THE PLAINS-TRACK OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 549 



And, sure's you're born, they all got off, 



Afore the smoke-stacks fell 

 And Bludso's ghost went up alone 



In the smoke of the Prairie Belle." * 



Jimmy Bludso is the type of a hard living, reckless 

 spirit, such as may be found by dozens upon the banks 

 of the great river, their mouths full, it may be, of 

 oaths and other coarse expletives, and yet their hearts 

 are capable of lofty deeds of self-sacrifice at the 

 shrine of patriotism and duty, such as are worthy of 

 all admiration. The epitaph of such a one may be 

 justly summed up, in the words contained in the last 

 verse of this ballad: 



"He weren't no saint, but at jedgement 



I'd run my chance with Jim 

 ' Longside of some pious gentlemen 



That wouldn't shook hands with him." j 



The mighty flood of the great river sweeps onward 

 with great velocity throughout its entire course, eroding 

 its banks in the bends and rebuilding them on the 

 points, and yet the fall of its channel is often very 

 slight for long distances. Thus the Mississippi at the 

 point where the Red River falls into it, 316 miles 

 above "the passes," or sea mouth, is only 5.2 feet 

 above the level of the Gulf of Mexico at the lowest 

 -stage of the water. 



" The river channel along this section is therefore a fresh 

 ^water lake, nearly without islands, 2600 feet wide and 100 



* Pike County Ballads and other Pieces, by John Hay, Boston, 1875, 

 pp. 17 et sequitur. 



t Ibid.) first four lines of last verse. 



Encycl. Brit., gth Edition, Vol. xvi., p. 520. 



