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51 COSSACKS WITH THE WILD WEST. In pursuance of their intention to assemble together the World's Fair Congress of the representative horsemen of the world, MESSRS. CODY and SALSBURY have had their agents in all parts of the earth looking for rough riders who could compete with or excel the original riders of the Wild West, the native product of America. In the Russian Cossack they found a horseman whose style was no novel and striking, and one who could compete with the finest in the world. These Cossacks, in the picturesque garb of the Caucasus, form the latest acquisition of the Wild West. They are a troop of "Cossacks of the Caucasian Line," under the command of Princo at Sourca.
The Prince and his comrades, it is interesting to the public to know, belong to the same branch of the great Cossack family, the Zaporogians, immortalized by Byron's "Mazeppa." Mazeppa was the chief of the Zaporogian community of the Cossacks of the Ukraine. When Byron's famous hero came to grief at the battle of Poltava, the Cossacks fled to the Crimea, then Turkish territory, to avoid the vengeance of Peter the Great. Subsequently, they were deported to the Kuban, and settled along the river as military colonists to defend the Russian frontier against the marauding tribes of the Caucasus. On this dangerous frontier the qualities of horsemanship that made the name of Mazeppa and his warlike followers household words throughout the whole of Europe, became still further developed in the following generations, so that the Kuban Cossacks quickly became, in many respects, the most remarkable riders in the world. On their lithe steppe horses, as fierce and active as themselves, they proved themselves more than worthy of their sires. During the heroic struggle of the Circassian mountaineers maintain their independence against Russia, the sons of Mazeppa's Zaporogians were found to be the only Cossacks sufficiently skilled to cope with Schamyl's wild mountain horsemen on equal terms. The Don Cossack dodge within their guard and cut them in the world. ers, and the Circassians quickly learned to being among the most expert swordsmen in the world.
FOREIGN TOURS AND TRIUMPHS. Since the visit of "BUFFALO BILL'S" Wild West to England and its remarkable engagement in London, at WVest Brompton, in 1387, a history and tour have been made such as no organization of its magnitude and requirements ever accomplished. A slight reference to this will be instructive and interesting, and the practical mind can, partially, at a glance, recognize the difficulties and arduous duties involved in its completion. A volume would be more fitting to relate its travels, its trials, and triumphant experiences. After the production in an especially erected mammoth building at Manchester, of an allegorical, pantomimic, and scenic representation of the history of American settlement, a return to the United States was made in a chartered steamship, Persian Monarch, of 6,000 tons
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burder. The arrival of this vessel, outside of the copmany's reception, was an event of future commercial importance to the port of New York, from the fact to her being the first passenger ship of her size, draught and class to effect a landing (at Betchel's Wharf) directly on the shoers of Staten Island, thus demonstrating the marine value of some tine miles of seashore of what in a few short years must be a part of the Greater New York.
After a successful summer season at Erastina, S. I., and New York (originating there, at Madison Square Garden, a now much-copied style of Leviathan spectacle) twice crossing the Atlantic, visiting respectively Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington—an uninterrupted season of 2 years and 7 months, starting at St. Louis, Mo., on the Mississippi River, was finished in conjunction with the successful Richmond Exposition on the James River (Virginia).
The members of the organization returned over the vast continent to their perspective localities (ranging from Texas Cow-boy and Vaquero and his southern valley of the Rio Grande, to the Sioux warrior and his weather-beaten foothills of Dakota), to be reunited in the following spring on board S. S. Persian Monarch, bound once more across the Atlantic to Havre, and consigned to the Great Universal Exhibition at Paris.
Sufficiently large pounds were secured from thirty-two small different tenants, at a
JUBILEE YEAR, 1887, EARL'S COURT, LONDON.—FAREWELL, 1892.
great expense—two streets being officially authorized to be closed by the municiplaity so as to condense the whole—in Neuilly (close by the Porte des Ternes, the Bois de Boulogne, and within sight of the Exposition). Expensive improvements were made, grand stand, scenery, a $25,000 electric plant erected, and a beautiful camping ground built.
