The morning call., 1891-01-05
TALK WITH FRANK JAMES.
He Laughs at the Cave Story-Jesse Out
done by Woman.

He Laughs at the Cave Story-Jesse Out
done by Woman.
A story was abroad yesterday, says the
Dallas News, to the effect that somebody,
nobody knew exactly who, had discovered
cave up in Nicolet County. Mimi, which
was rendezvous for the James and Younger
boys during the stormy days of their career.
Ont of this proceeded ali sorts Of fantastical
air castles, some taking the form of vast
underground cavern literally filled to over
flowing with gold rivaling in quantity the
riches of Captain Kidd or the pirate Laitte.
Other persons might have pictured it as
cave where 1.-The bandit kings" as they are
called in the ten-cent novels, carried captiVeS
to let them starve and endure all sorts of
other horrible things.
However, these things were or might have
been, a reporter saw Frank James OH the
streets yesterday afternoon and asked him
what there was in the story.
LAS TO our hiding in cave" and he
laughed as he said 1t, why, that's the most
preposterous thing | ever heard of, l am
not egotisiicai or inclined to brag, but tn ose
who know me will be witness that | am too
good general to lead my men INTO hole
where some body might slaughter us. If we
had used a cave for meeting place, or a
hiding place, all the other fellows would
have 10 do to get us out would be just to
raise little smoke" and he laughed again.
"No, sir; no caves for me. have never
liked them and never will. My place for
fight is the wide, open plain, where you
have got just as much room to move about
in as though an enemy was not within 100
miles OF you. Somehow or other you feel
easier on the plain, for when you are in
some Notification you feel like some one had
the drop on you, for you know all they have
got TO do Is to starve you out. So much for
the hiding place part of the story. Now, as
to our having any money to hide in caves
Dpp1p6
funny. We didu't have such enormous
amounts OF money, and if we did, u cave
was the last place on earth we should have
gone to hide it in. l hate to break up all
these nice fairy stories" concluded Frank,
but what am saying is hard fact. There
Is absolutely nothing in the story"
Bob Ford was not the first person who
ever got the drop Oh Jesse James by long
shot" said man who was somewhat famil-
lar with their records in the hearing OF a
reporter yesterday evening Then he pro-
ceeded to tell his friend: "But the famous
bandit had been nutdone, and by woman.
The story has never been printed, and hap
pened about in this way: In the year 1881,
about nine years ago, when Jesse and all his
crowd were hard pressed, he decided to
clear out from the Northwest and to put
many miles between himself and pursuers.
He knew of nobody whom he could trust
implicitly except one cousin, married WO-
man, Mrs. John q. Norris, by name, who
resided then and does now at Selma, fifty
miles west of Montgomery. Ala. jesse care
fully picked his way out of the country in
tested by his pursuers. and landed in Selma
in October of that year. or if not in that
month, anyhow in the fall
He boldly went in to the town, where he
knew he was stranger, and to his cousins
house. As he had suspected he found there
n haven of refuge, and his cousin gladly
gave him shelter. OF his STAY in that quiet
little town, where he went abroad every
day and played billiards in the hotels with
the town boys, you would not care to hear
in detail. On the morning before his de-
parture Jesse stood in the sitting-room
cleaning those big pistols which rarely were
found off his person. He carelessIy laid
one of the weapons, with every chamber
loaded, down on a table and stood rubbing
the other. To his unspeakaOle surprise
Mrs. Norris, who had entered the room un-
observed, suddenly presented the loaded
weapon at him with the command to hold
up his hands.
Jesse thought it was all joke at first,
but he saw a SET determined look on her
face, and up went his hands, with the re-
mark, guess Pm done for this time TO
fifteen minutes, perhaps, Mrs. Norris
laughed and returned the pistol to Jesse.
1t was the first time anybody ever got the
drop on him. The second time such thing
happened, as all the world knows, was no
mock affair, but ended in the tragedy which
cost Jesse his life
The reporter asked Frank James about
Jesse's trip to Alabama, and the incidents
connected with it. He said they had cousins
in Selma by the name of Norris, and he
expected Jesse did go there, but he could
thing about what happened while he made
his visit. or visits.