Page 40
BUFFALO BILL.
There was a great scarcity of gallery room at the Academy of Music last evening, and in fact the most fashionable portion of the house was taxed to its limits to witness the performance of Hon. William F. Cody in Colonel Prentiss Ingraham's romantic melodrama entitled "Buffalo Bill at Bay." The piece is replete with startling situations which were cheered to the echo, and contrary to expectation there was an entire absence of the shooting and powder smoke which have been so long regarded as essential to the proper porduction of the border drama. The interest of the play is sustained from beginning to end by a series of exciting incidents of which Buffalo Bill is the hero. The other characters are well drawn, and there is a sufficient share of spice and grotesque humor in the piece to make it amusing and entertaining. During the progess of the drama Mr. Cody gave an exhibition of his marvelous marksmanship, which was watched with breathless intereset by his audi-ence. As an actor, he has improved very much since his first appearance in this city. In addition to retaining his fine picturesque presence, he delivers is lines much easier, and manifests a familiarity with the stage business, which was conspicuous for its absence when he came here with Ned Buntline, Texas Jack and Wild Bill. He appears to much better advantage in Colonel Ingraham's play than anything which he has hitherto produced here, and his present trip is said to be one of the most profitable that he has yet made through this country.
Buffalo Bill.
Music Hall presented a sight worth seeing last night. One of the largest audiences ever seen within its walls greeted Buffalo Bill and his company. "Standing room only" was announced early in the evening, and when the play began every seat in the house, up stairs and down, was occupied and the aisles were filled besides. More than 1,100 tickets were sold at the box office, and over 1,400 witnessed the performance. The receipts were about $860.
The play was written to bring out the strong points of Mr. Cody's acting, and was much like the other border dramas on the stage. There was perhaps less powder burned and there was a somewhat better plot. The Indians were quite a feature in the entertainment and their weird dances and primitive music created quite an excitement. The little donkey, a most intelligent creature, was very amusing and is even better trained than when here before. The company was quite good and the parts were acceptably rendered. The audience was not only immense but enthusiastic to a degree, and testified their approbation by frequent and hearty applause. Buffalo Bill has the honor of having the largest house of the season--in fact it is doubtful if Music Hall ever held more people than were present last night.
--Even the bar had to succumb yesterday to the attraction of Buffalo Bill's aboriginal following, and when his parade passed the Court House, its windows were filled with legal heads anxious to see the copper colored braves in their war-paint.
--Owners of wooden "Injuns" would do well to look after them today, as Buffalo William and his band of real redskins will invade the city.
Buffalo Bill.
This famous delineator of the characteristics of the border heroes, will appear at the Academy on Thursday evening next. The mere announcement that he is coming to Seranton is sufficient to insure a crowded house. He has always attracted so many people to his representations that hundreds have been unable to get into the building. His appearance in our city again will be waited for with interest. The play is entitled "Buffalo Bill at Bay; or the Pearl of the Prairie." It was written expressly for him by Col. Prentiss Ingraham. A genuine band of Indians accompanies him together with several interpreters. He is well supported by a strong company, and during the play will introduce his marvelous rifle shooting act.
Page 41
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.
Page 42
BUFFALO CHIPS, THE SCOUT,
WRITTEN FOR THE NEW YORK CLIPPER AND DEDICATED TO BUFFALO BILL.
IN THE MOUNTAINS, British Columbia,
March 8, 1879 }
The following verses on the life and death of poor old Buffalo Chips are founded entirely on facts. His death occurred on September 6, 1876, at Slim Buttes. He was within three feet of me when he fell, uttering the words credited to him in my poem.
Yours truly
CAPT. JACK CRAWFORD.
The evenin' sun was settin' droppin' slowly in the
west.
An' the soldiers tired and tuckered out in the
camp would find that rest
Which the settin' sun would bring 'em, for they
marched since break o' day-
Not a bite to eat 'cept horses as were killed upon
the way;
For, ye see, our beans an' crackers an' our pork
[illegible] sight.
An' the boys expected rashuns when they struck
our camp that night;
For a little band had started for to bring some
cattle on,
An' they struck an Indian village, which they
captured jest at dawn.
Well, I war with that party when we captured
them ar Sioux,
An' we quickly sent a courier to tell old Crook the
news.
Old Crook! -- I should say gener'l, cos he war with
the boys-
Shared his only hard-tack. our sorrows and our
joys;
An' thar is the kind o' soldier as the prairy likes
ter get.
An' every man would trump death's ace fur Crook
or Miles, you bet.
But I'm kinder off the racket, cos these gen'rals
gets enough
O'praise without my chippin' so I'll let up on
that puff;
Fer I want ter tell a story 'bout a mate o' mine as
fell,
Cos I loved the hones fellow, an' he done his
dooty well;
Buffalo Chips we called him, but his other name
was White,
I'll tell yer how he got that name, an' reckon I am
right.
Ye see, a lot o' bigbugs an' officers came out
One time ter hunt there buffalo and fish fer spekeld
trout.
Well. Little Fill--ye've heered o' him, a dainty
little cuss,
As rode his charger twenty miles to stop a little
muss.
[illegible]
[illegible]
"You go an' flud them buffaler, and see you get
'em right."
So White he went an' found 'em, an' he found 'em
such a band
As, he said, would set 'em crazy, and Little Fill
looked bland;
But when the outfit halted, one bull was all war
there,
Then Fill he called him "Buffaler Chips," an' he
swore a little sware.
Well, White he kinder liked it cos the gen'ral
called him Chips,
An' he uster wear two shooters in a belt above
his hips.
Then he said, "Now look ye, gen'ral, since ye've
called me that ar name,
Jest around them little sand-hills is yer dog-oned,
pesky game;"
But when the hunt war over, an' the table spread
fer lunch.
The gen'ral called fer glasses, an' wanted his'n
punch;
An' when the punch was punished, the gen'ral
smacked his lips,
While [word]' upon the table set a dish o' buffaler
chips.
The gen'ral looked confounded, an' he also look'd
for White,
But Jonathan he reckon'd it war better he should
lite;
So he skinned across the country, cos, you see, he
did'nt mind
A-chippin' any longer while the gen'ral saw the
blind,
For the gen'ral would a-raised him of he'd jest
held up his hand;
But he thought he wouldn't see him, cos he didn't
key the sand,
An' he rode as fast--aye, faster, than the gen'ral
did that day,
Like lightnin' down from Winchester, some
twenty miles away.
Well, White he had no cabin, nor no home to call
his own.
An' how he loved Bill Cody! By gosh! it war a
sight
Ter see him watch his shadder, an' foller him at
night,
Cos Bill war kinder hated by a cussed gang o'
thieves
As carried pistols in their belts, and boweys in
their sleeves;
An' Chips he never left him, ter fear he'd get a pill,
Nor would he think it mouty hard to die fer Bufaler Bill.
