The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-22
LIFE VAS WILD IN WEST
 DURING RICHARDS YOUTH
Jesse James Was Ideal Of Young Men When Great Promoter Worked As Cowboy On
 .a s2 Western Ranch f 4-s atA
Western Ranch

had rid the country of it's most dan gerous outlaw nobody ever spoke of his cowardly deed except with scorn. E Jesse James, you know, lived as . citizen under the name of Howard.
 In those days every kid sang song that ran like this:
 NThe dirty little coward
 That shot Mister Howard,
 And laid poor Jesse in his grave."'
 Pal Asks Him To Rob Bank As I grew up into man the deeds of the James gang were still dis cussed. The evil effect of his adven- turous deeds was to lead many young men into a wrong way of thinking. For. a long time-ten years or more there was 2 spell of train robbin and
 [ had a jbb of line riding for a big ranch. That means 1t was my duty to ride along the border of a ranch and see that the cattle kept to their own range. Another cowboy, Craw- ford Foster, worked with me. He rode would meet at night and camp to- gether. Rarely did a night pass but Foster would beg me to go into a scheme with him, to rob a bank. He had his hold-up allfplanned and would point , out t. very carefully s, how it could sense not to be influenced. At that, his talk was alluring.
 So strong did that ioea stay in Eos ter's mind that he. finally got another young cowboy in with him and they actually did rob the bank of Wichita Falls, shooting the cashier.
 They were both caught and hanged to a pole directly in front of the bank they had robbed. Those dangling fig ures acured a lot. of outlaw ideas then cropping up in youngsters.
 A little later on I intend to relate an incident of the famous drive we made In taking "a herd ali the way from moment, though, it recalls another Dit of train robbing. ti' In our outfit there were three young cowboys, Billy Newherry, Matt Shaw and Newt Gibson. Occasionally in camp they would sit around and dis and of organizing another gang like that of Jesse James. Again | was wise enough to listen bYt keep my own coun-
 The rest of us, thought it all talk and forgot it when we finally brought the herd into Montana.
 They Rob Train of $6O,00O "A little while later I was sent on to Kansas City and Chicago with the cat tie train and then given a pass back to- Texas. While I was gone those boys actually did organize an outlaw band.
 They held up Northern Pacific train and robbed the express messenger of $50, 900 in gold. They did not kill any body, which was; lucky for them.
 In the. pursuit that followed, Billy NeWberry got all the way Jback to Texas and gave his share of gold to his mother before they caught him. She in, turn gave 1t back to- the ex- press company and Billy was par doned.
 Matt Shaw, after getting to Idaho, was caught and taken on train, handcuffed and shackled. In the mid de of the night he jumped out the window and escaped. Fearing to speak to anybody or seek help he managed to, cut the chain between his hands on a rock and went all the way back home with the iron bands still ori him, His, people also found the, money and Geturned It.. A-$ ,i.. 1a
 These boys didn't know what to do with their gold. When Gibson was caught the family also found his pile. All of 1t was turned back, the express company recovering the entire $6O, ,O0O. The restitution was considered so com p1ete that not one of those boys ever had to serve a sentence.
 They turned bandit, but they were the sort of lads who could be as kind to calf as young girl to kitten.
 No chapter of cattle drive would be complete without the story Of Sit ting Bull, the calf. ; /
 Tomorrow: Tex Takes a Bull to Raise.