The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-08-18
HOME OF JESSE
 JAMES FALLING
 INTO DISREPUTE
No Longer Mecca for Tourists Who Pur- chase Souvenirs of Doubtful Worth.
By DALE S. RENO, tional News SerVice


 St. Joseph, Mo. Aug. 1s.-Eame is Tickle even to a bandit.
 r Nor does the fact that he may have risen to the highest pinnacle from inevitable oblivion in popular | interest. At least no historical society has yet come forward to save the house, | now rapidly falling into ruins. in l which Jesse James, king of bad men," met death at the hands of his | betrayer, Bob Ford, on April 5, 1882; | | For years the old house at No. 1918 | Lafayette street was annually visited | by hundreds of curious visitors, who 1 stood with eyes and mouth open Tn pointed to the hole in the east wall where the bullet from Ford's gun inn bedGed itself after snuffing out the life of the notorious outlaw
 Once Point of Interest. l There was a time, and it has not been such a great while ago either, when everyone who had read ''The IiJames Boys in Missouri and Gap Collier" in their youth. wanted to see the Jesse James house when they came to St. Joseph. To go back and tell the folks they had not seen the old landmark would have been as much of a disgrace as to have gone to Philadelphia on rubber neck ing trip without looking up 1nde- pendence Hall.
 One was always sure of getting vivid account of the killing from the old caretaker, who would even admit, if pressed long enough, that he had | witnessed the affair. After a har- angue about the details of the shoot ing the visitors were shown the old, rusty Colts horse pistols James had laid on the table while he stepped on a chair to hang picture for Ford's wife
 Then followed the old yel1owed, newspapers, which recounted the story of the shooting, several giving = anecdotes showing the better side of t the famous bank robber. After that the usual procedure was to sell the = now enchanted visitor few cur1os, a !, piece of plaster from the bullet hole, :, a piece of the picture frame. a rung
 of the chair, or some other bit of
 doubtful ,oa oaluei at b Gopanatlvelg = particularly unshorn he was offered ] one of the pistols at an exorbitant r figure, and the gag occasionally y Inexhaustib1e Relics e The task. of figuring how many e rungs have been sold from the chair, It sold again and again. offers a fine job to Some bright young statistician
 And yet the "originaP' chair is still
 therel
 = The room in the front part of the H house is still kept for visitors Ar
 old plush sofa stands against the eas o wall, right under the picture which was being hung by James when ht V was shot down by his old comrade IS In the centre of the room is an old g. fashioned centre table on which rest "a "a eide the lamp lay the two guns placed
 tbe er1, b;ysatne gy the bandit when he entered e. The house. an old frame building Id set among the trees on the top of
 bank, still looks just as one would le expect a bandit kings home to look " few hundred yards to the soutl IT high bluffs loom, while all around tn, s. house the unpaved, nttle- travelec d streets seem to recall the old s%age
 coach routes There are but one O of tage, and these are far enough ava.
 to bear out the idea of seclusion.
 Few Visitors Now I'll But there are few visitors to tn
 old Jesse James landmark now. Tn
 house has not been painted since tn
 bandit was killed. Boards, bare an,
 crumbling foundation are the onl
 outward sign of a landmark thai
 once lured it's thousands. The fev
 who do occasionally seek out the ol | place are no longer curious take lit
 tie interest in the relics still offere, ' Tor sale and generally leave with | disappointed "Humph!'
 ' Two years ago there was an agita \ ton for preserving the old house fo
 its historical value, but when tn \ question came before the Buchana J body, believing the city had alread
 had enough notoriety from Jess James residence here fiatly refuse, 3 to take any action to save the ancien s landmark on the gounds that the ia $ nous gunman was of no particu1a q benefit to the reputation of the city O I the state.
 N And thus is perishing one of Mis- 4 sourfs most famous landmarks. Sc with Buffalo Bill and Cap Collie = gone beyond the great divide. witt
 the roundup being supervised nov
 by the Society for the Prevention o ! Cruelty to Animals and with the
 Pony Express stables given over to foundry one might well say: '.Si \ semper gloriae"
 Norwa1k.-Judge Edwin S. TT1oma | in the United States CIcnrt here yes