Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-11-05
ROB ROY AND JESSE JAMES.
The Outlaw and His Contemporaries
in Scott's Day and Our Own.

! en- OUR biuSheS TO remember that Sir
/ Walter Scott looked on il as doubtful.
! Reports varied the best authenticated
E, traditions showed that the daring Nc
; Gregor had outlived his widest deeds,
and we may take it for granted that
/ he died in the latter part of the de-
| cade between 1870 and 1740. Assum-5
| ing that, we have some interesting
comparisons to make. A man whose
! real life WIS as sensational as that of
| the feudai mess trooper, Il chieftain
| who levied blackmail on peaceful cat
| tie roisers, who plundered his enc
mics, who long dreamed of upsettins
! Hanover and setting up Stuart,
! character half 18th century and hait
/ 10Th was living during part at least
| of George Washington's infancy.
Franklin may have heard many sto-.
~ about him. Paul Jones may nave
sailed with men who had caught q
| glimpse of Rob Roy through coast ana
| island traditions
Take Rob Roy's own strong per-
sonality and add what the genius OF
Scott has thrown around him, ana ne
| is a fascinating last of the Mohi-
cans type. Part of the ancient scot
| land of elaymere and ceronach hi1u
! gone out with the civil wars OF Srom-
wells day, the Revolution mad cut
! short many life, the uprising OF Lilo
! had ouenched some bold spirits, eN-
| lies had died heartbroken in foreign
! courts and cloisters. Rob Roy was u
| link with the past. He frightened
many who yet admired him, even as
his estimable- kinsman, Baltic Nlchoi
| Jarvie, did. But a few dates may
startle even some who have read
/ SCOTS noble story half dozen times,
| end il is we'll to think OF some VINO
| had come before Rob Roy had gone.
| Al the time the outlaw breathed his
| Ia st. Joseph Butler had written the an
| alopy. and George Berkeley was past
| 80 William Pitt had grown to man
| eetate Edward Gibbon had trodden
! mary n step on the road to learning.
| yoltaire was in his forties. Adam
| smith and William Blackstone were
launched into boyhood. Burke was
| on active child. Button was man OF
| some wears standing. Elderly men OF
I scientific tastes looked back on Royai
! society gatherings and on ingenious
| hvnatheses as the elderly men among
! ourselves look back to the Suez eahai
| aud the pacific railroads. Thc deaen
If Rab Roy may have been exciting
| news 10 the ardent. young john W es-
| lev. who never forgot his romantic
I 1ovaltv to Mary Queen of Scots, ana
! n Young Samuel Johnson, who heaF-
cd many a sigh for the luckless mouse
AZ stuart. What most of us would eau
| tn, real advance of the 18TH century
rod we'll started before the OLD ffee-
! f,otor =nassed from earth. After hot
! pov,s death. it is true, there was an
/ other Jacobite fash, and some ora o..
| .nen paid with their HEADS iof the ap
| ,;s,iner of IA. but the cecil judges sa"
that the old Stuart times were d. 81
end. No one after all. mas 50 siea,
| " shown us how imposslele 1t an W. =,
20 the novelist who admitted thai \
was go years since.
I No man. saint or sinner, saso
| col is alone. though he ma! iaie'
that he is. There were in the istl eeii'
| turv men of scientific bent OF 'al,'u'
| Watt would have been an iaipcssipi'
ify. Equally true is it that there mus
have been wild highlanders TO loilo"
or Rob Roy could not have lea. siu,
Nv side with the men who dfeaIileu -
1 industrial progress and OF sciehtlae ~
vance. there stih remained WIG eie
ment that believed in feud2i iiaeli.s
!, lavless vengeance, in the abaue'
| zion of women, In the blazing farm
I,o,,cc and the slaughtered flock.
in edinburgh and London there Wei'
optimists who might have Joiiieu DC.
eley in building a colonial uhiVets..s
tbcre were still maurauders VINO de
sn,sed peaeeful industry. Among th'
uists. of the mountains there might ~
found scattered remnants OF the oi'
time ,,,a har.n
Each trained to war since ne pee"''
Owning no tie but to his clan. -,
No oafh save by his ch1ettains fdiii.
| N law hut Roderick Dhus eonmahi
Among those whom Walter SEQ,
cav may be reckoned a man Wh'
| tonight "A duel with Rob Roy, woman
who boasted that her father had tore
| iblv carried her mother away 10 HE
highland dwelling, a gray-haired cav
| a,ier who remembered quarterHg on
| armed men in the assembly-room
Edineurgh. When Scott was chii'
the survivors of the highland Clam
were quite as picturesque as the sur
| viyors of the Indian wars IN parts .
the West today. Parliament might ue
| cree the Gaelic to be lawless. troop'
| might scatter the clansmen. the Sai
lows might dispose of some, out eve,
after 4 condition is foreibly removed
there are unforgiving and unforgettnt
souls who loved to have it SO.
Some day the fragments yet reraani
ing OF Jesse James life Will be gather
| ed by one who passes over the trahsl
ton stages OF history. Robeefs .liei
have been, and will be. but re" OF th'
young people Of today understand now
large a territory owned Jesse jane
4 as a sort of bandit baron. Like fsopli
Hood and Rob Roy he had devoted
followers quiet farmers and mer
| chants made excuses for Jesse James
| not unlike those Battle Nichol JarVis
| made for the McGregor. Stories aoou
| Jesse .James's kindness to the poor, Ms
generosity to his friends MS courage
| and, good humor were told IN many
tavern. There We're many VINO, no
from cowardice, but from sympathy
would have held back evidence teiiu
ing to convict the james boys ans
who would have given the accused I'M
| benefit of every possible DOUBT. L
the reader can recall how ROD ftpy
u :. ....-, ,,,,o bound and how the quart