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JOHNNIE BAKER - THE YOUNG MARKSMAN.

Johnnie Baker was born at O'Fallon's Bluffs, on the banks of the South Platte River, in Western Nebraska, in the year 1870. His father is the well-known "Old Lew Baker, the ranchman," and was the owner of Lew Baker's O'Fallon's Bluff Ranch, in its day an important landmark. This place was one of the most noted on the great overland trail - the scenes, incidents, Indian attacks, etc., belonging to exhaustive pages in the early history of that, in old times, exposed and dangerous section. Here Johnnie's babyhood was passed in unconscious proximity to dangers seldom courted by the most sturdy, and his first "bug-a-boo" was not of the maternal imagining, but an existing fact, continually threatening in the shape of the heartless, savage Sioux. Cradled amid such pioneer surroundings, and dandled on the knees of all the most celebrated frontiersmen, the genuine old buckskin trappers - the first frontier invaders - his childhood witnessed the declining glories of the buffalo hunter's paradise (it being the heart of their domain), and the advent of his superior, "the long horn of Texas," and his necessary companion, "the Cow-boy."

The appearance of these brave, generous, self - sacrificing rough riders of the plains, literally living in the saddle, enduring exposure, hunger, risk of health and life as a duty to the employer, gave him his first communion with society beyond the sod cabin threshold, and impressed his mind as well as directed his aspirations, to an emulation of the manly qualities necessary to be ranked a true American Cow-boy.

When the Pony Express, the Stage Coach, and the wagon-trains were supplanted by the steam horse, Baker's station because useless, and "Old Lew" removed bag and baggage to North Platte, a little town of magical railroad growth. Here he built a fine house, which became the headquarters of the "old timers," and many a tenderfoot can remember the thrilling incidents related of "life of the trail" - a life that now belongs alone to history and to romance - while "Old Lew" dispensed hospitality like a prince. But the ways of "city life," a too big heart, of which the "shiftless, genial affinities" and rounders took due advantage, caused his former prosperity to be a remembrance only, and Johnnie set to work manfully for one of his age, to lend a helping hand. Perfectly at home in the saddle, he was never content unless with some cow-boy outfit, or at Mr. Cody's (whose homestead, extensive horse and cattle ranches, are near), where his active spirit found congenial associations, until he became recognized as "Buffalo Bill's boy." In the winter months he occasionally went to school, and being an apt scholar, has a fair education, Mr. Cody, on organizing his distinctly American exhibition, could not leave little Johnnie out. He can be seen every day with the Wild West, mounted on his fiery little mustang, riding, roping, shooting - repeating on the mimic scene his own experiences, and the boyhood life of his elder, more famed associates.

Through perserverance and his aptness for learning he has become a most valuable assistant to Colonel CODY, so much so that he is now Arenic Director, looking after all matters pertaining to the Exhibition, and has shown himself to be thoroughly familiar in the art of conduction the entire entertainment without an interruption. He is an admirable stage manager, and it is to him that the care of the large army of men is assigned.