97

A NOTABLE MAN,

The Interesting Passages in the Life of
W . F . Cody---Col, Prentiss Ingraham, Dra-
mattst and Novelist- Buffalo Bill's forth-
coming New Border Drama.

The eight annual Visit of Buffalo Bill
(Hon . W . F . Cody ) and his dramatic combina-
tion to Baltimore, thus far, has been the
most successful and satisfactory that he has
ever made here. The entertainment given
by this remarkable man illustrates the often
asserted fact that truth is stranger than fic-
tion. The drama in which he has appeared
are simply the stringing together with skill-
full effect of the actual scenes in which Mr.
Cody himself has been the principal actor
and hero. He is really the only man on the
stage who gives representation of himself.
The leading features of the well know
drama " May Cody" and the still better drama
"Knight of the Plains," now being perform-
ed at Ford's Opera House are made up of
actual occurences in the dangerous life led
by Mr. Cody, or " Buffalo Bill, " as scout,
guide and hunter on the great Northwestern
frontier. Mr. Cody's splendid figure, manly
and gentlemanly bearing and fine, frank
open countenance, is familiar to most every-
body here. He is the only true type of the
frontiersma, as we have been taught to re-
gard him by writters of travel an adventure.
Born In Iowa, when it was almost the west-
ern boundry of civilization, he grew up with
the rifle in his hand and thoroughly accus-
tomed to the dangers of the border. He is
said to have killed his first Indian when only
ten years of age, and since that has
been a prominent figure in most of the thrill-
ing and terrible conflicts with the Indians
and blood-thirsty road agents of the North-
west.
Mr. Cody is now about thirty-six years of
age. His home is at North Platte, Nebraska,
where he owns a fine farm improved by an
elegant mansion, and sixty miles distant on
the Dismal river, he owns a ranche of seve-
ral thousand acres upon which he maintains
10, 000 head of cattle. His home is the cen-
tre of refinement and comfort and is presided
over in his absence by his wife and two
interesting daughters. Mr. Cody devotes
about nine months in the year to the road
with his company and the remainder to
his home and farm.
For his recent unexampled success in the
dramatic line, Mr. Cody is largely in-
debted to Col. Prentiss Ingraham his dra-
matist and business manager. Col. Ingra-
ham belongs to a family famous as writers of
realistic fiction. His father, the late Rev. J.
H. Ingraham, of Mississippi, the friend and
contemporary of Cooper, Irving and Willis,
was the author of some of the best known
and most widely read works of the time. As
the author of the biblical story, " The Prince
of the House of David, " Mr. Ingraham is
probably best known. He also wrote " The
Pillar of Fire," "Lafitte," "Captain Kidd" and
many stories of sea and land. Col. Prentiss
Ingraham, the son, is scarcely less widely
known as a writer, his name having so often
appeared in The New York Ledger, and other
popular weeklies, that it is familiar to nearly
every child. His more popular works are
"Merle," " Without Heart," " The Flying
Yankee, " " Fettered with Fate," and recent
novelettes in the "Star Journal."
His life is filled with adventure, for
although less than forty, he has been a par-
ticipant in the late civil war between the
States, the Cretan war with the Turks, and,
in 1870, he commanded the steamer Hornet
in an expedition to aid the partrot cause of
Cuba. Two years ago Col. Ingraham, by
invitation of the Grand Army of the Repub-
lic, read an original ode at the memorial
decoration at Gettysburg. This is a distinc-
tion not often conferred upon one who
served in the Confederacy, and was a flatter-
ing tribute to his talents.
Having spend much time of his time of the
plains and in the mountains Colonel Ingra-
ham is well qualifed as a dramatist of the
border adapted to the talents of the great
scout and hunter. He is the author of
Buffalo Bill's present successful drama
"Knight of the Plains, " and has just com-
pleted another new play for Mr. Cody enti-