque penitence. They have captured and pillaged whole railroad trains in Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas. They have dashed into towns and cleaned out banking-houses in broad daylight. ... The whole state authorities [have been] defied and spit upon by this half-dozen brilliant, bold, indefatigable rough-riders.

Lexington has just had the honor of one of their Robin-Hood-like, rattling visits. Yesterday (Sunday) evening, about 6 o'clock, the omnibus started from the North Lexington depot to the ferry with eight passengers and one lady. Just as it reached the old house ... three masked horsemen dashed out of the woods, revolver in hand. One stopped the bus horses and sat at their heads, while the other two thrust their heavy army revolvers into the windows and threatened instant death to any one who resisted. One of them, who afterwards proved to be the illustrious chevalier, Frank James [actually Jesse James], dismounted, while his brother Jesse [Frank] held his horse and stood guard. Frank [Jesse] then ordered all the male passengers to get out, and hold up their hands so as to prevent the possibility of secreting valuables or drawing weapons. The command was promptly obeyed, and in a trice, eight very disconsolate looking gentlemen were ranged in a row along the roadside, with their sixteen hands held high in the air. The work of going through them began.

In the meantime, the third man, who turned out to be Will [Jim] Younger, noticed several persons, who had crossed the river for a Sunday stroll, and at once galloped up to them and authoritatively exhorted them to fall into the handsome little militia muster line, which Frank and Jesse James were putting through the new banditti drill beside the road. Among these parties were George Nance and Miss Mattie Hamlett, of this place. Miss Hamlett has known the James and Younger families for years; her brother served with the famous 'boys' during the war; and she herself nursed Frank [Jesse] James when he was badly wounded in one of the fights of '64 [1865]. She immediately recognized the masked horseman who was urging her and several others along toward the bus; and she said, 'I know you in spite of that dirty old veil over your face.' He asked: 'Who am I then?' She replied: 'Why, you are Will Younger, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.' 'Well,' he laughed, 'you are the same saucy girl you always were.'

By this time, they had reached the bus; and just as Frank [Jesse] James pulled a watch and chain out of the pocket of W.T. Singleton, railroad agent at North Lexington, Miss Hamlett stepped up and, laying her hand on his arm, exclaimed: 'Why, Frank James, I'm astonished to see you have come down to such small work. I thought you never did anything except on a big scale.' He shook hands with her cordially, and said: 'Well, I am a little ashamed of it myself. It's the first time we've ever stooped to such small game--But,' he added, 'you needn't call names quite so loud here.' Miss Hamlett then asked him to give Singleton back his watch. 'Why,' he asked, 'is this man any kin to you?' She answered that he was and she didn't want him robbed. James promptly handed the watch to her, but kept the chain which was a very handsome and costly one. 'No,' she exclaimed, 'give back the chain too; I won't have part, if I can't get all.' After some little demurring, he returned both watch and chain; and, at her request, gave up John Young's watch which he had confiscated before she arrived. Among the passengers was our handsome young friend, Prof. J. L. Allen, of Lexington, Kentucky, who is to open a male academy in this city. Frank [Jesse] took from him $50 in money, anda fine old gold watch, which belonged to his grandfather. He next proceeded to strip off Allen's fine coat and vest, when Miss Hamlett again interfered, saying: 'Oh, Frank, don't take that man's clothes. Your mother would be grieved to death if she knew how you are doing. I nursed you when you were wounded during the war; and now I believe I ought to have let you die.' He rather sadly replied: 'It's a pity you didn't;' but went on with the peeling off process, saying: 'I need some good clothes myself; and mine will do for him to go over to town in.'

After the men had been thoroughly gone through, Frank [Jesse] ordered the lady passenger in the bus to get up, so he could see whether she had any valise or other property concealed under or about her. Miss Hamlett said: 'Why, Frank, you certainly wouldn't disturb a lady?' 'No,' he replied, 'Miss Mattie, we never have done that, and we won't do it now.' ... They realized by the whole performance, in money, goods, and chattels, about $250 to $300....

