14. YELLOW BACK LITERATURE.
A boy was brought into the hospital one day while I was there, whose
history is worth relating, as it shows the fatal effects of bad
literature upon the human mind, and to what sad
results it may lead. This youth had become suddenly ill in the mines,
and had to be assisted from his place of work to the ward for the sick.
He was very ill for several days, but began to grow convalescent. An
opportunity presenting itself, I got into conversation with him, and he
told me the history of his crime. He was an orphan. At the death of both
his parents in the East he had come to Kansas to make his home with an
uncle. This relative was very kind, and after a time adopted the boy. He
had a pleasant home, and his prospects for the future were bright. How
often is it the case that the sky of the future becomes overcast. This
young criminal was a constant reader of the Life of Jesse James, and
kindred literature, until he made up his mind to go on the "war path"
and become Jesse James No. 2. With this in view, he provided himself
with two large revolvers. One night, after all the household had
retired, he crept stealthily into the bed-room of one of the hired men
and stole seventy dollars. He goes to the barn and takes one of his
uncle's horses and starts for the Indian Territory. The uncle was
awakened an hour later on account of some unusual sound at the barn, and
going thither discovered that
one of his best horses was gone, and also that his nephew was away. He
got together several of his neighbors and started in pursuit, and the
next day, about noon, the youthful thief was overtaken and surrounded.
The uncle rode up to him and began to question him as to his strange
conduct, when the boy drew one of his revolvers, and, pointing at his
uncle, shot him dead. He was going to play Jesse James to the last. When
he saw his uncle fall dead from his horse, now realizing what he had
done, the bravado spirit forsook him, and he began to quake with fear.
The neighbors closed in upon him and soon took his firearms from him. In
due time he had his trial and was sent to the penitentiary for life.
Bad books are our worst companions. I have narrated the history
of this young murderer, and now urge my boy readers to let yellow back
literature alone. It wrecked the future of this youth, and what it did
for one it may do for another.
