Evening star., 1898-10-29

q mental position in
Washington for a
number of years past, I've been swept by
a wave of memory touching the numerous
occasions on which my boyish trail was
cut by various members of the famous, or
infamous, James gang. 1 lived in Leaven-
worth, Kan, during the last seven years of
the seventies. While Leavenworth was al
ready, with a population of about 15,OOO,
the metropolis of Kansas, it was neverthe-
less bad town at that time. 1t preserved
its frontier-hke character for many years
after other towns in the same approximate
longitude took on the manners and methods
not far removed to the east and north of
what used to be the great cattle trail. and
the place was always filled with hard char
acters-genuine bad men of the tyne that
has practically passed; packers, freighters
mule-whackers, refugees from the rough
law of the far west, who regarded Leayen-
worth as the extreme east, and who consid-
cred, not unjustitiably, that when they
got within the limits of Leavenworth they
mad pretty fair cinch that the law would
not oVertake them. The town was fire.
quently visited by members of the James
gang. The gang never committed any out
RACES in Leavenworth. and for that reason
Sided With the Gang.
AS matter of fact, queer as it may
seem, the sentiment Of the town up to
and after the death of Jesse James at the
hand of Bob Ford a trusted member of his
gang, was always more or less en- the side
of the band of robbers. Desperate as he
was, the people of Leavenworth surely re-
garded Jesse James as the real thing-not
entirely because of the immunity which
the town enjoyed at his hands, but because
the populace of the place was of a sort to
De impressed by the utter, dare-devilish
recklessness of many of the exploits of
James and his gang. The people of the
place were inclined rather to dwell upon
the negative virtues of the James boys
tnan to dilate upon their numerous mani
festadons of complete fiendishness. Many
a story was told around LeavenWorth in
those days of the generous aid Jesse James
mad extended to this or that old woman,
ane distress among poor families in Mis-
SQUIRT and Kansas which he had relieved,
the would-be cumulative lads he had ad-
vised tc cling to the right, and so on. until.
IN TN eyes OF the rising generation out
IN mere. me star robber of this age possessed
all of the gallantry and generosity of a
modern Robin Hood or Dick Turpfn.
Inc James gang never, to my knowledge.
visited Leavenworth in body. They
cdme IN separately. or in pairs. when there
wasn't much doing In the way of hg
fobber1es. or when the gang. as concrete
body. was laying low, as the phase runs.
and they hung around the town not. OF
cours'. putting themselves particularly in
evidence. until called away by their chiefs,
the James boys. to engage in their reck-
less occupation of robbery. In much the
same way members of the gang used. ct
that time, TO hang around Wichita.
AtchisCn, Grasshopper Falls
and other places In eastern Kansas, and in
various Missouri towns-Sedalia, Inderen-
dence. jefferson City. Easton and St zoe,
where Jesse James met his death. Per
hapS LeaVenworth was safer for them than
any OF those places. At any rate, none OF
them was ever molcsted on these occa-
SONS. even when 1t was tacitly known
the place, that sllch-a nd-erch
a member members of the James gang
inhabited the town and in
spite Of the fact that the rewards placed
upon the heads of the robbers aggregated
rany thousands of dollars.
Meeting With Jesse James.
Now. as to the various occasions on
which l. barefooted urchin, got into the
James gang picture, simply by reason of
my being a snub-nosed, freckled young in
habitant of one of the towns that was
occasionally made headquarters by mem
bers of that bad bunch of men.
Jesse James I only saw once. and l
didn't know it when l was sizing the
robber chief up, or L would probably have
horne blubbering. Oddly enough, Jesse
James. the chief, was the last man Of the
gang 1 ever saw. A block from where my
folks lived. on Pawnee street, there
corner grocery kept by a man named JEFF
Brunstetter. man who had had a record
with his gun in Missouri a long while be-
fore he settled down in Leavenworth,
and an ex-member of Quantrelrs
gang of guerriIlas. He had been a playmate
of Jesse James when The two were vAry
small boys in Missouri, as he used to tell
me, a big-eyed, wondering boy, that hung
around his store during the school vaca-
tions in summer One drowsy afternoon in
the month cf August. 1879, l was lying on
a couple of sacks of bran In the back part
of Brunstetters grocery, picking slivers
cut of my bare feet when a rather tall,
thick-set. well-built man, with very broad
shoulders, full beard, raven-black in
color. a bronzed ruddy complexion where
his beard did not grow and wearing a linen
duster that reached almost to his heels.
and a wide white sombrero. walked into
the store. Brunstetter was back CT the
salt meat counter, cutting some ham, when
the man came in. He looked up. and saw
the two men exchange quick glances of
recognition.
"'Hello. jeff said the man in the long
How're you cutting it? Haven't seen you
for five years now, have ~
"'Howdy, pal replied Brunstetter. Yes,
1 guess it's about five years-w1nter of IA.
1 believe-since 1 saw you. I've been fol-
lowing your route, though, podner. BAD
route-bad game. Almost time you
knocked off. How's your brother?'
Turned Superstitious.
'DThe two men walked to the extreme
back end of the store. and when the man
in the duster passed by where / was spread
out on the bran sacks he gave me keen
look, which 1 returned, and 1 had a good,
square gaze into his cold, bright, steely
blue eyes The two men talked together
in a low tone in the after part OF the store
for ten or fifteen minutes. l watched them
Idly while they talked. Finally the
stranger stretched his arms, yawned and
said he'd be moving on. Brunstetter said
something to him. and then l saw the
stranger unbutton one of the buttons of
his duster near the waist line, reach in and
pull from his belt big ball cartridge. He
handed it to Brunstetter, VINO put 1t in his
pocket. Then ne stranger shook hands
with JEFF and walked out.
Three days later I happened to be in
the store again when friend of Brunstet-
ters from another part Of town came in.
Jesse was in to see me a few days
ago. said Brunstetter to his friend He's
turned superstitious and thinks his finish
Is nigh. Got it into his head that some
member of his outtt'll put 1t onto him
Handed me a cartridge out of his belt as
kind o keepsake, and was in a softer