The opening occurred before an audience said to have equaled any known in the record of Premières of that brilliant Capitale des Deux Mondes. President Carnot and his wife, the Members of his Cabinet and families, two American Ministers, Hon. Whitelaw Reid, Hon. Louis MacLean, the Diplomatic Corps, Officers of United States Marines, etc., etc.—a representative audience, in fact, of ladies and gentlemen of distinction, known the world over, in society, literature, art, professions and commerce—honored the Inauguration by their presence, and launched, amidst great enthusiasm, a seven months' engagement of such pronounced success as to place the Wild West second only in public interest apparently to the great Expositon itself.
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After a short our 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, cow-boys, Mexican hroses of Spanish descent, and wild buffaloes, etc., on the very spot where on his return to SPain landed the world's greatest explorer, Christopher Columbus. Here the patrons were demonstratively eulogistic, the exhibition seeming to delight them greatly, savoring as it did of an addenda to their national history, recalling, after a lapse of 400 years, the resplendent glories of Spanish conquests under Ferdinand 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 burner mountain," striking 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 next visited, to be con
COLOSSEUM, ROME.
quered through the gentle power of intellectual interest in, and the reciprocal pelasure exchanged by, its unusual visitors, the honor being given to "the outfit," as an organization, of attending a dazzling fête 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 children of the Prairie. The Wild West in the Vatican !
The company were 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 creator's 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 Caesar, of Nero—roamed this band of Wild West Sioux (a people whoes history in barbaric deeds equals, if not excels, the ancient Romans), now hand in hand in peace and firmly-cemented friendship with the American frontiersman—once gladiatorial antagonists on the Western Plains. They, listening to the tale on the spot of those whose "Moriture te Salutans" 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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54 Artistic Florence, practical Bologna, grand and stately Milan, and unique Verona were next added to the list. Verona's superb and well-preserved Arena," excelling in superficial area the Colosseum and holding 45,000 people, was specially granted for the Wild West's use; and the home of Shakespeare's love-lorn heroine placed another picture in the Red man's tour of the native land of his discoverer, The Indians were taken by "BUFFALO BILL" to picturesque Venice, and there shown the marvelous results of the ancient white man's energy and artistic architectural skill. They were immortalized by the camera in the Ducal Palace, St. Mare's Piazza, and in the strange street vehicle of the Adriatic's erstwhile pride-the gondola - contributing another interesting object lesson to the distant juvenile members of their tribe - to testify more fully to their puzzled senses the fact of strange sights and marvels whose existence is to be learned of in the breadth of knowledge necessitated by their future existence. Moving via Innsbruck through the beautifully scenic Tyrol-the Bavarian capital. Munich, with its naturally artistic instincts, gave a grand reception to the beginning of a marvelously successful tour through German-land, which included Vienna (with an excursion, on the "Blue Danube "), Berlin, Dresden, Leipsic, Magdeburg, Hanover, Brunswick, Ham- burg, Bremen, Dusseldorf, Cologne, along the Rhine past Bonn, Coblenz “Fair Bingen on the Rhine" to Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Strasburg.
ARENA, VERONA. At Strasburg, the management decided to close temporarily this extraordinary tour and winter the whole company. The quaint little village of Benfield furnished an ancient. nunnery and a castle with stables and a good range; here the little community of Americans spent the winter comfortably, being feasted and fêted by the inhabitants, whose esteem they gained to such an extent that their departure was marked by a general holiday. Leaving the temporary colony under the charge of his director partner, MR. NATE SALSBURY (whose energy found occupation in attending to the details of the future), Co. CODY, the Indians, and your humble servant departed to America, arriving safely, and proceeded to the seat of the Indian difficulties in the distant State of Dakota. After a short, bloody and mixed campaign, peace was restored, the Government authority was secured, and a selected band of Indians-composed equally of the "active friendly," headed by Chiefs "LONG WOLF," "NO NECK," YANKTON." CHARLEY." "BLACK HEART," and the "band of hostages" held by the military under Gen. Nelson A. Miles, at Fort Sheridan, and headed by the redoubtable SHORT BULL KICKING BEAR, "LONE BULL," "SCATTER," and "REVENGE -were given special permission to come with "Burrasc BILL" for a short European tour, and left Philadelphia in the chartered Red Star steamer Switzerland
