The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-12-11

vas cAiled py the sIS0 people xf0ua tAAt
day 70 this
Nobody knows Just when Cob Hay first
met the river captain, or where he had a
chance to Observe him. Indeed, Lamcthe
RIVER admitted that he was the original OF
the poem. nor did he deny IT. and secretly
both his friends md he were proud OF the
characterization AS 20 Col Hay. ne ts not
50 proud Of that early literary effort OF his
noE, ard people do rot find 1t easy to learn
from him the source Of the character.
At any rate. this IS the poem with whose
hero Capt LAmothe was one In personality:
JIM BLUDSoE.
Wall. no / cant tell waar he lives.
Because he dent live you see;
Leastwise, he's got out Of the habit
OF Twin Ike you and me-
" bar have you been for the last three year
That you havenf heard folks tell
How Jimmy Biudsoe passed in his checks
The night Of the Prairie bellg
He weren't no saint-tsem engineers
Is all pretty muen alike
One wife Ia Na;chez- Under-the-Hil
And another one here in Pike.
A keerless in his talk was Jim,
And an awkward man in a row;
But he never fiunkei and he never lied
reckon he never knowed how.
And this was all the religion he had
To treat his engine well;
Never be passed on the river.
To mind the pilots bell:
And IL ever the Prairie Bell took fire,
A Thousand times he swore.
He'd hold her nozzle agin the bank
Till the last soul got ashore.
All boats has their day on the Mississip,
And her day come at last:
The Movasfar was q better boat,
But the Bell she wouldn't be passed.
And so she came tearing along that night
The oldest craft on the line
With niger squat on her safety valve
And her furnace cranmed. Tosin and pine.
The fire burst ont as she cleared the bar,
And burnt a hole in the night.
And quick as fash she turned and made
For that wllier bank on the right.
There was runnin' and cursin'. but Jim
yelled out.
Over all the internal roar:
-Isl hold her nozzle again the bank
TIL the last galoot's ashoree'
Through the hot. black breath of the burn
Jim Bludsoe's voice was heard
And all had trust in his cusseiness
And knowed he would keep his word.
And. sure's you're horn, they all got of
Afore the smokestacks fell.
And Bludsoe's ghost went UP alone
In the smoke OF the Prairie Bell
He weren't no saint. but at Judgment
I'd run a chance with Jim
'Longside Of some pious gentlemen
That wouldn't shook hands with hir-.
he seen MS buty, a Vfau sure t1lHS,
And went for II thar and then.
And Christ amt a-gon' TO be too hard
On a man that died for men
Not only one of the best known but also
one of the very oldest of the river captains
was Capt. Tsamotha. On the night Loyeioy
was murdered he came 70 Alton, and there
he had lived ever since.
1t was in 1870 that he built and operated
his first steamer the Eagle. forerunner of
the Eagle Packet Line. Then he bought
the lucia, pride of his heart known as the
fastest beat ever operated on the Mssis-
sippi. No .'nigger squat on the safety
valve was needed when the Luella went
into race.
Between 1910 and 1875 Lamothe owned as
many as half dozen frst-class river beats
and largely controlled the business between
Cairo and Burlington. With the fortune he
acquired he bought in 1876 1900 acres of
rich farm land on the Missouri side of the
river opposite Alton. and there he lived the
rest OF his life.
Five years ago with the founding of
West Alton his land greatly increased in
value
Capt. r. b. Starr an old river man. and
now chief OF police in Alton. told what the
river captains thought of I.amothe and
why they likened him to Bludsoe- .'He was
81 man" said Capt. Starr 80 impress a
stranger-painstaking in his care for boat
and crew. courteous to passengers and al
ways unswervingly straightforward and
honest he was the brand of men who hon
ored the river when steamboats, carried the
freight and passenger traffic OF this great
middle region. l do not know where Hay
met him but know we all likened him 70
Jim Bludsoe, and he never resented the
lmputaton"