52

The Scouts of the Prairie

made their first appearance at the
Terre Haute Opera House last evening,
and they were right heartily
greeted by a good audience. The
drama is of the highly sensational
order, and as the shooting and scalping
scenes progress, the hair of the
uninitiated looker-on is elevated, and
a man involuntaryily elutches at his
head, and a woman at her waterfall,
to be sure that the hirsute appendage
is still there and safe.

The leading characters in the play
are Buffalo Bill, Texas Jack, and
Wild Bill, three athletic and affable
gentlemen, who has scouts, have
served their country nobly in years
past; and not having been over-paid,
(and those who serve their country
best never are,) and wishing to travel
through "the States" profitably,
financially, and otherwise, they take
this way of accomplishing their purpose.

Mr. Fred. G. Maeder is the author
of the play, and participates in its
rendition as "The Old Vet, an 1812
Pounder." But shooting and scalping
and the free use of the cheerful
bowie knife is not all there is of the
play; there is a due amount of love
making, and throughout it is intensely
interesting. We have not the time
nor space to review the plot of the
play, but will allude to one scene. It
represents a meeting between
the scouts and a tribe
of Indians. The red skins are in reality
on the war path, and are seeking
an advantage which the keen
eye of Buffalo Bill detects almost in
the outset, and a terriffic hand to
hand encounter transpires, and the
pipe of peace is incontinently snuffed
out.

We would advise our readers to go
and see the play if they would get a
good idea of life on the plains. Those
who witness the performance of this play will not care to take Greeney's
advice to go West.