It seems that they expected to catch Parson Jennings, of Mayview, who had just sold a large lot of hogs in St. Louis and received some $5,000; but he had got home the evening before. Their disappointment was shown by one of them exclaiming, 'D--n it, he isn't here,' as soon as they glanced over the crowd in the omnibus. The whole proceeding was conducted in the coolest and most gentlemanly manner possible; and Prof. Allen doubtless expresses the sentiments of all the victims when he tells us that he is exceedingly glad, as he had to be robbed, that it was done by first-class artists, men of national reputation. At the close of the impromptu matinee, the trio assured the fleeced individuals along the roadside that no attempt to pursue them would avail anything, as they were riding the finest horses in Missour, and would be seventy-five miles away before morning. As they started off they called back to Miss Hamlett: 'Good-bye, Miss Mattie; you'll never see us again;' and quietly rode down the river bank, in plain view of hundreds of people who had got wind of the affair, and flocked down to the bluffs on this side."

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The Hunt, Part I
Introduction: The Lexington stage robbery proved a grave embarrassment for Missouri Governor Silas Woodson. The first Democratic governor since the Civil War, Woodson was a member of the dominant Unionist faction of the party, and he wanted to prove that the Democrats could wipe out the famous outlaws, despite the sympathy for them in the Confederate wing of his own party. In 1874, Governor Woodson convinced the legislature to enact a secret service bill that gave him money and authorization to hire special agents to hunt the gang. When word arrived of the Lexington robbery, Woodson was away from the state capital, but his lieutenant governor, Charles P. Johnson, quickly acted to put a special agent on the outlaws' trail. With no state police force in existence, he had to turn to the St. Louis police department to find a man for the job.

The letters and telegrams excerpted here come from the Missouri State Archives. They reveal the process by which a special agent was selected, and the importance placed on the capture of the outlaws by the highest authorites in the state of Missouri.
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"Office of the Chief of Police, City of St. Louis
September 3, 1874

Hon. Chas. P. Johnson
Jeff. City, Mo.

Governor:
The bearer, Off. Yancy, has been ordered to report to you for special duty. He is an excellent officer, an experienced soldier and a brave and determined man.

I am satisfied that a detective could accomplish nothing acting in that capacity. In my judgment, the only way to capture these outlaws will be to call on the Sheriff of Ray or Clay cos. [the James boys were from Clay County] to organize a posse of say 25 men and let them accompany and assist the officer in thoroughly scouting the country and ferreting these men out. They can be found, and either killed or captured if they are in the country.

Yours truly,
C.C. Rainwater
Vice Prest. [Police] Board"
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Officer Flourney Yancey (or Yancy, as his name is spelled in many papers) reported to Lt. Governor Johnson, and was sent on to Lexington. After a few days on the outlaws' trail, Johnson received the following telegram from the St. Louis police chief, L. Harrigan.
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"Chief of Police, City of St. Louis
September 13, 1874

Hon. Chas. P. Johnson
Acting Governor

Dear Sir,
If you have any knowledge of the whereabouts of Yancy I deem it best that you should recall him--have him make a settlement with you, and send him home, as I have information that his business is known throughout the country to which he was sent.

However, you will use your own judgment in this matter, but under the circumstances I fear he will not be able to accomplish anything.

Yours truly,
L. Harrigan
Chief"
________

Soon after Chief Harrigan sent the above warning to Lt. Governor Johnson, Yancey reported to headquarters in St. Louis. Yancey's report does not survive, but Harrigan's cover note still exists, as follows.
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"Chief of Police, City of St. Louis
September 16, 1874

Hon. Chas. P. Johnson
Acting Governor

Dear Sir,
Maj. C.C. Rainwater has just returned from New York and handed me the enclosed telegram from Yancey.

I think it would be well to give him the time he asks for, as it seems that he is confident of success.

Yours truly,
L. Harrigan
Chief."

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The Hunt, Part II
St. Louis Globe, October 4, 1874
Introduction: As Officer Flourney Yancey trailed the James brothers and Jim Younger, he did indeed grow "confident of success," as St. Louis Police Chief L. Harrigan described his state of mind. After long days of following the outlaws on a circling trail through western Missouri, he finally caught up to them and engaged in a gunfight. The report below comes from the St. Louis Globe, offering a detailed and apparently highly accurate account of his adventure.

