The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-02-25
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FRANK JAM eS
is DEAD
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(By Geo. II. Wyatp

forever and for all time, Frank
James. old Confederate soldier, for
mer Quantrell raider once bandit
king, lies gently sleeping that sleep
from which he never shall awake;
lies sleeping within the state which
gave him birth, that sleep which is
the end Of all mankind; lies sleeping
that sleep from which the voice OF
prayer nor the sound of riot. the
bugle call to battle nor the rhyming
song of peace can arouse him; that
sleep from which no roar of tempest
nor whispered note of calm can ever
hope to gain an answering thrill.
Born in the state of Missouri in the
year 1S43. Frank James cast his lot.
while yet boy in years, with the
south when the fratricidal war be
tween the states shook this great
nation from center to circumference.
Fighting through that war until the
gray clad sold!ery of the Confederacy
stacked their arms for the last time
and drank deeply from the waters OF
the fountain of defeat, Frank James,
like others of the lost cause" was
fain to beat the sword into the plow-
share.-to return like the others, from
the din of battle and the scenes of
DEATH desolation and despair, to the
peaceful vocations OF good citizen
ship. But fortune decreed otherwise,
and for almost a quarter of a cen
tury after the dove of peace had
chanted its requiem over the graves
of the blue and the gray, Frank
James became hunter Of men,
hunted by men.
Upon his life during that time 1t
is not for us to sit in judgment.
Like myriads of others, he was both
sinned against and SHINING.
Now all is past. The rebellous
heart is stilled forever, the cold eyes
! closed and filmed over, the cutting
tongue palsied, the Quivering limbs
paralyzed. the germ of motion claim
ed by death. For us there is no
middle course. If we are believers
in that cult called Christianity, or
if we are members of that great
army who believe, yet doubt we can
in Justice to ourselves as human
beings. do naught save spread the
beautiful mantle of charity over the
blemishes of one whose faults may
have been many, but whose wrongs
were more numerous than the sands
of the seashore.
Frank James. soldier, bandit, trust
ed friend and relentless foe, law
breaker and. in the end, peaceful and
law respecting citizen, has cast loose
the lines which bound him to this
earth a living man, and joined that
great army of what was once human
kind, that silent army whose mem
bers have returned TO dust since
time was Ill us III any
With the blood of nunherl'ss enc
mics upon the tips of his nervous
fingers, with the knowleGga that he,
himself, had in the past avenged and
brooked not the lingerins ;nterfer-
ence of the laws delay impressed
upon his own rebelliOus mind, his
own mutinous brain, Frank James has
passed from life into that fathomless
mystery called death; that mystery
which hope says is but the gateway
TO a life eternal and lasting beyond
the ken of human mind; that mystery
which cold reason says is the end
that mystery which marks passing OF
uuickness into decay, the blending
of grandeur into the wreck of ruin;
that mystery which hovered over
:, the palace of the rich and the hoveI
of the poor ten thousand times ten
thousand years ago, just as it hovers
over palace and hovel today, just as
it will hover over palace and hovel
ten thousand times ten thousand
years after you and | shall have
ceased to move and breathe and live
and be.
And so the mystery which has
claimed Frank James, the outlaw and
man. will continue while worlds are
born and kingdoms crumble. Ten
thousand summers suns will follow
the springtime's fruiting seasons
while autumns, ripening, will fit the
millions yet unborn, 10 pass in turn
beneath the winters SHOWS of count
less ages yet to come.
And each succeeding summers SUM-
and each succeeding winters snow,
will come aud pause and pass, and
passing, find and gaze upon and leave
the dust of Frank James as they
4 have come and paused and gazed
upon and left the dust of all of
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