The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1871-02-17
The AutlI0r Of slim Bl,sslso."

wa O""""y At"se0 gives t0o AOuOWIuS luter'
esting literary gossip:
"You have doubtless read Little Breeches'
and Jim Bludso,' which have been going
the rounds of the pspers-the first tor about
six weeks, and the other for o many days.
Col. John Hay, formerly private secretary
to President Lincoln, and now attached TO
the editorial staff of the Tribune, is the au.
thor of these poems, which have brought
him SO much well-descrvcd though sudden
fame. He says two months ago he was ly.
ing awake nights, wondering how he could
get literary work enough to keep him busy;
within the past fortnight he has had appli.
cations from three prominent magazines
and half . dozen newspapers to write for
their columns. and the most of them are
ready to let him write what he plcases and
on his own terms. Three months ago Col.
Hay sent an article to an editor for exami-
nation. The manuscript was CURLY decli.
ned; but, within the past ten days, the same
editor has paid two or three visits to its
author and humbly solicit cd something from
his pen. He would even accept the article
he rejected; in fact, would take anything
he could get. What difference it makes
with an author whether he is famous or not!
''Mauy people imagine that poetry is writ.
ten Us one would indite letter to friend,
or make out a grocery bill. Little Breechcs'
was written in pieces. Colonel Hay heard
the story one Saturday evening, and the
next day while sitting in church and listen
ing to dull sermon, he composed the last
four lines of the poem. Then he wrote the
four lines that preccde these last, and .fin.
ishcd his efforts for the day. The next day
he wrote the fourth verse, and then he fol.
lowed it up with the fifth and sixth. Then
he wrote tho first, second and third, and after
some alterations and trauspositions it as.
sumed the shape in which it. went into
print.
Jim Bludso' was the work of q single
morning, and was written, verse after verse,
pretty nearly as it has been printed. Tie
story is true one, though the names Of
Jim Bludso and the Prairie Belle are ficti.
tious. The hero was resident of town
in Illinois where Col. Hay once lived In
the first verse are the lines:
Where have you been for the last three year,1
That you haven't heard folks tell,
How Jimmy B!udso passed in HE checks,
The night Ut the Prairie Bellc:'
'Col. Hay went to Europe at the close of
the war, and was Secretary of Legation at
Paris, Madrid, and other places. After an
absence Of four or five years he came back,
and, while visiting the town referred to, he
inquire! for steamboat engineer who for
merIy lived there. There was look of as.
ti.~ 5000 ~s ~'.> r.-.>- -
whom he addressed his question, and then
be heard the story which has become im.
mortal in Jim Bludso. He receives with
Ihc most becoming u.odesty the ccmpli-
mcn,s that arc pouring upon him from all
directions, and will probably try his pen at
in the same line whenever he
feels the spirit moving him to do so.
lie says that he used to feel that the pa. |
pers were very kind whenever they con.
;cntcd to receive and print his verses with.
out paying anything for them. He wrote
more then than now, and is decidedly of the
that flattery spoils man for
,ard work. Some critics have accused him |
If initiating Bret usr,c. There is this sim
larity in the poems of the two men, that |
10Th are excellent, but tho veins they arc |
working are quite different. And as Col. |
Hay has been writer Of verses for more |
han dozen years, and followed the line he
S now following long before Truthful |
James, or The Hcathcn Chince" made
heir appearance, the charge Of imitation
las about as much foundation as the ''mooa
loax."