Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1896 — Frank James on Train Robberies. [ARTICLE]

Frank James on Train Robberies.

Frank James, brother of Jesse James, the famous train robber and desperado, Is now engaged in the peaceful occupation of a ticket taker in a St. Louis theater. He was one of the “James boys,” for whose apprehension $30,000 reward was offered, but now he is a quiet, peaceable citizen, with only a restless gray eye to suggest the possession of daring and courage. Every nhjht he is to be found in the doorway of the Standard Theater, St. Louis. Frank James can with difficulty be Induced to talk of his former life. A few days since, however, he read the report of a train robliery near San Francisco. He thinks such outrages can be stopped only by vigorous work on the part of the railway companies, and said: “When a man engages in the traiif robbing business he is badly in money, and will take desperate chances to secure it. “I am opposed to train robbery, nnd the only way it will be stopped is td have armed guards on each train. Two or three would be sufficient, but they should be well armed and encased In a steel cage of some kind. The car should have port, holes, through which the guards*could command a view of the outside. - “One point .they should keep in view, and that is the spape between the*engine «hd the express oar. This point should be watched, because robbers could uncouple the express car from the rest of the trnift and with the engine pull it several miles down the track, and with dynamite blow everything up. “The second and main reason Is that the robbers would be aware of the guards’ presence in the car, and if they could get to the couplings of the car, all they would have to do would be to pull the engine away from the train for a short distance, reverse the lever and come back against the train with such force that the express car would be demolished and the guards killed. Until these ideas dre carried out, the robbers will continue to thiuk that train robbery is a science.” Jesse James, Jr., the son of the notorious outlaw/is now 20 years of age, and is employed by the Armour racking Company at Kansas City. ’JIc lives there with his mother, Mrs, Zerelda ■lames.—New York Journal.