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[From the Cleveland Herald, Oct. 21, 1875]

COURIERS

The Remarkable Rides of Buffalo Bill.

The English papers have recently been loud in praise of Mr. Arcibald Forbes, who made a really tough ride across the Zulu country. He rode 110 miles from 9 p. m. one day to 5 p. m. the next. His ride was in six stages and at each stage he obtained refreshments and a fresh horse. He had guides and an escort part of the way, and followed a well-marked trail across the country made by an advancing army of 6,000 men. The ride was really wonderful; but what would they say to such sides as those made across the trackless plains and forests of our great Western country with the dread probability that at any moment the flying hoof beats of the steed might be stopped by the whizzing of an Indian ball or arrow and the bones of both horse and rider left to bleach and whiten on the desolate plain? Rankin, the scout who rode out of Payne's lines and carried to Rawlins the intelligence of the plight of what was left of Thornburg's command, made a remarkable ride and well worthy the attention of the muse of history. "Buffalo Bill," in his autobiography recently published, presents some figures which are worthy the attention of those who are disposed to glorify dangerous and difficult rides.

In August, 1808, "Buffalo Bill". rode in twelve hours from Fort Larned to Fort Zarah and back, sixty-five miles; in the succeeding twelve hours he carried dispatches to General Sheridan from Fort Larned to Fort Hayes, sixty-five miles. From Fort Hayes he rode in the next twenty-four hours to Fort Dodge, ninety-five miles; on the next night he went to Fort Larned, thirty-five miles on foot and thirty miles on a mule; and again the next night from Fort Larned to Fort Hayes, sixty-five miles. He made on horses, mules, and afoot 355 miles, and he was in the saddle or afoot fifty-eight hours. These successive rides were made through a rough, irregular county, swarming with hostile Indians, where there were no roads and hardily a perceptible trail, which had to be followed in the obscurity of the night. Early in life Buffalo Bill made a continuous ride of 322 miles, making that distance in the incredibly short time of twenty-two hours, a wonderful feat of human endurance. Buffalo Bill with a troupe of twenty four artists appears at Clough's Opera House, this evening, in the new play, Knight of the Plains.