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After a short tour in the South of France in the fall, a vessel was chartered at Marseilles, the Mediterranean crossed to Barcelona-landing the first band of American Indians, with accompanying associates, scouts, cowboys, Mexican horses of Spanish descent, and wild buffaloes, etc., on the very spot whereon his return to Spain landed the world's greatest explorer, Christopher Columbus. Here the patrons were demonstrative to their national history, recalling, after a lapse of 400 years, the resplendent glories of Spanish conquests under Ferinand and Isabella, of the sainted hero, Cristobal Colon-1492, Columbus in America-1890, "BUFFALO BILL." and the native American Indian in Spain!
Recrossing the Mediterranean, via Corsica and Sardinia (encountering a tremendous storm) Naples (the placid waters of whose noble bay gave a welcome refuge) was reached, and in the shadow of "Old Vesuvius," which in fact formed a superbly grand scenic background, another peg in history was pinned by the visit of the cow-boy and Indian to the various noted localities that here abound, the ruins of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and the great crater of "the burning mountain," sticking wonder and awe as well as giving geological and geographical knowledge to the stoical "Red man."
Then the "famed of the famous cities" of the world, Rome, was visited, to be conquered through the gentle power intellectual interest in, and the reciprocal pleasure exchanged by, its unusual visitors, the honor being given to "the outfit," as an organization, of attending a dazzling fete given in the Vatican by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII, and of receiving the exalted Pontiff's blessing. The grandeur of the spectacle, the heavenly music, the entrancing singing, and impressive adjuncts produced a most profound impression on the astonished children of the Prairie. The Wild West in the Vatican!
COLOSSEUM, ROME.
The company was photographed in the Colosseum, which stately ruin seemed to silently and solemnly regret that its famed ancient arena was too small for this modern exhibition of the mimic struggle between that civilization born and emanating from 'neath its very walls and a primitive people who were ne'er dreamed of in a Rome's world-conquering creators' wildest flights of vivid imaginings.
Strolling through its arena, gazing at its lions' dens, or lolling lazily on its convenient ruins, hearing its interpreted history-of Romulus, of Ceasar, of Nero-roamed this band of Wild West Sioux (a people whose history in barbaric deeds equals, if not excels, the ancient Romans), now hand in hand in peace and firmly-cement friendship with the American frontiersman-once gladiatorial antagonists on the Western Plains. They, listening to the tale on the spot of those whose "Moriture to Salutant" was the short prelude to a savage death, formed a novel picture in historic frame! The Wild West in the Colosseum!
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