1900 Buffalo Bills Wild West Program (MS327.WOJO)

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wins, and the young chief, "YELLOW HAND," drops lifeless in his tracks after a hot fight Baffled and astounded, for once in a lifetime beaten at their own game, their project of joining "SITTING BULL" nipped in the bud, they take hurried light. But our chief is satisfied. BUFFALO BILL " is radiant; his are the honors of the day. From Page 35.

THE GREAT ARTIST, FRED. REMINGTON, WRITES FROM LONDON TO" HARPERS WEEKLY. "

The most noted depicter of Western scenes of the present day ts, without doubt, the eminent artist, Mr. Frederic Remington. His study of the subject renders him a most competent judge. In returning from an expedition in Russia, passing through Londo he visited Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and it is with pride that the projectors point to his indorsement, standing side by side in artistic merit as he does with the grand artiste, Rosa Bonheur:

The Tower, the Parliament, and Westminster Abbey are older institutions in London than Buffalo Bill's show, but when the New Zealander sits on the London bridge and looks over bis ancient manuscripts of Murray's Guide-Book, he is going to turn first At present everyone knows where it is, from the gentleman on Piccadılly to the dirtiest coaster in the remotest slum of Whitechapel. The cabman may have to scratch his head to recall places where the traveler desires to go, but when the Wild West" is asked for he gathers his reins and uncoils his whip without ceremony. One should no longer ride the deserts of Texas or the rugged uplands of Wyoming to see the Indians to the Wild West. quite unnecessary to brave the fleas and the police of the Car to see the Cossack, er to tempt the waves which roll between New York and the far off Argentine to study the "gauchos." They are all in London. The Cossacks and "gauchos " are the latest edition, and they nearly complete the array of wild riders There you can sit on a bench and institute comparisons. The Cossacks will charge you withdrawn sabers in a most genuine way, will hover over you like buzzards on a battlefield- they soar and whirl about in graceful curves, giving an uncanny impression, which has doubtless been felt by many a poor Russian soldier from the wheat fields of central Europe as he lay with a bullet in him on some distant field. They march slowly around over imaginary stePpes, singing in a most dolorous way– looking as they did in Joseph Brandt's paintings. They dance over swords in a light-footed and crazy way and do feats on their running horses which bring the hand-clapping They stand on their heads, vault on and off. chase each other in a game called * chasing the handkerchief," and they reach down at top speed and mark the ground with a stick. Their long coat-tails flap out behind like an animated rag-bag, while their legs and arms are visible by turns. Their grip on the horse is maintained by a clever use of the stirrups, which are twisted and cross.d at 20 29 They are armed like "pincushions," and ride on a big leather bag, which makes their seat abnormally high.

The "gauchos" are dressed in a sort of Spanish costume, with tremendous pantaloons of cotton and boots made of colt's skin, which in their construction are very like Apache moccasins. They carry a knife at their back which would make a hole which a doctor couldn't sew up with less than five stitches, if, indeed, he was troubled at all. They ride a saddle which one of the American cowboys designated as a "-feather bed," and they talk Spanish which would floor a Castilian at once. They ride bucking horses by pairs and amuse the audience by falling off at intervals.

The great interest which attaches to the whole show is that it enables the audience to take sides on the question of which people ride the best and have 169 the best saddles. The whole thing is put in such

OGALLALLA CHIEFS, PINE RIDGE - SIOUX CAMPAIGN, 1891.

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47 tangible shape as to be a regular challenge to debate to lookers-on. I, for one, formed my opinion, and have sacrificed two or three friends on the altar of my convictions. There is also a man in a pink coat who rides a hunting seat in competition with a yellow savage on a clear horse, and if our Englishman is not wedded to bis ideals, he must receive a very bad shock in beholding he is a cow-boy.

Next year the whole outfit is coming over to the World's Fair with the rest of Europe, and they are going to bring specimens of all the continental cavalry. The Sioux will talk German, the cow-boys already have an English accent, and the "gauchos " will be dressed in good English form The Wild West show is an evolution of a great idea. It is a great educator, and, with its aggregate of wonders from the out-of-the-way places, it will represent a poetical and harmless protest against the Derby bat and the starched linen-those horrible badges of the slavery of our modern social system, when men are physical lay figures, and mental and moral cog-wheels and wastes of uniformity-where the great crime is to be individual, and the unpardonable sin is to be out of the fashion. FREDERIC REMINGTON.

THE WILD WEST REVIEW. In order to create even the merest outline mind picture of the superb effects, massed fiery action and equestrian skill made gloriously manifest in the Grand Review with which the performances in Buffalo Bill's Wild West are always inaugurated, at precisely 2 and 8 P. M., one must imagine a kaleidoscope, with an object field of four and a half acres in extent, occupied by a swiftly moving mass of figures, individually picturesque, brilliant with metallic reflections and gay with colors, momentarily springing and flashing into new combinations and modes of motion which dazzle, confuse and fascinate the eye of the beholder. The Indians, the Mexicans, the Arabs, the Gauchos, the Cossacks, the Cowboys, the cavalry of the different nations, and all the riders come in, one organization at a time, all riding at a dead run. After all, are drawn up in line "Buffalo Bill " rides forth and introduces the Congress of the Rough Riders of the World. It is a superb and indescribable picture then -rank after rank of horsemen from all the nations stretching across the plain, shining with steel and aflame with color; tossing manes, running along the lines like wheat moving under a breeze; above them the plumes and the bright crests, and still higher, held in upstretched arms, the white flashing sabers, until at a signal the ranks melt into moving streams of color and light, the horsemen threading their way in and out past one another, circling, halting, advancing, receding, reforming by fours and sixes, trailing out in single file, moving ribbons of men and horses spangled with gleaming metal, until two long lines gallop away evenly and steadily, and disappear whence they came, to be succeeded by other historic, héroic and strangely fascinating scenes.

