53

39

the romance, the poetry, and history of their each distinctive work forever. The same spirit and circumstances have furnished journalists innumerable, who in the West imbibed the sterling qualities they afterward used to such effect. Notably Henry M. Stanley, who (in 1866) saw the rising sun of the young empire that stretches to the Rockies; Gen. Greely, of Arctic fame (now of Signal Service), and the equally scientific explorer, Lieut. Schwatka, passed their early career in the same school, and often followed "the trail" led by "BUFFALO BILL"; Finerty (of the "Chicago Times"); "Modoc" Fox, and O'Kelly (of the "New York Herald"), 1876; while last year new blood among the scribblers was initiated to their baptism of fire by Harries (of "Washington Star"), McDonough ("New York World"), Bailey (of "Inter-Ocean"), brave young Kelly (of the "Lincoln Journal"), Cressy (of the "Omaha Bee"), Seymour ("Chicago Herald"), and Allen (of the "New York Herald"), present in the battle, who were honored by three cheers from "Old White Top" Forsythe's gallant Seventh Cavalry, the day after the battle of "Wounded Knee," as they went charging over Wolf Creek to what came near being a crimson day, to the fight "down at the Mission." That there are still "successors to every king" is assured by the manly scouts to prominent in last winter's rehearsal of past (hoped no more future) frontier dramas in such men as FRANK GRUARD, now the most celebrated of the present employed army scouts; of "LITTLE BAT," true as steel, and active as the cougar; PHILIP WELLS, LOUIS SHANGRAU, "BIG BAPTISTE," and JOHN SHANGRAU; while the friendly Indians furnish such grand material for any future necessity as "NO NECK," Major "SWORD," "RED SHIRT," and "YANKTON CHARLEY."
________

BILL CODY.--(BY AN OLD COMRADE.)

You bet I knew him, pardner, he ain't no circus fraud.
He's Western born and Western bred, if he has been late abroad;
I knew him in the days way back, beyond Missouri's flow,
When the country round was nothing but a huge Wild Western Show.
When the Injuns were as thick as fleas, and the man who ventured through
The sand hills of Nebraska had to fight the hostile Sioux;
These were hot times, I tell you; and we all remember still,
The days when Cody was a scout, and all the men know Bill.

I knew him first in Kansas, in the day of '68,
When the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were wiping from the slate
Old scores against the settlers, and when men who wore the blue,
With shoulder-straps and way-up rank, were glad to be helped through
By a bearer of dispatches, who knew each vale and hill,
From Dakota down to Texas, and his other name was Bill.

I mind me, too, of '79, the time when Cody took
His scouts upon the Rosebud, along with General Crook
When Custer's Seventh rode to their death for lack of some such aide
To tell them that the sneaking Sioux knew how to ambuscade
I saw Bill's fight with "Yellow Hand," you bet it was a "mill,"
He downed him well at thirty yards, and all the men cheered Bill.

They tell me that the women folk now take his word as laws,
In them days laws were mighty skerce, and hardly passed with squaws,
But many a hardy settler's wife and daughter used to rest
More quietly because they knew of Cody's dauntless breast;
Because they felt from Laramie way down to Old Fort Sill,
Bill Cody was a trusted scout, and all their men knew Bill.

I haven't seen him much of late, how does he bear his years?
They say he's making ducats now from shows and not from "steers,"
He used to be a judge of "horns," when poured in a tin cup,
And left the wine to tenderfeet, and men who felt "well up,"
Perhaps he cracks a bottle now, perhaps he's had his fill,
Who cares, Bill Body was a scout, and all the world knows Bill.

To see him in his trimmin's, he can't hardly look the same,
With laundered shirt and diamonds, as if "he run a game;"
He didn't wear biled linen then, or flash up diamond rings,
The royalties he dreamed of then were only pasteboard kings,
But those who sat behind the queens were apt to get their fill,
In the days when Cody was a scout, and all the men knew Bill.

Gridiron Club, WM. E. ANNIN,
Washington, D. C., Feb. 28, 1891. Lincoln (Neb.) Journal.
________

GHOST-DANCES IN THE WEST.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MESSIAH CRAZE AND THE GHOST-DANCE.

PINE RIDGE RESERVATION.--There have often happened, in the history of the human race, incidents that were regarded at the time as most trivial, but have later developed into such important and serious questions as to engage the minds of many learned men in their solution.

That there is some special reason for the series of frenzied dances and incantations which have been continued from time to time in remote portions of the Sioux reservations, no one will deny. It is scarcely probable that a people who own horses and cattle would suddenly, without the slightest warning, return almost to a man to the execution of a dance which is so weird and peculiar, so superstitious and spirit-like, as to rival the far-famed Sun Dance.

