Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-09-17
Letter from Kansas CITY.
THE RECENT TRAIN RoBBERY-JEssE JAMES AND
HIS IMMUNITY PROM PUNIsHNENT-THE POOR
PROSPECTS OF THE CROPS

THE RECENT TRAIN ROBBERY-JEssE JAMES AND
HIS IMMUNITY PROM PUNIsHMENr-THE POOR
PROSPECTS OF THE CROPS
Correspondence of The EVENING STAR.
KANSAS CITY, Mo-, Sept 12. 1881.
Kansas City is a beehive OF industry. You
never saw so much business in city of its size
in all your travels. 1t has been five years since
was here, and could scarcely tell where ! was.
When We rolled into the grandest depot i'm the
United States it was almost impossible for me to
realize the change from an cid shed that stood
on the same site for years to a perfect palace.
with a train from some direction arriving every
hall hour during the day and night.
The greatest excitement prevails here now
over the train robbery that occurred within al
most gunshot distance of the courthouse and
within view of 100000 people; and with all the
startling developments and exciting adventures
I'm the pursuit and supposed capture of the real
train robbers. the whole Will end i'm a farce-all
the noise will end in much cry and little wool.
The men who numerically robbed us of our all
not even leaving a fellow enough to secure
glass of ice water to cool our parched tongues,
live i'm Kansas City and jackson county. The
mother of Jesse James. the great outlaw. comes
into Kansas City every week. and lives across
the river in Clay county. and he (Jesse Jamcs)
goes there, sleeps there. and the authorities
know that he is there half his time. and Yet
they cannot find him. The sheriff is afraid to
arrest him. and this fear springs TO a great ex-
James are interfered with that very moment
the votes of his friends are given to some other
official who pledges that he will look everywhere
else except in the place where the outlaw
is. This is a true statement of the whole
thing. They may arrest every man in Jack
son county. and they will not get the men
who committed the robbery. With all their
splurge it is not the intention to capture the
right ones, because they are afraid to. This is
my prediction. Some of the robbers may eyentu-
ally be arrested, but all the boys Qor that is all
you can call them) that have been arrested will
be released one 10y one after the excitement dies
out and the people think they have the right
ones. The friends of the James boys are going
to stand by them, and they are legion. and a
great political power in this (Jackson) and Clay
county. The James can commit any crime
here they want to and they will never be
arrested.
The weather here is delightful. but the rain
that fell few days ago came too late. The
crops are almost a total loss. Vegetables can
scarcely be procured i'm the markets. This state
of affairs prevails the entire way from Washing
ton to Kansas. Everything i'm the way OF eat
ables have gone up so per cent within the past
ten days. Laborers and mechanics are arranging
for an advance i'm wages. After You leave
Quincy ILL.,. all through northeastern Missouri.
the farmers are feeding their cattle to keep them
alive. Thousands of acres OF the finest lands one
ever laid his eyes on looks as barren a barn
yard