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"THE SCOUTS OF THE PLAINS." ___ The genuine "Buffalo Bill" and " Texas Jack " will perform with a good dramatic company in the Mechanics' Hall to-night and to-morrow night. It appears that these two celebrities have created a furore wherever they have gone, and been greeted with jammed houses at every performance. The entertainments given by the company, led by " Bill" and "Jack" are said to be of the most stirring and sensational kind, and we have no doubt that they will appear this evening before and immense house.
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" THE SCOUTS OF THE PLAINS."----- Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack, the renowned American scouts, and a company of dramatic performers, presented their exciting programme to Hamilton audience at the Mechanics' Hall last evening. Before the drama was brought on a laughable farce entitled " Servants by Legacy" was played, in which the comic characters of Dan and Pompey were well sustained by Messrs. A. Johnson and Walter Fletcher. This was followed by the " Scouts of the Plains." This play depots frontier life on the great prairies as realized a few years ago. The drama opens in the peaceful log cabin, whose occupants were shortly to be surprised by bloodthirsty Indians, led on by the villain and renegade of the party. Some of the peaceful settlers are murdered in cold blood, and others carried into captivity. The scouts, by their courage and decisive actions, are enabled after numerous hair-breadtn escapes and exciting Indian battles to ultimately rescue the captive from the hands of the Indians and to kill desperado of the play. Of course the principal characters in the play are those taken by Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack, and the daring manner in which their respective roles were rendered called forth repeated and excessive rounds of applause. Their movements under exciting circumstances, and dexterity in handling the knife, rifle, revolver and Iasso were just what would be expected of cool, determined fellows who are at home in the midst of danger on the plains. Mr. Frank Mordant in the character of Jim Davis, renegade and horse-thief, made it, a remorseless villain of the blackest dye, capable of any murderous scheme. The assignment of this part to Mr. Mordant was a natural cast, for this acting was excellent. Uncle Henry was well assumed by J. V. Arlington, while Nick Blunder and Ebenezer Langsbank, to exceedingly comical parts, received every justice at the hands of Walter Fletcher and A. Johnson. miss Hollis as Ella, and Miss Hudson as Lettle, the daughters of the murdered settlers, were characters played with much feeling. An unlimited corps of Indians who seemed to know their business completed the cast. the play never failed to keep up its interest to the end. To-night the same bill is repeated.
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"Buffalo Bill." WILLIAM F. CODY. Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) was born in Scott County, Iowa, in 1842. At ten years of age he accompanied his father, Isaac Cody, to Kansas. The elder Cody was one of the first settlers in Kansas, and he was elected to the first Legislature of the Territory. He took a prominent part in the famous "bleeding Kansas" troubles, and in 1856 was killed by the pro-slavery party because of the unceasing efforts he had made to secure the admission of Kansas as a free State.
At that time young Cody, but fourteen years of age, was working with the "Government freighters," between Salt Lake City and the Missouri River, in the summer time, wintering in the Rocky Mountains. He had entered the service of Russell, Major & Waddall as a fraighter across the plains, in order to support his widowed mother and sisters, and continued in that employment until the establishment of the Pony Express, in which he was the first rider who started on the route. In this way five eventful years of his life were passed. It is impossible to detail all the adventures he encountered during that critical period in Western history. Although not out of his teens, his reputation as a daredevil scout, who feared neither hostile Indian nor treacherous white man, was wide spread.
BILL'S FIRST FIGHT. His first experience with Indian fights occurred when he was fourteen years of age, when he was in the employ of Simpson & Poole, noted emigrant guides and cattle drivers. These men were conducting two trains of emigrant wagons across the plains, the trains being about fifteen miles apart. Suddenly, when half-way between these two trains, Simpson, Poole and young Cody were attacked by a large party of Indians, armed with bows and arrows, who rushed upon them from an ambush. The white men, however, were equal to the emergency, and killed three mules and arranging their bodies in a triangle, sheltered themselves behind these mules as a breastwork, from which they discharged their rifles at the reds with deadly effect, each shot telling. The Indians fired away with their bows and arrows, but produced more effect on the dead mules than upon the brave enemies behind them. Finally the Indians, with an air of savage satisfaction, made up their minds to surround the mules and the white men, and to "starve the latter one." But this little game was
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the trains being about fifteen miles apart. Suddenly, when half-way between these two trains, Simpson, Poole and young Cody were attacked by a large party of Indians, armed with bows and arrows, who rushed upon them from an ambush. The white men, however, were equal to the emergency, and killed three mules and arranging their bodies in a triangle, sheltered themselves behind these mules as a breastwork, from which they discharged their rifles at the reds with deadly effect, each shot telling. The Indians fired away with their bows and arrows, but produced more effect on the dead mules than upon the brave enemies behind them. Finally the Indians, with an air of savage satisfaction, made up their minds to surround the mules and the white men, and to "starve the latter out." But this little game was stopped by the approach of the emigrant train, whose appearance in due time scared the red skins away and saved Buffalo Bill and his friends.
Bill entered the army as a scout under General Blunt, and served in the company known as the "Red legged Scouts,"- when the telegraph superseded his duties as above named.
Upon the breaking out of the war he was eighteen, and served in the army as a scout. Gladly he accepted the opportunity to avenge his father's death.
At the close of the war he was employed as a hunter for the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company, and while in that capacity earned the soubriquet which has made him a name and reputation wherever his native tongue is spoken, and which has placed him among the favored list at the Imperial Court at St. Petersburg. Incredible as it may seem, the fact is a matter of record on the books of the railroad company named, that he killed 4,280 buffaloes in eighteen months. After this feat he was known by the name of "Buffalo Bill, the Great Hunter of the West." At the breaking out of the Indian war he was appointed chief of the scouts under Gen. Carr, and he retained that title since. In personal appearance he has a fine and manly main, is about six feet high, perfectly proportioned, with dark waving hair, large clear brown eyes of a remarkable soft and deep expression, and intellectual features. He appears like a man of mild and quiet bearing, and one who could accustom himself to such scenes as he has passed through, only from necessity, not from choice. He wears many a scar on his neck, face and limbs as testimonials of his bravery.
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" THE SCOOUT OF THE PLAINS." -----The "Scouts of the Plains" was performed in the Mechanics' Hall to a good house. Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack, the living heroes of the play threw an intense interest in the performance and won the most unbounded applause. We understand that " Bill " and "Jack " propose going to England with this troupe at no distant day.