"MISSOURI OUTLAWS.
———
THE GAY BANDITTI—PETS OF OUR PRESENT REGIME—PURSUED BY A DETECTIVE.
———
The following interesting information in regard to the strenuous efforts that have been lately put forth by acting Governor Johnson to capture the Gads Hill robbers will be read with avidity by the large number of people who have become deeply concerned in the career of such desperadoes as Arthur McCoy, Jesse and Frank James, and the Younger brothers. ...

Officer Yancy, of the mounted force, who was an expert scout during the war, was selected to lead the undertaking, and proceeded without delay to Jefferson City, where he had a long consultation with the Governor, at which interview everything pertaining to the capture of the outlaws was fully discussed and every precaution to prevent their escape taken.

YANCY'S AUTHORITY
Detective Yancy was furnished with the following documents, in order that he might not want in the necessary authority if occasion required it:

JEFFERSON CITY, September 3, 1874.
OFFICER YANCY: You are clothed with all the authority necessary to legally capture the parties named in the warrants given you. I hope to God you will succeed. I must necessarily leave much to your discretion, but I do so willingly, in view of the indorsements of reliable character and capacity you bring me. To further any reasonable hope of success, spare neither expense or use of authority. I will back you with all the power I am deputed with, and I feel confident Governor Woodson will sustain my actions on his return. Bring them in at all hazards, and your action will be sustained. I have already in conversation given you my opinion as to the best mode to proceed, and I do not deem it necessary to repeat it.
CHAS. P. JOHNSON, Acting Governor. ...

YANCY'S COURSE
His special mission was to arrest the perpetrators of the robberies in Ray and Carroll counties, who were supposed to be Frank James, Jesse James, James Younger, and Arthur McCoy. On the 3rd of September he proceeded to Lexington for the purpose of communicating with Col. John Reid, Thomas Bayliss, Tilton Davis, and Mark L. DeMotte, who were expected to aid him. On arriving in that city these gentlemen gave Yancy all the information in their possession, and the detective made arrangements to have a posse of twenty-five men held in readiness by the sheriffs of Lafayette and Ray counties, while he followed the trail alone. ...

On leaving Lexington, Yancy struck the trail of the robbers not far from the line of Saline and Lafayette county, and about sixteen or eighteen miles south of Waverly. They were about twenty hours ahead of the detective, who followed them continuously and slowly in the direction of Waverly. When within six or eight miles of that place, they turned in a westerly direction, and crossed the Missouri river at some point between Lexington and Waverly, the exact location of which could not be ascertained. Yancy again struck their trail about four miles north of the river, going in a northeasterly direction towards a station on the North Missouri Railroad called Norborne, staying a portion of the night at a house owned by a man by the name of Pool [see photo above], some three or four miles from the station. From there the detective followed them in a northwesterly direction, until they had passed about eighteen miles north on the meridian of Richmond. They then turned directly west, and went into Clay county, the direction of their home. At this juncture the officer had to proceed with great caution, being in the midst of their friends. The only information he could obtain about them here was that they remained at home but a short time. Yancy here lost the trail, and, being unable to recover it, concluded to circle around the point. In doing this he crossed the Missouri at Sibley, a few miles below Kansas City, and from information there received concluded they were preparing to make

A RAID ON THE FAIR AT ST. JOSEPH,
as they had previously done at Kansas City. He took the cars and went there, but, thinking his informant might have been mistaken, and that he was wasting valuable time, ... Yancy returned to Liberty Landing, and went out into Clay county again. There he learned that the men he sought had passed through that county again, or rather that two of them, Jesse James and James Younger, had done so. Frank James, it should be stated, left the others, and remained on the south side of the river. The two did not go farther in the direction of Saline than Pool's near Norborne station. At this point, they turned back in the direction of Clay county. Believing that they intended to go home, the detective immediately repaired to Richmond, and instructed Sheriff Brown to hold his posse in readiness, that it was more than probable that he would need them the next day (Sunday). He then left Richmond and went to Clay county, within a short distance of their home. He found that they were not there, and came back on the Richmond road to the residence of a Mr. Moore, about ten miles from the home of the robbers, and stopped all night. The next morning Yancy started from Moore's in the direction of Richmond, and had proceeded about four miles and half, and was about one mile and a half from the village called Fredericksburg, when he observed