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HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

In the Field, Pine Ridge, S.D., January 11, 1891

Brig. General W. F. Cody,

.Nebraska National Guard, Present.

Sir:

I am glad to inform you that the entire body of Indians are now camped near here (within a mile and a half). They show every disposition to comply with the orders of the authorities. Nothing by an accident can prevent peace being re-established, and it will be our ambition to make it of permanent character. I feel that the State troops can now be withdrawn with safety, and desire through you to express to them my thanks for the confidence they have given your people in their isolated homes.

Like information has this day been given General Colby.

Very respectfully yours,

[Signature]

Major General Commanding

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PROF. SWEENEY AND HIS FAMOUS COWBOY BAND. "A MERITORIQUS MUSICAL FEATURE"–London Times. Not the least interesting and popular adjunct of the Wild West entertainment is the music furnished by the famous Cowboy Band, This band has always taken a prominent place with the organization, and has received the highest praise from educated musicians as well as the public in all parts of the world. It consists of thirty-six cow-boy musicians, each of whom would be considered a soloist on his own instrument, and when combined and playing together under the capable direction of Mr. William Sweeney, their leader, they make music that compels the admiration of the masses. They give a concert before each performance, and incidental music that is a source of pleasure to all who hear it, and are daily greeted with rounds of applause. This brand has been the recipient of commendations from nearly all the musical connoisseurs and leaders and members of the finest bands in Europe, Lieut. Dan Godfrey, the leader of the famous Grenadier Guards Band, having presented Mr. Sweeney, after a six months' engagement in the gardens connected with the Wild West in London, with a solid gold cornet, at the same time saying that the thirty-six members of the Cowboy Band would produce more good music than any band he had ever heard with even double the number of musicians, For thirty minutes prior to the entertainment this band will give selections of both classical and popular music.

SOUTH AMERICAN GAUCHOS AT THE "WILD WEST." The latest addition to BUFFALO BILL'S "Wild West" makes the sixth delegation to the "Congress of the Rough Riders of the World," which MESSRS. CODY and SALSBURY have organized in order to present the different schools of horsemanship to the world. Having seen the performances of the Cowboy, the Indian, the Vaquero, and, lastly, of the Cossacks of the Caucasian line, our appetites are considerably whetted at the prospect of seeing how the wildlife on the South America pampas contrasts with theirs. To the student of human progress, of racial peculiarities, of national characteristics, the Gauchos are a subject of investigation as remarkable as anything modern history has to show.

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The Gaucho differs in many respects from the other rough riders of the only partially civilized sections of the earth. He is the product of a peculiar scheme of existence, and of savage conditions of life, that obtain in no part of the world save on the boundless Llanos of South America.

The Gauchos are the descendants of the early Spanish colonizers of the South American wilds. The fiery Hispanian temperament, the infusion of the native Indian blood, together with the wild lonely life on the ocean-like pampas, are the conditions responsible for the production of the Gauchos.

The civilation that the Spanish colonists took with them to the Llanos gradually became subdued by the savagery of the new situation, until their descendants, the Gauchos, were as wild and ferocious as the aborigines, the Indians. They were, forsooth, compelled to adopt in no small degree the manners and customs of these latter as a means of subsistence.

Like the North American Indian, the Cow-boy, the Vaquero, the Cossack, and the Prairie Scout, now for the first time in history his companion horsement, the Gaucho is a near approach to the mythical centaur. Like them the Gaucho spends the greater portion of his life on horseback, and is associated with the wild equines of the pampas in even a more in tense degree than any of the equestrian races.

In no other part of the world has man been so completely dependent on the horse as on the South American plains. The pampas without horses would be, for the uses of man, as an ocean without ships or boats. Hence this Gaucho breed of centaur is the natural growth of peculiar surroundings.

{GAUCHOS FROM SOUTH AMERICA.}

It may be interesting to state that from their primitve mode of existence, the Gaucho makes nearly every thing connected with his "outfit," even the rude saddle, from raw-hid the lasso, the "bolas" and even his boots--which are made from the skin (taken from the knee down, and shaped to the leg and foot while warm) of a freshly killed colt, sewed at the toe, thus forming practically a leather stocking without heel or sole. They are fond of music, are good dancers, retaining in many respects the poetic traditions and tendencies of their Castillian ancestors.

Enough has been said here, however, of their peculiarities. They will prove a welcome acquisition to the "Wild West," for they, no less than the Cossacks, have a distinct role of their own to play in this truly gigantic enterprise of a "Congress of the World's Rough Riders."

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