Ironton Register, September 22, 1898 - A YOUNG HERO.
We clip the
following article from the Opelousa (La.) Courier. It refers to
James I. Shute, son of Dr. I. F. Shute who was born at Burlington,
this county. The Doctor's father was Capt. James G. Shute, one of
the former well known citizens of this county, and who has
relatives still living here. The reference to young James I. Shute
is as follows:
The manifestation of purpose made
by this young man, (and we might say boy) was remarkable and
therefore noteworthy.
Every observer sees boys grow up
and reach the age of majority, without ever fixing a purpose, to
pursue in life. They move about in the whirl and maze of society
with no definite object in view and are apparently content to
live, move and have their being quietly waiting for something to
turn up.
It has not been so with our young
hero. In the very morning of his life he conceived a purpose to
accomplish, and no sooner was it fixed upon, than he manfully set
out to accomplish it. In doing so, he sought no flowery bed of
ease, but bracing himself up for any duty which might befall him,
he promptly went to Louisville, Ky., and entered the Manual
Training High School where he spent two years in preparing himself
for usefulness. From the beginning, he exhibited a manliness and
an inflexibility of purpose which prognosticated distinguishing
success. He made up his mind to take life as he found it, and to
make it what he wants it. When the United States authorities
published a call for apprentices in the Navy, he eagerly responded
- made application - stood the test of a scrutinizing examination
and was accepted. It made him as proud as Lucifer, for it
brightened his hopes in the vision he had taken of his future
career.
There was no dallying about it,
but he was assigned to duty and went about it bent upon commanding
success. Ordered to duty in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, he set work,
but the war with Spain coming on immediately thereafter he
requested to be placed on duty in the Navy. He was accordingly
transferred to the Scorpion, where the world of waters became his
home.
The battles of the Scorpion have
immortalized it in Naval history, and our young hero is justly
entitled to a full share of the glories of its brilliant
achievements.
Appreciating the daring and the
courage of Jimmie, the Louisville papers set up a claim to him
doubtless for the reason that he passed some time there in the
Manual Training School. Our Kentucky fellow-citizens have enough
to be proud of without adding Louisianians to their list of
distinguished worthies. Jimmie is our Jimmie. He is the son of I.
E. Shute, physician and druggist of this town, and was born in New
Orleans on Jan. 10, 1877. His parents moved to St. Landry when
"Jimmie" was two years of age, and he has resided here ever since,
with the exception of two years spent in Kentucky at the Manual
Training High School of Louisville.
