64

56

"How little I dreamed in the long ago that the lonely path of the scout and the pony
express rider would lead me to the place to which you have assigned me to-day. And here,
near the banks of the mighty Missouri, which flows onward to the sea, my thoughts revert
to the early days of my manhood, when I looked across this rushing tide toward the East,
to the Atlantic, where then I supposed that all men were rich and all women happy. My
friends, that day has come and gone, and I stand among you a witness that nowhere in the
broad universe are men richer in manly integrity and women happier in their domestic
kingdom than in our Nebraska. (Great applause.)

"I have sought fortune in many lands, but wherever I have wandered that flag or our
beloved State has been unfurled to every breeze. From the Platte to the Danube, from the
Tiber to the Clyde, the emblem of our sovereign State has always floated over the Wild
West. (Applause.) Time goes on and brings with it new duties and responsibilities, but
we old men, we men who are called 'old timers,' cannot forget the trials and tribulations
that we had to encounter while paving the path for civilization and national prosperity.

"The whistle of the locomotive has drowned the howl of the coyote, the barb-wire
fence has narrowed the range of the cow-puncher, but no material evidence of prosperity
can obliterate our contribution to Nebraska's imperian progress. (Applause.)

"Gentlemen of the Directory, I will not assume to comment upon what you have
done to make this exposition the peer of all that have gone before. Far abler testimony
than I can offer has sped on electric wings to the uttermost parts of the earth that what you
have done in the interests of Nebraska has been well done. (Applause.)

"Through your kindness to-day I have tasted the sweetest fruit that grows on ambi-
tion's tree, and if you will extend that kindness and let me fall back into the ranks those
rear ranks, as a high private in those ranks, that will be honor enough for me. (Applause.)

"Now, will you extend that kindness and let me call upon the Wild West, the Congress
of Rough Riders of the World, to voice their appreciation for the kindess that you have
extended to them to-day?"

At the signal of Colonel Cody the Wild West then gave three ringing cheers for
Nebraska and the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. Their band followed with "The Red,
White and Blue," and at the last note of the melody the McCook band played the "Star
Spangled banner," and the Wild West fell into line for the parade through the grounds,
headed by Colonel Cody, mounted upon the splendid chestnut hore, Duke, presented to
him by General Miles soon after the batte of Wounded Knee. At the Administration Arch
the cavalcade was reviewed by the members of the Executive Committee of the exposition.

THE OLD-TIME LIONS AT LUNCHEON.

The official and popular reception was notably supplemented by an informal luncheon
given to the old-timers by Colonel Cody, and never before had such a party of representative
pioneers met around the banquet table and exchanged reminiscences of the stirring days of
their younger years. At one long table were seated Governor Holocomb at the head and
General T. S. Clarkson at the foot, and on the sides ex-Governor John M. Thayer, James E.
Boyd and Alvin Saunders, Senator John M. Thurston, Major John M. Burke, John A.
Creighton, Alexander Majors, W. A. Paxton, Capt. J. E. North, E. Rosewater, Louis E.
Cooke, Col. W. L. Virscher, ex-Secretary of Agriculture Norman J. Coleman of Missouri,
and others. Over the champagne General Clarkson, who acted as toastmaster, called upon
those present who were more or less given to oratory for sentiments befitting the occasion,
and the result was a number of after-dinner speeches that would have done honor to any
occasion that has ever been graced by eloquence in words. The theme was the upbuilding
of the West, with Colonel Cody as a factor in guidng empire to the region, and, incidentally,
reminiscences of pioneer times.

Ex-Governor Thayer expressed pride in the fact that he had commissioned Colonel
Cody on his military staff and sent him abroad to acquaint the Old World with Nebraska's
apulence of resource, in which the gallant Colonel had far exceeded what could have been
hoped for in that time. He had not only carried to the Old World and its people the story of
this great West, but had in the meantime become the associate of princes and potentate,
who learned from this representative of the West, in a little time, more than decades of
[recing?] might have taught them. The ex-Governor closed with an earnest commendation
of his gallant staff officer, who, by the way, had been an honor to the military staff of all
the succeeding Governors of Nebraska.