The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-08-23
DECAYS WITH ACE.
Home of Jesse James Is Falling
Into DiSrepute.
No Longer Mecca for Tourists
Won't Be Preserved.

st. Joseph. Mo, Aug. 2S.-Fame is
tickle even to a bandit.
Nor does the fact that he may have
risen to the highest pinnacle in ban
ditry's Hall of Fame save him from
inevitable oblivion in popular interest.
At least no historical society has
vet come forward to save the house.
now rapidly falling into ruins. in
which Jesse James, king of bad
men" met death at the hands of his
betrayer. Bob Ford. on April 3, 1882.
For years the old house at 1913
Lafayette street was annually visited
by hundreds of curious visitors. who
stood with eyes and mouth open in
wonder as the eloquent caretaker
pointed to the hole in the east wall
where the bullet from FOrd's gun i'm
bedded itself after snuffing out the
life of the notorious outlaw
Once Point of Interest.
There was a time, and it has not
been such a great while ago either,
when everyone who had read Ihe
James Boys in Missouri and Cap
Collier" in their youth, wanted to see
the Jesse James house when they
came to St Joseph. To go back ana
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 a 'rubbernecking"
trip without looking up Independence
Hail.
one was always sure OF getting a
vivid account of the killing from the
old caretaker who would even admit.
If pressed long enough. that he had
witnessed the affair. After harangue
about the details of the shooting the
visitors were shown the old, rusty
Colts horse pistols James had laid on
the table while he stepped on a chair
TO hang a picture for FOrds wife.
Then followed the old, yellOwed
newspapers. which recounted the story
of the shooting. several giving anec-
dotes showing the better side of the
famous bank rObber. After that the
usual procedure was to sell the now
enchanted visitor a few curios, a piece
of plaster from around the bullet hole,
"a piece of the picture frame, a rung
Of the chair. or some other bit of
doubtful value. at a comparatively
fancy price. If the lamb appeared
particularly unshorn he was offered
one of the pistols at an exorbitant fig
ure, and the gag occasionally worked.
InexhnustibIe Relics.
The task of figuring how many
rungs have been sold from the chair,
besides the other +.ariginal" curios
sold again and again, offers a fine job
10 some bright young statistician.
And yet the original chair is still
there,
The room in the front part of the
house is still kept for visitors. An
old plush sofa stands against the east
wall, right under the picture which
was being hung by James when he was
shot down by his old comrade. In
the center of the room is an old-fash-
toned center table on which rests a
pink-globed kerosene lamp. and be-
side the lamp lay the two guns placed
there by the bandit when he entered
the house.
The house. an old frame building,
set among the trees on the top of a
bank, still looks just as one would ex-
LII e., IL
few hundred yards to the south high
bluffs loom, while all around the
house the unpaved. Httle-traveled
streets seem to recall the old stage
two houses in plain view of the cot
tage. and these are far enough away
to bear out the idea of seclusion.
Few Visitors Now.
But there are few visitors TO the old
Jesse James landmark now. The
bandit was killed. Boards, bare and
rotting. window lights out and a
crumbling foundation are the only
outward sign of a landmark that once
lured its thousands. The few who do
occasionally seek out the old place
are no longer curious, take little in
terest in the relics still offered for
sale and generally leave with a disap-
pointed ''Humph."
Two years ago there was an agita-
tion for preserving the old house for
its historical value, but when the
question came before the Buchanan
County Historical Society, that august
body, believing the city had already
had enough notOriety from Jesse
Jamess residence here, fatty refused
TO take any action to save the ancient
landmark on the grounds that the
famous gunmsn was of no particular
benefit to the reputation of the city
or the state.
And thus is perishing one of Mis-
souri's most famous landmarks. So
with Buffalo Bill and Cap Collier
gone beyond the great divide. with
the roundup being supervised now by
the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals and with the Pony
Express stables given over to a foun-