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primitive condition Julian Ralph, the prominent American journalist, in an able article contributed to Harper's Magazine in June, 1893, says :-
"I have dwelt thus at length upon this brand new bit of America, so desolate now, so inviting to speculation, because it is plain that its future must be grand. How strange thing it is to be able, after reading the signs of development everywhere in the Far West, to point to a vast bottle, unpeopled except by half-wild cattle, and to say, with more confidence than one may prophecy of his own life to-morrow :'Here Will come thousands upon thousands of men and women ; here will soon be seeing vast areas of land fenced in, set with tidy farms and out-buildings, gay with green and yellow grain, dotted with orchards, lively with teams upon a tangle of wagon roads. Railroads will thread the scene, and somewhere - Ah! That would be prophesying to say just where – in the same basin there is certain to raise a city of wealth, size and importance; with factories and wholesale and retail shops, high schools, stone churches, parks and mansions.' Yet it must be so, and the days that are near at hand will see this basin so peopled that the force of this prediction will even then be lost, for its force lies in the fact that there is nothing of all this in the region to-day"
While its mountain guardians' snow-capped peaks and forest reserves furnished illimitable supplies of water to its numerous rivers, they, in their vigorous rush to the sea during the ages, carved their courses through the silty bottom to bed-rock, which neccessitates artifical methods of distribution to render the vast valley available for the husbandman.
"Buffalo Bill," in the old Indian campaigns, often traversed this region when the mysterious valley was the retreat of the red man, General Mile's famous battle with the Bannocks being one of the many sanguinary episodes in its history.
With government troops years ago Colonel Cody, guided the late distinguished scientiest of Yale college, Professor Marsh, on some of his most successful "bone-hunting" expeditions. Always impressed with its scenic splendor's, which are of unequaled granduer (its pezuliar climatic conditions differing from any on earth), it's possibilities, through irrigation, of becoming the ideal home of the farmer, the rancher, as well as the miner and eventually the manufacturer ; in fact, as an enthusiastic visitor remarked on his first glimpse of the entrancing view, "This surely must be Paradise Valley!"
In 1896, Colonel Cody organize the Cody Cattle and Irrigation Co., and to-day Mr Ralph's prophecy is rapidly being fulfilled. The illustrations to better than words how the spirit of progress moves when the energetic sons of toil rally in her wake, to wrest from Nature, the riches she has stored in abundance for those who seek the comforts that ocme from welldirected industry.
In 1890, Indian Tepee; 1892, The Ranchers' Dugout; 1893, Cody Prospectors' Camp ; 1896, Town of Cody incorporated -- the Cabin Hotel; 1897, Cody's "Mountain Home" Ranch; 1901, chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad built a branch over the Big Horn Mountains from Tulucca to the City of Cody, a distance of 125 miles, entering that city in November of the same year. On November 18th, 1902, opening of Irma Hotel (Cody City) with complete modern improvements, telephoned rooms, etc. In three weeks an addition of 100 rooms was required in order to meet the demands of its patrons.
The town of Cody is within one day's stage ride from the "Wonderland of the World" -- the Yellowstone Park. The valley is alive with various enterprises and "propositions" in minteral as well as other industries. As this last vacuum in nature's prodigal gifts to the Great Republic is so plethoric in attractive conditions, Col. Cody intends to make his "Home" at "Mountain Crest Ranch" where the old Plainsman will be transformed into the Mountaineers, and where one can have a birdseye view for a hundred miles over the prosperous Valley of the Shoshome.
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THE SCOUT-MEN WHO WORE THE BUCKSKINS.
The pioneer of American civilization was the Scout. He was the leader of its advanced guard. Upon him rested the responsibility of the lives of his comrades, and the success of their mission. Verily he was a leader among men. As in every event in the history of the world, when the situation demanded a certain type of man for its great emergencies, the men were always found to fill it. So it was with the "Buckskin" Scout, so called from his dress of that material.
In the early days of the country every state and section had its scout, who was and is to-day a noted historical celebrity. Simon Kenton, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Daniel Boone, General Beale, of the United States Army, who, with Kit Carson, traversed the continent, and brought the news of the capture of California to the authorities at Washington, Major Frank North, J. B. Hickok (Wild Bill), Alexis Goday, Jack Stillwell, Frank Guard, Yellowstone Kelly, etc., are all well-known names.
Many of the great and justly celebrated heroes of the Revolutionary War were trained to sustain well their great parts in that drama of freedom by their experiences as scouts on what was then itself the frontier. The warfare of the time was of the kind that produces scouts, and even down to the present time many of our array officers have been famed for the peculiar qualities and frontier lore necessary to the successful scout, notably Custer, Miles, Merritt, Crook, Carr, Captain Crawford (killed in Mexico), Captain Burke, Captain Bullis, Major "Jack" Hayes, Lieut. Casey (killed in Pine Bridge, 1891), Gen Lawton, and others.
