VOA常速英语2008年-House Where American Outlaw Jesse James Died St

By Greg Flakus
St. Joseph, Missouri
27 March 2008

April 3 is an important date in the Midwestern city of St. Joseph, Missouri because two historic events happened there on that day, 22 years apart. One involved a short-lived, but thrilling chapter in mail delivery and the other was the cold-blooded murder of a local resident who turned out to be a wanted outlaw¹. VOA's Greg Flakus has more from St. Joseph.

A song still popular today with folk singers tells the story of what happened here on April 3 1882, when, as the lyrics² assert, that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard, laid poor Jesse in his grave. Howard was the alias³ being used by James, who was wanted in Missouri and several other states for robbing banks and trains. The dirty little coward was Robert Ford⁴, a gang member who thought he would gain fame and a reward for killing⁵ James.

Visitors to St. Joseph can stand in the very room where it happened and listen to a recording⁶ that describes the shooting.

Robert Ford was despised as a coward partly because he shot James from behind, but also because many people in Missouri sympathized with James and saw him as a hero who fought against powerful banks and railroads on behalf of the poor. But Jesse James House Museum Director Gary Chilcote says that is not the view presented here.

"We do not consider Jesse James a hero," he says. "He was not an American Robin⁷ Hood⁸. He did not rob from the rich and give to the poor. He stole from everybody and he kept it."

The Jesse James house sits today a block down the hill from where it was in 1882. It is now next door to one of St. Joe's other historic attractions, the Pattee House, a large brick building that served as a hotel and the headquarters of the Pony⁹ Express-a relay system for getting mail back and forth¹⁰ between Sacramento, California and St. Joseph that utilized¹¹ young men on fast horses. It only operated from April, 1860 until October, 1861, but its romantic image remains¹² fixed¹³ in American history.

Chilcote says many local residents would rather emphasize the city's association with western expansion and the Pony Express, but the outlaw who died here draws more interest.

"Jesse James. The Convention and Visitors Bureau has just begun to realize that that is really the big ticket," Chilcote says. "People have heard of the Pony Express, but everybody has heard of Jesse James throughout the world. They want to come here and see where he lived and where he died."

Chilcote says more than 600,000 people have gone through the little four-room wooden house in the more than 30 years he has been operating the site. He says people from all 50 states and 26 foreign nations came to the house just in the past year.

Among recent visitors were Jose Nicolas and his wife Cassandra, who said it was worthwhile even if their two children thought it was a little creepy to stand in the room where the outlaw died.

"It is history and whether it is good or bad, I think history is very important," Jose said.

"It is important what happened in this country and how this country was founded and it is good to know that there is not glory behind crime," added Cassandra.

Gary Chilcote says he gets a different reaction from some Missourians who trace their lineage back to the frontier times in this area. For some of them, he says, tales of Jesse James are part of family lore¹⁴.

"Most of them want to tell you the story of their grandmother who was facing eviction¹⁵ from her house. She owed $50 on her rent or whatever and this wonderful man came and ate dinner and paid with a $50 gold piece and said, 'Now you pay off your landlord when he comes.' And, of course, as soon as the landlord leaves, he is robbed and the gold piece disappears.  You work in Jesse's house for a day and three people will come in and tell that story. We have researched this and no one has ever found any evidence that that happened," Chilcote says.

But the legend persists, helped in large part by Hollywood. A movie about the killing of Jesse James released last year was titled The Assassination¹⁶ of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Robert Ford was shot dead a decade later in a Colorado barroom, perhaps by a man who had heard that old folk song one too many times.

1 outlaw   

n.歹徒，亡命之徒；vt.宣布…为不合法

参考例句：

• The outlaw hid out in the hills for several months.逃犯在山里隐藏了几个月。
• The outlaw has been caught.歹徒已被抓住了。

2 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

3 alias   

n.化名；别名；adv.又名

参考例句：

• His real name was Johnson,but he often went by the alias of Smith.他的真名是约翰逊，但是他常常用化名史密斯。
• You can replace this automatically generated alias with a more meaningful one.可用更有意义的名称替换这一自动生成的别名。

4 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

5 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

6 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

7 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

8 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

9 pony   

adj.小型的；n.小马

参考例句：

• His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
• They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。

10 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

11 utilized   

v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the19th century waterpower was widely utilized to generate electricity. 在19世纪人们大规模使用水力来发电。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The empty building can be utilized for city storage. 可以利用那栋空建筑物作城市的仓库。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

13 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

14 lore   

n.传说；学问，经验，知识

参考例句：

• I will seek and question him of his lore.我倒要找上他，向他讨教他的渊博的学问。
• Early peoples passed on plant and animal lore through legend.早期人类通过传说传递有关植物和动物的知识。

15 eviction   

n.租地等的收回

参考例句：

• The family have won a temporary reprieve from eviction.这个家庭暂时免于被逐出。
• He claimed damages for unlawful eviction.他要求对非法驱逐作出赔偿。

16 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。