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THE CHIEF OF SCOUTS.

HOW BUFFALO BILL BECOME AN ACTOR.

Hon. W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) has a a new play this season, written by Col. Prentiss Ingraham, and more in harmony with the cultured and refined audiences that everywhere gather to see the noted chief of scouts. We learn that Mr. Cody has wonderfully improved as an actor, and is supported this season by a very strong company. It was not always thus. His introduction to the stage was told last Saturday in the Youngstown, Ohio, Evening News. The News says:

Buffalo Bill, Chief of Scouts U. S. A., and the pride of the prairies, today related in his off hand manner and jovial way how it was he become an actor, and his career before the footlights, "It was in the fall of '71," said Bill, "that Gen. Sheridan came to the plains with a party of gentlemen for the purpose of engaging in a Buffalo hunt, to extend from Fort McPherson, Nebraska, to Fort Hayes, Kansas, on the Kansas Pacific railroad, a distance of 228 miles through the finest hunting country in the world. In the party were James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald, Lawrence and Leonard Jerome, Carl Livingston, J. G. Heckshire, Gen. Fitzhugh, of Pittsburgh, Gen. Anson Stager, of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and other noted gentlemen. I guided the party, and when the hunt was finished I received an invitation from them to New York and make them a visit, as they wanted to show me the East, as I had shown them the West. I was then Chief of Scouts in the department of the Platte. And in January, 1872, just after the Grand Duke Alexis' hunt, which, by the way, I organized, I got a leave of absence, and for the first time in my life found myself east of the Mississippi river. Stopping at Chicago two days, where I was the guest of Gen. Sheridan, I proceeded to New York, where I was shown the elephant. During my visit I attended a performance at the Bowery Theater, in company with Col. E. Z. C. Judson (Ned Buntline), and witnessed a dramatization of Judson's story, entitled "Buffalo Bill, King of Border Men." The part of Buffalo Bill was impersonated by Mr. J. B. Studley, an excellent actor, and I must say I thought the fellow looked like me, as his make up was a perfect picture of myself. I had not watched myself very long before the audience discovered that the original Buffalo Bill was in the private box, and they commenced cheering, which stopped the performance, and they would not cease until I had shown myself and spoken a few words.

At that time I had no idea of going on the stage, such a thought having never entered my head. But some enterprising managers, believing there was money in me, offered me as high as one thousand dollars per week to go on the stage. I told them I would rather face a thousand Indians than attempt to open my mouth before all those people. I returned to my duties as a scout and during the summer of 1872 Ned Buntline was constantly writing me to come east and go on the stage, offering large inducements As scouting business was rather dull, I concluded to try it for a while, and started east in company with Texas Jack. Met Buntline in Chicago with a company ready to support me.

We were to open in Chicago in Nixon's Amphitheater, on December 16th, 1872. I arrived in Chicago December 12th, 1872. We were driven to the theater where I was introduced to Jim Nixon, who said, "Mr. Buntline give me your drama as I am ready to cast your piece, and we have no time to lose, if you are to open Monday, and these men who have never been on the stage will require several rehearsals." Buntline surprised us all by saying that he had not written the drama yet but would do so at once.

Mr. Nixon said, "No drama! and this is Thursday. Well, I will cancel your date." But Buntline was not to be balked in this way, and asked Nixon what he would rent the theatre for one week. "One thousand dollars," said Nixon. "It's my theatre," said Buntline, making out a check for the amount. He rushed to the hotel, secured the services of several clerks to copy the parts, and in four hours had written "The Scouts of the Prairie." He handed Texas Jack and I our parts, told us to commit them to memory and report next morning for rehearsal. I looked at Jack, and then at my part. Jack looked at me and said, "Bill, how long will it take you to commit your part?" "About seven years, if I have good luck." Buntline said "Go to work." I studied hard, and next morning recited the lines, cues and all, to Buntline. Buntline said, "You must not recite cues; they are for you to speak from--the last words of the person who speaks before you." I said, "cues be d--d; I never heard of anything but a billiard cue." Well, night came. The house was packed. Up went the curtain. Buntline appeared as Cale Durg, an old trapper, and at a certain time Jack and I were to come on. But we were a little late, and when I made my appearance, facing three thousand people, among them Gen. Sheridan and a number of army officers, it broke me all up and I could not remember a word. All that saved me was my answer to a question put by Buntline. He asked, "What detained you?" I told him I had been on a hunt with Milligan. You see Milligan was a prominent Chicago gentleman, who had been hunting with me a short time before on the plains, and had been chased by the Indians, and the papers had been full of his hunt for some time. Buntline saw that I was "up a stump," for I had forgotten my lines, and he told me to tell him about the hunt. I told the story in a very funny way, and it took like wildfire with the audience.

While I was telling the story, Buntline had whispered to the stage manager that when I got through with my story to send on the Indians. Presently Buntline sang out, "The Indians are upon us." Now this was "pie" for Jack and I, and we went at those bogus Indians red-hot, until we had killed the last one and the curtain went down amid a most tremendous applause, while the audience went wild. The other actors never got a chance to appear in the first act. Buntline said, "go-ahead with the second act, its going splendid." I think that during the entire performance neither Jack or myself spoke a line of our original parts. But the next morning the press said it was the best show ever given in Chicago, as it was so bad it was good, and they could not see what Buntline was doing all the time if it took him four hours to write that drama.

Our business was immense all that season, and if we had been managed properly we would have each made a small fortune. As it was I came out ten thousand dollars ahead. In June, 1873, I returned to the plains, came east again in the fall, this time my own manager. I got a company took the noted "Wild Bill" with me, but could not do much with him as he was not an easy

man to handle, and would insist on shooting the supers in the legs with powder, just to see them jump. He left me a few months later and returned to the plains. He was killed August, 1876 in Deadwood.

In the summer of 1876 I was Chief of Scouts under Gen. Carr, afterwards with Gen. Crook and Gen. Terry.

On the 17th of July, 1876, I killed "Yellow Hand," a noted Cheyenne chief and took the first scalp for Custer. I returned to the stage in October, 1876, and during the season of '76 and '77 I cleared thirty-eight thousand dollars. I have generally been successful, financially, on the stage. I am now in the cattle business in Nebraska, which place I will return to in a few weeks, as the Indians are giving us some trouble in our country by stealing horses and cattle.