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I PICK up the history of the Bowery, fount and grave of tradition, on
September 3, 1877, with Buffalo Bill in May Cody, or, Lost and Won.
W. F. Cody was himself as Buffalo Bill, with Harry A. Ellis as John
D. Lee, George C. Charles as Darby McCue, Mrs. W. G. Jones as Mrs.
Stoughton, Fanny Prestige as Ann Eliza Young, and, by a touching coincidence,
Constance Hamblin, daughter of the great Hamblin of former Bowery
days, as May Cody. The show also employed Sioux chiefs, prairie horses,
and the Mexican burro, Jack Cass. And the old farce, Jenny Lind, calmed
the nervous customers. During the week of the 10th, after the curtainraiser,
The Good for Nothing, the redoubtable Cody staged Right Red
Hand, or, Buffalo Bill's Last Scalp for Custer, himself again appearing as
himself as Buffalo Bill, supported by J. B. Ashton as Hermit of the Hills,
Harry Ellis as Red Hand, Harry Bell as Tom Sunn, a scout, C. Wilson as
Lone Dick, G. C. Charles as Dennis O'Gaff (what would a Wild West show
be without a comic Irishman?), W. T. Johnson as Lang-Wha-Hoo (or a
Chinese?), J. B. Browne as Kansas King, W. Lansing as White Slayer,
J. Burbeck as Bad Burk, Constance Hamblin as Pearl, Augusta Chambers
as Grace, and Fanny Prestige as Ruth Ramsay. One sees that, except for
women, the Bowery players changed but little from season to season.