TWO HORSEMEN
about three hundred yards east of the road. They had evidently crossed before him. As their horses corresponded exactly with the description given of James Younger and Jesse Jame, the officer concluded he had overtaken his men. He rode on for half or three-quarters of a mile, and turned into a lane leading in the direction they were taking, and followed the lane to the rear of the plantation, and then turned north to strike the road they were traveling. He then followed the footprints of their horses about two miles, when emerging from a shallow he heard someone say, 'Halt!' About forty yards distant were the two horsemen. Jesse James at once fired at the detective, and Younger, whose revolver seemed to have caught in the scabbard, drew another from the other side and fired with his left hand. Yancy immediately drew one of his revolvers and fired four shots as rapidly as possible. At the second shot which was fired at James, Jesse tumbled from his horse, and the detective turned his attention to Younger. Yancy's horse, however, was alarmed at the firing, and became unmanageable. In the meantime, James managed to regain his feet, and climbed into his saddle with evident difficulty, his horse having stood quietly in the road by his side after he fell. James then produced another revolver, the first having dropped from his hand when he fell, and both continued the firing. In all they must have fired

SEVEN OR EIGHT SHOTS
and the bullets whistled uncomfortably around the detective's ears. The fright of his horse probably saved his life, as it was all he could do to keep him in the road, and he was dancing from one side to the other continually. The brute finally wound up the engagement by taking the bit in his teeth and starting on a dead run into the woods. The outlaws took advantage of this, and turning their horses rode away, having disappeared when Yancy regained control of his horse and returned. ....

Yancy accounts for the men commencing the firing by the fact that at one of the houses at which he stopped one night a young man watched him very closely, satisfied himself that he was armed, and was very anxious to know what his business was. The officer afterwards learned that an elder brother of the young man's was in the habit of running with the James brothers, and it is the officer's belief that this youth 'gave him away.'"

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Zerelda to the Rescue, Part I
Introduction: Jesse James and Jim Younger escaped from Officer Yancey after their gunfight, but Jesse and Frank faced another problem: Mattie Hamlett gave eyewitness testimony to their guilt. Not only did this increase the odds that Jesse and Frank might be convicted (if they ever were arrested), but it upset a carefully crafted strategy designed to make Jesse a hero to ex-Confederates in Missouri. Throughout Jesse's career as a bandit, he and his close ally, newspaper editor John Newman Edwards, worked to promote Jesse as a victim of Radical Republican vindictiveness--as an innocent man. Simultaneously they depicted him as a cunning and brave fighter who refused to surrender his arms and be butchered by the Radicals. Miss Hamlett's testimony, along with the over-enthusiastic article in the Lexington Caucasian, tilted the balance too far toward Jesse-as-gunman, and too far away from Jesse-as-innocent-victim. Fortunately for Jesse, he had a powerful ally to put things right: his mother. Zerelda Samuel (her third husband was Dr. Reuben Samuel), immediately sallied forth to rescue her boy from unwanted scrutiny. Part I in that effort: To intimidate the key witness, Mattie Hamlett.

St. Louis Republican, September 7, 1874

"KANSAS CITY, Sept. 4, 1874
Mrs. Zerlinda [sic] Samuel, who lives at Kearney, Clay county, and is the mother of the James boys, publishes a card in the Kansas City TIMES denying the truth of Miss Mattie Hamlett's statement that she had recognized Frank James among the Lexington highwaymen the other day. Mrs. Samuel says that she will in a few days publish evidence showing that her boys were not at or near Lexington on the day of the robbery."
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Kansas City Times, September 9, 1874

"THE JAMES BOYS.
———
A Letter to Their Mother from Miss Mattie Hamlett.
———
Further Facts About the Recent Highway Robbers
———
Mrs Samuels:
MY DEAR MADAM—Your letter of September 1st was received on the 2d. After a hasty consideration of its contents, I have the privilege of replying as follows. I was accidentally in North Lexington on Sunday evening, at the time of the robbery of the 'bus, the subject matter of the article in the Kansas City TIMES referred to by you. The statement does not correspond with my recollection of the circumstances; but that is not material to the letter. When I was called upon, with my escort, to return to the 'bus I thought I recognized in the person who gave the order William Younger, and I hastily gave expression to the belief. On arriving at the 'bus I thought I recognized in one of the two persons who had it in possession, Frank James, and on the impulse of the moment, addressed him by name. The recognition (real or imagined) was acknowledged, and from this circumstance it was repeated, on my authority, that the James brothers were the perpetrators of the deed.

