37

27
all day at top speed and taking all sorts of chances, without regard to life or limb, he has little time for tomfoolery or lawless carousing. Bad food, little sleep, constant anxiety, and exhausting work soon undermine the strongest constitution, and at forty years of age, and often much sooner, rough, hard lines in his face tell the story with a plainness not to be mistaken.

GEN, MILES AND COL MAUS RIDING BUFFALO BILLS WESTERN WAR HORSES AT FORTO RICO (FROM FHOO TAKEN ON TUE FIELD, AUGUST 30, 1595.)

TWO NOTED WAR HORSES.

The hundreds of horses from different countries and of different strains employed by Buffalo Bill's Wild West in transportation, parade and exhibition, collectively, form a living attraction, full of nobility, beauty, intelligence, fire and fleetness, while in the great gathering are individual steeds full worthy of more than gassing inspection and mention. Among these are included "Knickerbocker" and "Lancerwhich Colonel Cody sent with the army to Porto Rico for his own use in the event of his being called to the front by General Miles, and which were the only horses accompanying the invading forces that were returned to American soil, as the following note from General Miles to Colonel Cody shows:

"My DEAR CODY:
"Your horses are now in Washington, all right. You did not come to Porto Rico, therefore I rode them myself, and they are the only horses brought back to America.
"NELSON A. MILES."

Regular army officers who had served with General Miles in the Indian campaigns had given him the reputation of being the hardest rider in the service. "He can cover more ground than any other man in the army and be fresh as a daisy at the end," they told the troopers in Porto Rico, and an escort of thirty-seven of them, whom he rode to a finish and nearly out of their saddles during a prolonged tour of inspection, sorely conceded that he was truly a Rough Rider par excellence. "Knickerbocker," a powerful, plucky gray, was just the amount required by such a horseman, and carried him triumphantly through the more arduous work of the campaign; "Lancer," a beautiful sorrel of less weight and stamina, being reserved for lighter service.