The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-12-23
is DEAD.
Famous Old River Captain Takes
His Last VOYAGE.

tain, and original "Jim B~ludsoe,' is
dead. From all parts of the Mississippi
valley steamboat men and pioneers are
gathering to attend his funeral, which
will a place tomorrow afternoon.
They are paying their greatest tribute
of respect to the man who so we'll rep
resented in actual life the virtues and
rugged qualities Of their class and
whose marked personality has entered
forever into the popular poetry of the
land.
Jim Bludsoe-"he waren't no saint"
but h seen his duty-a dead sure
thing"
CALLED HIM "OLD BLUDSOE."
That was the way John Hay, poet
and newspaper man then, and secretary
Of state now, put it-and everybody
recognized, or thought he did, the pic
ture as that of Captain Lamothe. Old
Bludsoe" he was called by the river
people from that day to this.
Nobody knows just when Colonel Hay
first met the river captain, or where he
had a chance to observe him. Indeed,
Lamothe never admitted that he was
the original of the poem, nor did he
deny it, and secretly both his friends
and he was proud of the characterize
ton. AS to Colonel Hay, he is not so
proud Of that early literary effort of
his now, and people do not find it eas
character.
COLONEL HAYS POEM.
At any rate this is the poem with
whose hero Captain Lamothe was one
in personality:
JIM BLUDSOE.
Wall, no, I can't tell whar HI lives,
Because he don't live, you see;
Leastwise, he's got out of the habit
OF win like you and me.
Whar have you been for the last three
year
That you haven't heard folks tell
How Jimmy Bludsoe passed in his
checks
The night of the Prairie Bell?
He weren't no saint-them engineers
Is all pretty much alike
One wife in Natchez-Under-the-Hill
And another one here in Pike.
A keerlesS in his talk was Jim,
ALI oil dWhdIu HAL Ill d IOW,
But he never fiunked and he never
l reckon he never knowed how.
And this was all the religion he had
70 treat his engine well;
Never he passed on the river;
To mind the pilots bell;
And if the Prairie Bell tool fire,
A thousand times he swore,
He'd hold her nozzle agin the ank
Till the last soul got ashore.
All boats has their day on the Mississip,
And her day come at last;
The MOVaStar vas a better boat,
But the Bell she wouldn't be passed,
And so she came tearing along that
night
The oldest craft on the inc
With a niger squat on her safety
valv
And her furnace crammed, rosin and
The fire bust out as she cleared the
bar,
And burnt a hole in the night,
And quick as a flash she turned and
made
For that willer bank on the right.
There was runnin' and cursin', but Jim
yelled out,
Over all the Internal a
"I'll hold her nozzle agin' the bank
Till the last galoOt's ashOre!"
Through the hot, black breath Of the
burnin' boat
Jim Bludsoe's voice was heard,
And all had trust in his cussedness
And knowed he would keep his word
And, sure's you're born, they all got
! off q
Afore the smokestacks fell,
And Bludsoe's ghost went up alone
1nEfha Cr0nko ~ tho pro iria Roll
He weren't no saint, but at Judgment
I'd run a chance with Jim
Long side of some pious gentlemen
That wouldn't shook hands with him.
He seen his duty, a dead sure thing,
And went for it thar and then,
And Christ amt a-going to be too hard
On a man that died for men.
COME TO ALTON EARLY.
Not only one Of the best known but
also one Of the very Oldest Of the river
captains was Captain Lamothe. On
the night Lovejoy was murdered he
came to Alton and here he had lived
1t was in 1910 that he built and op-
Grated his first steamer, the Eagle,
~forerunner of the Eagle Packet line.
Then he brought the Luella, pride of
his heart, known Is the fastest boat
ever operated on the Mississippi. No
"nigger squat on the safety valve was
needed whom the Luella went into a
race.
Between 1910 and 1875 Lamotte owned
as many as half a dozen first class
river boats and largely controlled the
business between Cairo and Burning
ton. With the fortune he acquired he