Adventure Magazine Cover, February 3, 1921 — page 135: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BELLE STARR-NOTED FEMALE DESPERADO BY E. A. BRININSTOOL ROPERLY under this heading— although a woman—must’ be listed the name of the dashing, daring Belle Starr, “Queen o the Desperadoes,” also known as the “Prai- rie Queen,” leader of bandits, a dead shot, a most skilful horsewoman and possessed of all the nerve and coolness of any man in her class, and of whom it is said that more stories have been written (many of them false) than of any other woman in the United States. Belle Starr, or Myra Belle Shirley, was born in Carthage, Missouri, February 3, 1846, and was murdered in 1889 on her forty-third birthday by an unknown assas- sin. Her people are said to have been weal- thy Southerners; her father having been a judge of some distinction in the South. DURING the Civil War, although yet in her teens, Belle Shirley acted as a Confederate spyaHer beatity became famous all through the guer- rilla country. Mounted on a fiery charger, erect as an arrow, and with her long hair flying from beneath a broad sombrero, she made a picture which was indeed striking. After the war she became acquainted with Jesse and Frank James and Cole Younger. At the age of twenty she married one James 9 * Reed, son of a wealthy Missouri farmer, but who “went to the bad’ and met the dashing Belle while he was a companion of the James Gang. Jim Reed aod his bride lived in Los Angeles, California, from 1869 to 1871, where a son was born to them. Prior to this, she had borne a daughter who was named Pearl. Jim Reed soon was a fugitive from justice and spent much time in the Indian Territory at the home of Tom Starr, a Cherokee In- dian. Tom Starr had an unsavory reputa- tion. Jim Reed was murdered in 1875 by one John Morris in Texas. After Reed’s death Belle removed to Dal- las, Texas, where she maintained a stable of high-bred horses. Her first offense was the setting afire of a country store in a spirit of recklessness. She was arrested, but a weal- thy stockman paid her fine and she was released. n S aq BELLE gradually gathered about her a bunch of male admirers, to @°, cach of whom she is said to have me as lover, and to have been especially gracious to one styled ‘“‘Blue Duck.” One time Blue Duck borrowed two thousand dollars from Belle and went on a tear at Dodge City, Kansas. He lost the money gambling and returned to Belle, whereupon 129 Gomichdoo (C@)