The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-18
TERRIBLE DISASTERS
 ON MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Exciting Tales Of WreckS of Famous SteamboatS,. Earlier Accidents Were Due to Passion
 For Racing Boats.

 law and calomel'
 Squire Blaze Tells of His Race.
 The collector of these .eminiscences when 100 miles above New Orleans. chanced upon strange character who went by the name of Squire Blaze. In his little settlement he kept a grocery and whisky bar. In his early life he had served for, a long time as first mate on a raft-such raft. precisely. as Abraham Lincoln once navigated on the same waters-but he became am- bilious to get employment on a stern wheeler. At length he got to be cap tain of that kind of craft which was in the fuel business. In the pursuit of this business he sometimes got SO far up the river .that he was clean out of the way of taxes" His pride was to be called captain. his ambition to run a race. Circumstances occurred in which he could race. and, his descrip- ton of what happened Is worth re-
 reducing here.
 "I was coming down stream" he said. with a full head of steam on when I overlook the Squatter Belle. loaded like myself. with pine knots. The race was excitin'. a perfect scroug- er-the steam yelled and the hands swore you'd thought that all the uni- varse was poundin' sheet iron.f Twas no use-I was always misfortunate man. The Fairy Queen fngin (that was safety valve and the furnaces got choked with rosin. The 1quatter Belle was getting ahead; twice I raised my rife to shoot her pilot--for. you see, I don't like to beat - when I smelt something warm. and the next I knew was lodged in the limbs of a dead cypress thirty-two feet six inches from the ground. That was the proudest moment of my life. I afterwards got a painter to draw the scene. and when the pictur was finished chopped out a frame for myself. What grieves me-" continued Squire Blaze. is that my title of captain didn't stick. and I've been called squire ever since" ts Told by Secretary Hay. ~
 That is pretty good description in plain prose. but there Is description in verse thet beats 1t. It was written by the distinguished man who is chief In President MNKinleys Cabinet--none other than the Secretary of State. John Hay. Here it is:
 JIM BLUDSoE OF THE PRAIRIE BELLE. Leastways. he's got out of the habit Of living like you and me.
 Whar have you been for the last three year That you haven't heard folks tell : How Jimmy Biudsos passed in his | checks
 | The night of the Prairie Belle?
 He weren't no saint-them engineers Is pretty much all alike One wife in Natchez- Under the Hill And another here in Pike. | A keerless man in his talk. was Jim. And an awkward hand in a row.f But he never fiunked and the never reckon he never knowed how. And this was all the religion he had To treat his engine well. Never to be passed in the river.
 To mind the pilot bell.
 And if ever the Prairie Bell took fire A thousand times he swore
 He'd hold her nozzle again the bank Till the last soul got ashore.
 All boats has their day on the Mississip | And her day come at last
 The Movartar was better boat. But the Bell she wouldn't be passed. And so she come tearin' along that, Wall. no! can't teU whar he lives.
 Because he don't i've. you sec | night
 The oldest craft on the line 8S With a nigger squat on the safety | valve
 And her furnace, crammed. rosin and | pine. The fire bust out as she cleared the bar.
 And burnt a hole in the night.
 And quick as fishe she turned and
 For. that willer bank on the right. There was runnin and cursin. but Jim | yelled out. t~t-. Over all the internal roar; :. ''Tll hold her nozzle again the bank Till the last galoots ashore"
 Through the hot black breath of the | burning boat. -'s. ,3 Jim Bludsoe,s voice was heard. And they all had trust in his cussed- l ness And knowed he would keep his word. | And sure's you're SOorn they all got On | After the smokestack fell-
 And Bludsoe passed in his checks
 In the smoke of the Prairie Belle.
 He wasn't no saint. but at judgment EEs day
 | I'd run my chances with Jim | 'Longside of some pious gentlemen
 That wouldn't shake hands with him. He seen his duty. dead-sure thing, | And went for It thar and then;
 And Christ ain't going to be too hard
 On a man that died for men.
 Find Racing Grand Sport. | Notwithstanding the frequency of ac- cidents to the boats. racing was grani sport And when 1t came about that | the laws restricted each boat to just so many pounds of steam to the square inch. much of the danger was removed. | In the flush times of steamboating a | raca between two notoriously feet steamers was an event of vast import ance. The date was set for it several weeks in advance, and from that time | forward the whole Mississippi valley | was in a state of consuming excite ment. Politics and weather were | dropped and people only talked of the coming race. As the time approached the two steamers stripped" and got
 ready. Every incumbrance that addad
 weight or exposed a resisting surface | to wind or water was removed. if the boat could possibly do without it. The spars and sometimes even the support ing derricks were sent ashore and no
 means left to set the boat afioat in case she got aground. No way freight and no way passengers were allowed. 1 for the racers would stop only at the | largest towns and then it would be
 only touch and go.. Coal flats and