The Russellville Democrat., 1892-06-23
TENDERF00T BOB FORD.
How He Was Pulled From HIs High Perch.
Museum Freaks shnddered when sl<ep. ticai Wrestler Slapped the Tsrri-
 bIe Fellows Chops.

Bob Ford, who died with his boots on, at Creede, Col, at the crack of Deputy Sheriff Kally's revolver, pretty much as Jesse James died with his boots on at St. Joseph. Mo-, at the bark of Bob Ford's der ringer, was once, and for a brief season, a social lion in the Bowery, says New York paper.
 The late Mir. Jesse James was the president of syndicate for sshold- ing up" trains. Mr. Bob Ford and Mir. Charley Ford were managing directors in the syndicate, and rem dered substantial aid to Mir. James in his extensive railway operations.
 MT. James railway trustr paid handsome dividends to the stock holders, but Mir. Bob Ford and MT. Charley Ford grew weary of the cares of business, and finally rs- signed from the board of directors to enter financial scheme which was being hoated by Governor Critten- den, of Missouri. Governor Crit tenden wanted to get an option on President James scalp, and he offered $10, ,000 for that gentleman, either alive or in state of innocu- ous desuetude.
 Mr. Bob Ford and Mir. Charley Ford were the working partners in the new enterprise and Governor Crittenden was the sleeping member of the firm. The Fords made an at- tack on President James railway trust. Mir. James was caught "short' on firearms. Derringers suddenly took an upward turn and before President James had time to recover he was "hoored" and had to make an assignment of his life for the benefit of his creditors. His railway syndicate went up in bal loon.
 President James was duly planted and the tombstone trust furnished a suitable monument for him, while a literary syndicate provided him with a cheap and beautiful epitaph. Bob Ford got his SIC, ,000 for his specu lative venture in homicide. His name became household word wherever the dime novel is read.
 He came east on lightning ex- press train, which few years ago ne would have held up with pleas ure and robbed at leisure.
 On arriving at the Grand Central depot he received an ovation from an admiring crowd of newsboys and district telegraph messengers This ovation grew as he rolled down town on Third avenue street ear, and became simply magnificent when he reached the Bowery.
 Mir. Bob Ford and his younger brother, Mir. Charley Ford, decided to contribute to the gayety of the nation by appearing in a dime mA..- scum. They entered museum on the Bowery, which, like Shake speare's Theatre, was named the Globe" They made their debut as livingcuriosities-not having been killed yet. Even more successful were they as freaks of nature than they had been as train robbers. The museum held up thousands at ten cents apiece.
 Mir. Bob Ford sat on chair on a raised platform, between the Chi nese giant and the Mashonaland dwarf, with his belt bristling with revolvers and bowie knives, and the grim smile on his face of one who had killed man before breakfast. His legs were crossed, and his No. l6 boots swung freely in the air. Near him sat his under-study, Mir. Charles Ford, who likewise bristled with six-shooters and terrifying knives.
 All the small newsboys who are studying the art of killing Indians, all the little urchins in knicker- lockers who were ambitious to be- come pirates or train robbers, all the tiny bootblacks who wished to paint the Indian reservation red-in fact everybody who wished to do some- thing particularly courageous and desperate came to the museum and gazed upon the Fords in awe and trembling.
 The ''living curiosities" and "rare freaks of nature" in the were in deadly fear of the two "desperadses." The "Black Prince of Senegambia" was pale with fright. The "Living Skele- ton" shook with terror till his bones rattled. The giant almost shrunk in his boots. The Circassian girls hair stood on end. The "human salamander" declared that he was peaceful man and not fire eater"
 While the "freaks of naturen were trembling with an apprehen- sion and an open mouthed crowd of simple spectators was gazing upon the Ford Brothers in fear and won der, group of sporting men and women about town entered the mu- scum to see what Western des- perado was like. Among them was Matt Grace, the Graceo- Roman wrestler; Dick Fitzgerald, the the atrical agent, and John F. Flana- gan, the artist. Matt Grace walked up the platform where Bob Ford sat with his lr,rid s,n,ila and h;s