After mature reflection on the subject, I am prepared to doubt the accuracy of my recognition sufficiently to warrant me in refusing to make formal affidavit to the fact.

Very respectfully,
MATTIE HAMLETT."

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Zerelda to the Rescue, Part II
Lexington Caucasian, October 17, 1874
Introduction: After Zerelda's letter intimidated Mattie Hamlett into withdrawing her testimony, the mother of the James boys set about re-establishing their alibi. With the aid of ex-bushwhacker Dave Pool (see above) and newspaper editor John Newman Edwards, she set up an interview with Peter Donan, editor of the Lexington Caucasian. Donan, a ferocious Confederate, was only too happy to help. In October 1874, he published an interview with Zerelda that put the Caucasian back in line with Jesse and Edwards's strategy—to praise the James brothers as daring gunmen, but claim their innocence of any given crime. The editorial also gave political cover to the Democratic Party, which was suffering attacks during the fall election for its inability to capture the outlaws, now that it was in power. For further explanation of the people and events referred to in this article, see the closing comments below.

"THE TRUTH AT LAST.
———
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MOTHER OF THE FAMOUS JAMES BOYS.
———
They are Not in the United States.
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All the annals of romantic crime furnish no parallel to the exploits of Missouri's bold rovers.... They've laid Aladdin in the shade, and snuffed out all his marvel-hatching lamps. They've eclipsed the wildest wonders of the Arabian Nights, and rendered commonplace the most incredible achievements of the Cid. They've made the tales of the Crusaders and the Buccaneers stale nursery croonings. Achilles and Hector, Barabbas, Rob Roy, Dick Turpin, and Sixteen-String Jack dwindle to ordinary marauders beside them. Combining the daring of Coeur de Lion, the endurance and fleetness of Arabs, and the horsemanship of Comanches or Cossacks, with some touches of the chivalry of the Knight of La Mancha, they would have been immortal, had they only lived five hundred years ago. As it is, their fame has gone out into all the ends of the earth; there is no speech or language where their names are not heard. If we must have banditti, our motto should be 'Excelsior.' Missouri, the Empire State of the West, should stand foremost—unequaled—unrivaled—in her freebooters, as she does in her soil, her climate, her mines, her peerless women, her ineffecient officials, and everything else. And the James Boys have given her the proud eminence that is her due.

But multifarious as their desperate deeds have been, they are not guilty of many things that have lately been laid to their charge. Some other band of desperadoes has been plagiarizing on their reputation. ... We make this declaration advisedly, for we know that the James boys are not now, and have not been for over five months, in the United States. We have the highest authority, backed by abundant proof, for what we say.

Last Tuesday morning, all Lexington was buzzing with the news that Mrs. Zerelda Samuel, the mother of the illustrious outlaws, had arrived in town, with her daughter, and was stopping at the City Hotel. Excited rumors flew on every breeze, that the terrible sons were hovering near, bent on the abduction or destruction of three or four of our well-known citizens, who had recently gone into the detective and Jonathan Wild business on a large scale. The colored population discussed the subject in awful whispers, and the pavements opposite the hotel became, all at once, a highly interesting and popular loafing-place.

About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Capt. Dave Poole [sic] called for the editor of the Caucasian, and announced that the ladies who were the innocent causes of all this village hubbub, wished to see him. With a palpitating heart between our teeth, we promptly obeyed the summons. The door of the reception-room opened; Capt. Poole spoke the brief words of introduction; and we found ourselves in the presence of the mother and step-sister of Missouri's dread raiders. Mrs. Samuel is a tall, dignified lady, of about forty-eight years; graceful in carriage and gesture; calm and quiet in demeanor, with a ripple of fire now and then breaking through the placid surface; and of far more than ordinary intelligence and culture. She converses well, using faultlessly pure English. She wore a plain brown calico, neatly made, and a gold-band breast-pin containing the likeness of one of her sons. ... She has a married daughter now teaching in the High School at Sherman, Texas; and it was to this institution that she was taking the pale and slender young girl who accompanied her. Some little mutual surprise was expressed when we met; each expecting to see a decidedly rougher individual. Mrs. Samuel gave us a thrilling account of the adventures and suffering of herself and family during the war; and good-humoredly narrated many laughable incidents in her own experience, since her boys came under the country's ban.

