The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #32737   Message #4171961
Posted By: Lighter
10-May-23 - 03:41 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Jesse James I
Subject: RE: Origins: Jesse James I
Warning: Off Topic!

This poem by William Rose Benet (1924) appeared in my seventh-grade English book. It was great then, and it's great now. (OK, some of it could be cut; so could War and Peace):

             JESSE JAMES: AMERICAN MYTH

    A DESIGN IN RED AND YELLOW FOR A NICKEL LIBRARY

Jesse James was a two-gun man,
    (Roll on, Missouri!)
Strong-arm chief of an outlaw clan,
    (From Kansas to Illinois!)
He twirled an old Colt forty-five;
    (Roll on, Missouri!)
They never took Jesse James alive.
    (Roll, Missouri, roll!)

Jesse James was King of the Wes';
    (Cataracks in the Missouri!)
He'd a di'mon' heart in his lef' breas';
    (Brown Missouri rolls!)
He'd a fire in his heart no hurt could stifle;
    (Thunder, Missouri!)
Lion eyes an' a Winchester rifle.
    (Missouri, roll down!)

Jesse James rode a pinto hawse;
Come at night to a water-cawse;
Tetched with the rowel that pinto's flank;
She sprung the torrent from bank to bank.

Jesse rode through a sleepin' town;
Looked the moonlit street both up an' down;
Crack-crack-crack, the street ran flames
An' a great voice cried, " I'm Jesse James! "

Hawse an' afoot they're after Jess!
    (Roll on, Missouri!)
Spurrin' an' spurrin' — but he's gone Wes'.
    (Brown Missouri rolls!)
He was ten foot tall when he stood in his boots;
    (Lightnin' light the Missouri!)
More'n a match fer sich galoots.
    (Roll, Missouri, roll!)

Jesse James rode outa the sage;
Roun' the rocks come the swayin' stage;
Straddlin' the road a giant stan's
An' a great voice bellers," Throw up yer han's!"

Jesse raked in the di'mon' rings,
The big gold watches an' the yuther things;
Jesse divvied 'em then an' thar
With a cryin' child had lost her mar.

The U.S. troopers is after Jess;
    (Roll on, Missouri!)
Their hawses sweat foam, but he's gone Wes';
    (Hear Missouri roar!)
He was broad as a b'ar, with a ches' like a drum,
    (Wind an' rain through Missouri!)
An' his red hair flamed like Kingdom Come.
    (Missouri down to the sea!)

Jesse James all alone in the rain
Stopped an' stuck up the Eas'-boun' train;
Swayed through the coaches with horn an' a tail,
Lit out with the bullion an the registered mail.

Jess' made 'em all turn green with fright,
Quakin' in the aisles in the pitch-black night;
An' he give all the bullion to a pore old tramp
Campin' in the cuttin' in the dirt an' damp.


The whole U.S. is after Jess';
    (Roll on, Missouri!)
The son-of-a-gun, if he ain't gone Wes';
    (Missouri to the sea!)
He could chaw cold iron an' spit blue flame
    (Cataracks down the Missouri!)
He rode on a catamount he'd larned to tame.
    (Hear that Missouri roll!)

Jesse James rode into a Bank
Give his pinto a tetch on the flank;
Jumped the teller's window with an' awful crash;
Heaved up the safe an' twirled his mustache;

He said, "So long, boys!" He yelped, "So long!
Feelin' porely today, I ain't feelin' strong!"
Rode right through the wall agoin' crack-crack-crack --
Took the safe home to mother in a gunny-sack.


They're creepin'; they're crawlin'; they're stalkin' Jess;
    (Roll on, Missouri!)
They's a rumor he's gone much further Wes';
    (Roll, Missouri, roll!)
They's word of a cayuse hitched to the bars
    (Ruddy clouds on Missouri!)
Of a golden sunset that busts into stars.
    (Missouri, roll down!)

Jesse James rode hell fer leather;
He was a hawse an' a man together;
In a cave in a mountain high up in air
He lived with a rattlesnake, a wolf, an' a bear.

Jesse's heart was as sof' as a woman;
Fer guts an' stren'th he was sooper-human;
He could put six shots through a woodpecker's eye
And take in one swaller a gallon o' rye.

They sought him here an' they sought him there,
    (Roll on, Missouri!)
But he strides by night through the ways of the air;
    (Brown Missouri rolls!)
They say he was took an' they say he is dead,
    (Thunder, Missouri!)
But he ain't — he's a sunset overhead!
    (Missouri down to the sea!)

Jesse James was a Hercules.
When he went through the woods he tore up the trees.
When he went on the plains he smoked the groun'
An' the hull lan' shuddered fer miles aroun'.

Jesse James wore a red bandanner
That waved on the breeze like the Star Spangled Banner;
In seven states he cut up dadoes.
He's gone with the buffler an' the desperadoes.

Yes, Jesse James was a two-gun man
    (Roll on, Missouri!)
The same as when this song began;
    (From Kansas to Illinois!)
An' when you see a sunset bust into flames
    (Lightnin' light the Missouri!)
Or a thunderstorm blaze — that's Jesse James!
    (Hear that Missouri roll!)