Jesse James

Jesse James

(A Design in Red and Yellow for a Nickel Library)

WILLIAM ROSE BENET

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'; (
Cataracts in the Missouri!)
Held 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' like 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 yet han's!"

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

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 Ian' shuddered fer miles aroun'.

WILLIAM ROSE BENET i6i

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 buffier 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' like the Missouri!)
Or a thunderstorm blaze - that's Jesse James!
(Hear that Missouri roll!)