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lacchi, not to mention Cody himself. The Gazette reported that the show was a great hit. The people of Taunton had seen these genuine specimens and loved them.

An interesting sidelight: Buffalo Bill and his troupe returend to Taunton eleven months later, on December 29, 1874. By this time Wild Bill Hickok had departed the show, finally realizing that life this side of the mountains was not for him. Cody and his other friends in the show were so glad to see Wild Bill depart that they among themselves raised over $1,000 for his trainfare back to the West. Wild Bill didn't go back, however, until he had travelled to New York and beat up a man who was impersonating him in another Wild West Show.

Hickok's place in the show was taken by another famous name from the West. This was Kit Carson, Jr., the son the legendary pioneer who had died six years earlier. Carson was, like his father, gaining a name to be reckoned with in the West and, while not nearly as big a drawing card as Wild Bill, he still was a very popular attraction.

When the company arrived in Taunton on December 29, 1874 Buffalo Bill Cody checked in the the City Hotel, a famous place which was located next to the present day Superior Courthous. They were to appear at the Music Hall that night, again, incidentally, to a packed and roaring house. A careful reader of the Taunton Daily Gazette on December 30, 1874, however, would have seen a very interesting though tiny story. It seems that after checking into the hotel, Buffalo Bill Cody and Carson rented a couple of horse at Field & Horton's Livery Stable and proceeded to whirl about the Center of town, bent no doubt on impressing the local yokels with real cowboy riding. Lo

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