This special reason is found in the simple truths of Christianity as taught by a missionary in Utah, but which were distorted to conform with Indian mythology. It was when the medicine men and politicians in the nation began to enlarge upon the wrongs suffered at

39

the romance, the poetry, and history of their each distinctive work forever. The same spirit and circumstances have furnished journalists innumerable, who in the West imbibed the sterling qualities they afterward used to such effect. Notably Henry M. Stanley, who (in 1866) saw the rising sun of the young empire that stretches to the Rockies; Gen. Greely, of Arctic fame (now of Signal Service), and the equally scientific explorer, Lieut. Schwatka, passed their early career in the same school, and often followed "the trail" led by "BUFFALO BILL"; Finerty (of the "Chicago Times"); "Modoc" Fox, and O'Kelly (of the "New York Herald"), 1876; while last year new blood among the scribblers was initiated to their baptism of fire by Harries (of "Washington Star"), McDonough ("New York World"), Bailey (of "Inter-Ocean"), brave young Kelly (of the "Lincoln Journal"), Cressy (of the "Omaha Bee"), Seymour ("Chicago Herald"), and Allen (of the "New York Herald"), present in the battle, who were honored by three cheers from "Old White Top" Forsythe's gallant Seventh Cavalry, the day after the battle of "Wounded Knee," as they went charging over Wolf Creek to what came near being a crimson day, to the fight "down at the Mission." That there are still "successors to every king" is assured by the manly scouts to prominent in last winter's rehearsal of past (hoped no more future) frontier dramas in such men as FRANK GRUARD, now the most celebrated of the present employed army scouts; of "LITTLE BAT," true as steel, and active as the cougar; PHILIP WELLS, LOUIS SHANGRAU, "BIG BAPTISTE," and JOHN SHANGRAU; while the friendly Indians furnish such grand material for any future necessity as "No NECK," Major "SWORD," "RED SHIRT," and "YANKTON CHARLEY."
________

BILL CODY.--(BY AN OLD COMRADE.)

You bet I knew him, pardner, he ain't no circus fraud.
He's Western born and Western bred, if he has been late abroad;
I knew him in the days way back, beyond Missouri's flow,
When the country round was nothing but a huge Wild Western Show.
When the Injuns were as thik as fleas, and the man who ventured through
The sand hills of Nebraska had to fight the hostile Sioux;
These were hot times, I tell you; and we all remember still,
The days when Cody was a scout, and all the men know Bill.

I knew him first in Kansas, in the day of '68,
When the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were wiping from the state
Old scores against the settlers, and when men who wore the blue,
With shoulder-straps and way-up rank, were glad to be helped through
By a bearer of dispatches, who kenw each vale and hill,
From Dakota down to Texas, and his other name was Bill.

I mind me, too, of '79, the time when Cody took
His scouts upon the Rosebud, along with General Crook
When Custer's Seventh rode to their death for lack of some such aide
To tell them that the sneaking Sioux knew how to ambuscade
I saw Bill's fight with "Yellow Hand," you bet it was a "mill,"
He downed him well at thirty yards, and all the men cheered Bill.

They tell me that the women folk now take his word as laws,
In them days laws were mighty skerce, and hardly passed with squaws,
But many a hardy settler's wife and daughter used to rest
More quietly because they knew of Cody's dauntless breast;
Because they felt from Laramie way down to Old Fort Sill,
Bill Cody was a trusted scout, and all their men knew Bill.

I haven't seen him much of late, how does he bear his years?
They say he's making ducats now from shows and not from "steers,"
He used to be a judge of "horns," when poured in a tin cup,
And left the wine to tenderfeet, and men who felt "well up,"
Perhaps he cracks a bottle now, perhaps he's had his fill,
Who cared, Bill Body was a scout, and all the world knows Bill.

To see him in his trimmin's, he can't hardly look the same,
With laundered shirt and diamonds, as if "he run a game;"
He didn't swar biled linen then, or flash up diamond rings,
The royalties he dreamed of then were only pasteboard kings,
But those who sat behind the queens were apt to get their fill,
In the days when Cody was a scout, and all the men knew Bill.

Gridiron Club, WM. E. ANNIN,
Washington, D. C., Feb. 28, 1891. Lincoln (Neb.) Journal.
________

GHOST-DANCES IN THE WEST.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MESSIAH CRAZE AND THE GHOST-DANCE.

PINE RIDGE RESERVATION.--There have often happened, in the history of the human race, incidents that were regarded at the time as most trivial, but have later developed into such important and serious questions as to engage the minds of many learned men in their solution.

That there is some special reason for the series of frenzied dances and incantations which have been continued from time to time in remote portions of the Sioux reservations, no one will deny. It is scarcely probable that a people who own horses and cattle would suddenly, without the slightest warning, return almost to a man to the execution of a dance which is so weird and peculiar, so superstitious and spirit-like, as to rival the far-famed Sun Dance.

This special reason is found in the simple truths of Christianity as taught by a missionary in Utah, but which were distorted to conform with Indian mythology. It was when the medicine men and politicians in the nation began to enlarge upon the wrongs suffered at