At the commencement of the war, Frank James joined General Price. Not long afterward, some depredations were committed by guerrillas, in the neighborhood of their home, near Kearney, in Clay county. A company of federal troops came out and scoured the country. They hung Mr. Samuel up till he was nearly dead, to force him to tell the whereabouts of men of whom he knew nothing; then dragged him off to prison; and made him a helpless invalid, as he is to-day. Little Jesse, then only fifteen years old, was seized in the field where he was at work, a rope put round his neck, and instant death threatened, to make him confess things of which he had never even heard. And, in a short time afterward, Mrs. Samuel herself was taken from a sick bed and consigned to a filthy prison-cell, first in Liberty, then in Plattsburg, and finally in St. Joe. Jesse soon escaped and joined his brother; and from that day forth, they became a terror to their foes wherever they were known. They courted danger and gladly plunged into every desperate service. The black-flag warfare of Quantrell and Bill Anderson suited them; and they participated in many of the most bloody frays of those fierce chieftains. When they went home after the surrender, they were driven to the brush by Fletcher loyalists; and from that time on, their history is the wildest, maddest mass of fact, fiction, and impossibility that imagination can conceive or pen portray.

Mrs. Samuel, in the course of the conversation, several times repeated: 'No mother ever had better sons, more affectionate, obedient, and dutiful.' And she solemnly declared that every story of robbery and wrong by her boys since last spring, at least, is not only utterly false, but impossible. They are both in Mexico, and have been for months. Jesse was married on the 27th of last April, to Miss Zerelda Mimms, of Kansas City, a niece and namesake of Mrs. Samuel and a member of Rev. Francis J. Boggs' church. Jesse started to Mexico a few days after his wedding; and his bride left Kearney station, Clay county, to follow him to the land of Montezumas, on the 11th of May. Frank met them somewhere on the route; and the whole party were together at Galveston when they wrote back to their mother and various friends. Capt. Poole here interrupted to say that he got a letter from them, written at Galveston just before they sailed for a Mexican port; and he said he had heard from them regularly ever since; one letter having been written in Mexico, almost on the day of the bus robbery at North Lexington.

Mrs. Samuel complains bitterly that every band of scoundrels should shelter themselves under the names of her sons, and that the newspapers of the land give constant currency to slanderous reports of their deeds which common sense should teach them are impossible. She says, if her boys rode the whirlwind or the telegraph, they couldn't be in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, and perpetrate a score of various deviltries, all in one day or week. 'And,' she added, 'if your state authorities ever catch these fellows, who are depredating as James and Younger boys, they will be found entirely different individuals; for, say what the world may, my sons are gentlemen! But I wish you, sir, to know, that they are not in this country, haven't been for months, and may never be again. All claiming to be they, are imposters.' And we are satisfied she spoke the truth. The concurrent testimony of Capt. Poole, Major John Edwards, and others who know them well, given to us privately, conclusively establishes the oft repeated assertion of their mother—'the James Boys are in Mexico.'"

Conclusion: Zerelda's efforts succeeded. She re-established her boys' reputation as martyrs for the Confederate cause—brave yet innocent men—even as she convinced the public (the ex-Confederate public, at least) that they were in Mexico. It helped her own party in the election, too: No less a figure than Joseph Pulitzer gave a speech at a Democratic campaign rally, asserting that the Democratic administration hadn't captured the James boys because they were in Mexico. But a word about her description of the Civil War sufferings of her family. She neglected to mention that Frank was one of those guerrillas plundering and killing near her farm, when the Union forces struck; that many of the Union soldiers who raided the farm were her own neighbors; or that her husband, Reuben Samuel, actually cracked and gave the soldiers information on where the rebels could be found. Also, the "Fletcher" mentioned in "Fletcher's loyalists" was the first Republican governor of the state, a former Union general. In other words, Zerelda put a political spin on her boys' outlawry. Like son, like mother.