NURSED JESSE JAMES
ARREST OF NEGRO REVIVES FOR-
GOTTEN BANDIT.
Son of Noted Highwayman, but
Now a Lawyer, Appeared in
Court in Defense of
Former Slave.
Charles Finley, a negro, of 523 Bluff street, who was tried before Justice J. B. Shoemaker yesterday afternoon and bound over to the criminal court on the charge of stabbing Edward Dyer, a member of the fire department at the Fifth and Bluff street station, was reared by Zerelda James-Samuels, was a hostler for Jesse and Frank James, the bandits, in their palmy days, and nursed young Jesse James, the Kansas City lawyer. Young Jesse defended him in the justice court yesterday and would take no fee.
"It's the first time I have been in trouble, since Master Jesse was killed twenty-five years ago in St. Joseph," said Finley last evening. "When I was arrested, I telephoned for Young Jesse, for I done raised that boy from a baby, just as his grandmother had raised me, and he came double quick and took my case. I knew he would not forget me when I got in trouble.
My father and mother were 'Reldie James' slaves long before the war. They lived on a farm near Kearney, Clay county, where I was born during the war. I never was a slave, but Old Misses 'Reldie raised me and my mother gave me to Susan James until I was 21 years of age. When Susan married Mr. Palmer and went to Texas, I went along and worked for them.
"I was back in Kearney pretty soon, though, and lived with 'Reldie. I never could forget that she had treated me like one of her own when I was a baby and that she always put me back of her on the horse when she rode to Liberty or about the farm.
"When Jesse and Frank got to be bad men, they needed someone with them so they took me to care for their horses and run errands. I ran with them most all the time, until Jesse was killed. I was not in St. Joseph that day, but heard all about it pretty soon. I was at home with 'Reldie.
"Old Miss 'Reldie thinks a whole lot of me yet -- she is Mrs. Samuels now, you know -- but she wouldn't do any more for me than would young Jesse or his sister.
"How did I come to leave her? Why, I came down here after Jesse was killed. I have worked for young Jesse a good deal. Then I got married and have a family of my own, so I have to stay here and work."
Charlie is a concreter. He says he makes $2 a day at it, but he doesn't enjoy the work nearly so well as he used to enjoy living on the farm near Kearney and helping " 'Reldie" take care of young Jesse.
"That boy sure was a smart little fellow," Finley says, "but he was powerful mischievous."
