The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-08-21
LITTLE BREEcHEs. +"
Where John Hay Got His Inspiration
For Poem.
NEW York Times.)

(New York Times)
The recent death of John Hay has
brought about q revival of interest in
his poetry, especially the Pike County
Ballads, of which Vim Bludso of the
Prairie Belle and Little Brooches
were among the best known. Since the
authors death the relatives of a dozen
old Mississippi pilots have set forth the
claim that their ancestor was the only
original Jim Bludso, and it is likely that
there viii be as many different YER
sions of the inspiration of Little
Breeches.'
In a letter which Mr.. Hay wrote in
1871, and of which a facsimile is in
possession of one of his personal friends
in this city, the question as TO the
source Of inspiration seems to be set
tied The letter reads in part:
i do not think much of my poems.
They have had an enormous success
both in this country and in England,
but L think it will be ephemeraI. 1 got
the story of Little Brooches from a
sermon by Mr.. Winans of Hamilton.
The character of Jim BIudso was to
certain extent founded on Oliver Fair
child of Warsaw. of course not in
tended for a likeness. 1 have forgotten
the real name of the boat on which he
persisted"
The Rev. Ephraim H. Winans was an
itinerant preacher in the middle west
in 1866 or 1867, and visited Warsaw.
ILL.,, the home of John Hays father
He dined at the Hay home and after
ward the family accompanied him to
church. where he preached on divine
providence, and outlined it's possibiIi-
ties under natural laws. In the course
Of the sermon he told Of an incident
which had startled a gathering of min
listers at New Virginia, Ia, in April,
1853.
One of the clergymen was giving out
the hymn
Forever with the Lord,
Amen, So let 1t be-
when man named Proudfoot rushed
into the church crying for some one 10
furnish him with a horse.
He explained that he had driven his
wagon up to the church steps and had
helped out his wife and parents when
the horses bOlted and ran away, carry
ing off his little four-year- son, who
was in the back of the wagon The
meeting was broken up and the congre-
cation set out to search the Drairies.
Tracking was impossible. so the search
ers swept the country in circles. Fin
ally they came upon the runaways, one
horse In gully, the other on the bank
and the wagon overturned on the road
way. There was no trace of the little
boy.
Their torches were going out when
some one remem bered that there was
an abandoned cabin not far away where
they might find dry wood. It stood
half mile across the fields, and they
We're guided thither by the bleating OF
q flock of sheep which had taken re-
fuge in the cabin from the terrific rain
storm which was raging.
On reaching the cabin they found the
door fastened from the inside so tightly
that the strongest man in the party
could not force it. Suddenly one of the
men declared that he heard voice in
side. Their efforts to force the door
were redoubled and finally rewarded.
In the middle OF the cabin, sitting on
a box. surrounded by the sheep, sat the
son Of the house of Proudfoot. He did
not really say, as Mr.. Hay has it in the
poem:
II want chaw of terbaeker.
And that's what's the matter of me-"
What he really said was: Here am
pape."
How the little lad had found the
cabin in the dark, how he had opened
the door which strong men could hardly
force, were questions which the min
listers were at loss to answer In his
sermon Mr.. Winans- explained that the
lad had probably followed the bleating
of the sheen and found the door open
when he reached the cabin. The move
ment OF the sheep inside had closed it
and the ratn sweIed It so that it was
dih5cult to open.
Mr. Hay took considerable license
with the story He turned the rain to
snow and the church to q grocery store
Little Brooches is that of the Iowa lad.
The international Correspondence