In Indian warfare the scout was always the most important factor for many reasons: He was dealing with a foe who had invented a system of warfare which was essentially his own. The basis of it was strategy, and that of a kind which involved a keenness of vision, and even of scent. He tracked his foe or avoided him by trifles as small as a twisted leaf, or the crushing of a blade of grass. All of this wood lore of his the scout was compelled to learn, and then by applying his knowledge best him at his own game. The Indian was a scout by nature and inheritance, the white scout had to dominate and offset that by his superior intelligence.
Many of the celebrities of the Civil War, also, were trained as scouts in the hard school of practical Indian warfare; a school in which they learned to acquire first of all self-reliance. The scout works alone, and this developed in a most extraordinary degree the great virtue of independence of character. Personal courage was a sine qua non, danger was ever present, and he who was a great scout was a brave man among brave men. Skill is woodcraft, quickness of eyesight, endurance, fleetness of foot, superb horsemanship--in short none but the most intrepid braved the dangers and the sufferings incidental to the life of a scout. George Washington, beginning life as a young surveyor, the duties of his profession in those days carrying him, with his theodolite and chains, into the trackless wilderness, possessing all the qualities enumerated above, soon became not only a surveyor but a pioneer and a practical scout. Here were laid all the foundation for his future greatness, and it was always a great pride to the scouts that from their ranks arose the Father of His country and the pioneer of popular government. In the wilderness he developed all the simplicity and greatness which, with his unfaltering courage, carried him through the hardships, dangers and sufferings which founded a great nation. Communing with nature in the solitude of the forest, he breathed the air of freedom until it became the very warp and woof of his being, and this was the first step which he took toward the presidency of a great people. As a scout he learned warfare, and showed his skill and courage as the scout and saviour of the ill-fated Braddock Expedition.
His ancestors, Col. John Washington, laid the foundation of the soldier trait in the family by his prominence in Indian warfare in Virginia. When the corrupt Colonial Governor Berkley, for cowardly and mercenary reasons, met not the requirements of the occasion--a threatened Indian massacre--there arose the "young and gifted orator" and captain, Nathaniel bacon, the most romantic figure of his time, whose success with his "men in buckskin" on the warpath caused the governor's jealousy to outlaw him, resulting in his driving Berkley to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, and made himself famous as a premature patriot who sought to throw off the abuses of government one hundred years before the time. His sickness and death cut short what history records as "Bacon's Rebellion."
The grandfather of Abraham Lincoln was a compatriot of Boone, was killed by Indians avenged by his son Mordecai (President Lincoln's uncle), who became "an Indian-stalker"--and the illustrious Lincoln himself was a cabin-born product of the prairie.
The pages of New England's early history gleam with thrilling stories of its frontier heroes, from "the first real buckskin warrior of New England, Benjamin Church, who beat the savage at his own game by learning the art of skulking, the ambuscade, the surprise," until the doom of despair buried or drove westward the Mohawks and Pequots.
In the early days of Indian warfare, when the whites were but as a handful and the Indians were countless thousands, when the border line of civilization was but a comparatively short distance from the sea-coast, the scout acted chiefly on the defensive. His was the mission to watch the wily red man, to guard against the sudden attack and surprise, and to lead the forces in their efforts to repel them; but as the years have rolled by and the conditions have changed, he began to abandon the defensive and, as the advance guard of the superior force and race, to attack and hunt the red man in his turn.
In the time of General Harney it because necessary to pass across the plains and open up the heart of this vast continent. It was imperative to open the trail from the Atlantic to the Pacific and thus foster the traffic and commercial future of the country. Then arose a new form of scout and scouting, in which shines brilliantly the names of Generals Sherman, Sheridan, Custer, Miles, Merritt, Carr, Crook, McKenzie, and other brave men, among whom (Buffalo Bill), as good an all-round plainsman as ever lived.
The conditions, too, had changed. No longer the scout opposed a people armed with the bow and arrow and spear; these had become obsolete, as had the flint-lock musket of our Puritan Fathers, and these deadly foes now confronted each other each equally well armed with the deadly repeating rifle and the merciless revolver. These were terrible weapons in the hands of a desperate foe. By this time (1806 to 1885) the Indian had reached the zenith of his capacity for doing harm. Realizing fully the hopelessness of the struggle with the white man, who was as the sands of the sea in number, he faced the problem of dying, by with his fact to the foe, and leaving as many of his conquerers dead as his valor could annihilate.
