American Ned Kelly.

Patea Mail, 25 August 1882, Page 3

American Ned Kelly.

We drew attention a few weeks ago to the termination of the career of the infamous Jesse James, the American train-robber and murderer, who was recently shot, as an outlaw, by one of his accomplices. Late American newspapers describe the funeral of this villain, to whose frightful atrocities the crimes of the Australian Ned Kelly afford but a faint parallel. The interment ceremonies were a perfect oration, as though the deceased had died the death of a hero. The attendant throng, we are told, crowded the Baptist church, “where he was converted in 1876!” Heavens ! exclaims an American writer, what sort of a man would he have been if he had not been converted ? The Sheriff acted among the pall-bearers. The services began with the hymn “ What a friend we have in Jesus,” The officiating ministers comforted the stricken community with extracts from the plaints of Job and David, and with an assuring discourse on Christ’s forbearance and forgiveness of sins. The procession to the grave was of immense proportions. Jesse James’s sect displays a curiously liberal form of Christianity. To send a professional murderer and robber straight to heaven, when shot down redhanded in his guilt, is a strikingly free translation of gospel promises. It is astounding that any persons professing Christianity can be found to caricature and travesty all its teachings in such disgraceful fashion.