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I believe that if you check Linda Snyder's post where the issue of the buttons was first mentioned, Linda was clearly talking about the buttons on the coats of the gentlemen in the picture of the big four.
I have just talked to Max Courtney, and he assured me that the only buttons mentioned in his testimony related to the same buttons, on the vests and coats of the big four. Nowhere has anyone mentioned buttons on the dress that Diannah Courtney/Haun was wearing in the "big four" picture. The only thing on her dress that MIGHT be a button is there for decorative purposes, because her dress does not open down the front.
There is a small book in the library, "JESSE JAMES My Father" written by Jesse Edwards James, son of JWJ, and published in 1899. Young Jesse had been arrested and was being tried for a train robbery. On page 187 of his book, he quotes an article in the Kansas City Journal regarding the testimony of his grandmother. I don't want to bore anybody, but I love the graceful prose here, that describes her entry into the courtroom. "An old woman yesterday tottered into the courtroom where Jesse James is being tried on a charge of train robbery. Her steps were unsteady as she tremblingly felt her way over the floor to the witness stand. She was supported on the one side by a stern-faced, steely-eyed man of middle age, while on the other, guiding her with tender care, was a young woman. The hair of the old woman was whitened with the weight of years and troubles and her failing eyesight has necessitated the use of gold rimmed glasses.
That old woman was Mrs. Zerelda Samuels, the mother of Jesse James, a man who less than a quarter of a century ago was the most noted bandit of the world. Jesse has gone to join the silent majority, shot to death by a treacherous comrade. The young woman who was so solicitous for her welfare was her granddaughter, Mary James, the sister of the defendant.
As the aged woman made her way to the witness chair she was obliged to pass her grandson. He arose, pressed her hand, and was greeted with a soft smile from the grandmother's eyes.
The tension in the courtroom was great as Mrs. Samuels took her seat. As she sank back in the witness chair she faced the entire assemblage, and five hundred pairs of eyes were fixed upon her.
They noted the tremor of the aged hand, the glossy whitness of the hair upon which rested a simple and becoming bonnet of black; the plain black silk dress - everything. Every ear was on the alert to hear the words which she would utter.
"Hold up your right hand and be sworn," boomed forth the clerk of the court.
Up went the right arm, but the hand was missing! Nothing but an empty sleeve - empty nearly to the elbow - greeted the vision. The minds of all, unconsciously, instantly reverted to the tragedy in which she lost that hand so many years ago, when Pinkerton detectives are said to have thrown a dynamite bomb into her house." End of quote. Now folks, this was written by JWJ's own son, about his beloved grandmother. Don't you think an enormous error like missing the right hand instead of the left would have been corrected by him?
Now, let's look at the Kansas City Star,Monday February 27, 1899, page 2, column 2, about this same day of testimony - MRS SAMUEL ON THE STAND
Mrs. Zerelda Samuel, mother of Jesse James, the bandit, and grandmother of Jesse James, the young man on trial, was called to the witness stand at 3:30 o'clock. When asked to be sworn, she help up the stump of the right arm that was blown off by a bomb thrown in her home when detectives were after her sons years ago." End of quote, the article is very lengthy.
So we have three contemporary accounts, one by her own grandson, one by a respected newspaper, and the one cited by Butch. So all of this "buttons and bows" smokescreen must have some purpose. Colleen has cited historical evidence that "ladies on the left, gent's on the right" only came about in the first part of the 20th century, so all this exultation is for nothing. Back to the drawing board, David.
Kathy
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