JESSE JAMES

How the people held their breath
When they heard of Jesse's death
And wondered how he came to die
For the big reward little Robert Ford
Shot Jesse James on the sly

Chorus:
Jesse leaves a wife to mourn all her life
The children that he left will pray
For the thief and the coward
Who shot Mr. Howard
And laid Jesse James in his grave

Jesse was a man - a friend to the poor -
Never did he suffer a man's pain
And with his brother Frank
They robbed the Chicago Bank
And stopped the Glendale train

Jesse goes to his rest with his hand on his breast
And the devil will be upon his knees
He was born one day in the County of Clay
And came from a great race

Men, when you go out to the west
Don't be afraid to die -
With the law in their hand
But they didn't have the sand
For to take Jesse James alive

Source:
Charles Finger, Sailor Chanties and Cowboy Songs (Little Blue Book no. 301)(Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Company, n.d.).

Finger writes that he got his version from "a sea cook named Wilson" and that he secured an identical version from a wandering singer in West Texas who had a printed broadside of the lyrics.