It was during these years that the fame of his predecessors in history fell upon the shoulders of Colonel Cody. The prominence into which he sprang, almost at one bound, would have been absolutely unattainable without the great natural and inherent qualities necessary to enable him to rise to the occasion.
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Under the eagle eye of the great generals who have been the principal factors in contemporaneous history, like those already named, he found at once a field to put to good use his every strategic skill, knowledge of the habits and traits of the Indian. His previous training enabled him to meet cunning with cunning; craftiness with craftiness; and when his patience, endurance and courage were combined with these he triumphed, for he was as the eagle to the fox.
Christopher Columbus may perhaps not improperly be placed first among the great scouts, although he was not one of the famous "men in buckskin" who came after him. His was the true spirit, however, of the scout and his the dauntless courage. His destiny led across the pathless waters and not across the trackless plain, but the pluck and perseverance with which he held upon his way, despite all obstacles and the entreaties of his discouraged sailors, show that he along among them was the true metal of which scouts were made.
Although, as has been said, every settlement had its scout of local fame whose deeds are local traditions--men deserving monuments--the name of Daniel Boone shines forth a star of the first magnitude in the constellation. He is described as having been a man of medium height, with a peculiarly bright eye, and a robust and athletic frame. He possessed sagacity, judgment, intrepidity and withal gentleness of manner and a humane disposition.
The outer garment of these men, and one which has, with few changes, been perpetuated to this day, so well suited is it to its purpose, is described as follows:--A loose, open frock or hunting shirt made of deerskin, beautifully dressed and tanned, long leggings of the same material, and moccasins upon the feet. The broad collar and the leg scams were adorned with fringes of bright hue, a leather belt encircled the body, in which were worn a hatchet, ammunition pouches and a hunting knife.
Accountred in such fashion, Boone penetrated the mountains from North Carolina, and on the seventh of June, 1769, from the top of an eminence near the Red River, saw the beautiful land of Kentucky, soon to be known as the "dark and bloody ground."
Four years later Boone led a small party of settlers into this new country and made a lodgment. The events of the succeeding years are part of the history of our country. Constant Indian warfare, the capture and recapture of their children, and the capture and escape of Boone himself, are among the most romantic and thrilling stories in the history of the New World.
With the name of Daniel Boone will ever be associated in the pioneer annals that of his friend, Simon Kenton. At the age of sixteen he engaged in a rough and tumble fight with a rival in the affections of a neighbour's daughter, and thinking he had killed his opponent he plunged into the forest and henceforth led a life of peril and adventure until congress gave him a pension and Kentucky a grant of land, on which he passed his last years.
Kenton was a picture of manly beauty. Over six feet in height, well formed, handsome and graceful. His fair hair, bright complexion and laughing grey eyes added to the attractiveness of his recklessness. Frequently captured, he was compelled eight times to run the gauntlet, that fearful ordeal, and three times he was tied to the stake. Several times in his adventurous career he owed his life to the impression made on the susceptible female heart by his splendid presence.
The dark and bloody ground of Kentucky produced the man who was destined to be the successor of its discoverer, Daniel Bonne, and take equal rank in border annals--Christopher Carson, known everywhere as "Kit" Carson. He was not only like Boone and others in skill, sagacity and self-reliance, but he had the more uncommon virtues of modesty, sobriety and perfect self-control. Though small in stature, Carson was broad-chested, compactly built and remarkable for quickness and agility. He passed his early years in hunting and trapping, and his skill in these pursuits led to his employment as scout by Gen. John C. Fremont in the explorations of this great pathfinder in his trips across the plains and over the Rockies.
During the civil war his services to the Government in New Mexico, Colorado and the Indian Territory were invaluable, and he rose to the rank of brevet brigadier-general. In one of his expeditions with Fremont, alone with one companion, he pursued a body of predatory Indians, dispersed the Indians who occupied four lodges, recaptured thirty stolen horses, travelled in the pursuit and return over one hundred miles, and was back in camp for thirty hours.
Incredible as these feats seem to those of us who dwell in cities, similar achievements in the same line of duty have been recorded in our own time to the credit of Colonel Wm. F. Cody ("Buffalo Bills"), who stands to-day the most prominent of the last living exponents of that famous historic hand of scouts who have passed away for ever.
Col. Cody has had the honour of serving as Colonel and Brigadier-General of the Nebraska National Guard, has been mentioned in official dispatches of the United States Army, and wears the Congressional Medal, and now holds the rank of Judge Advocate General of the Wyoming Nation Guard.
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A REUNION OF THE OLD SCOUTS IN THE CAMP OF BUFFALO BILL'S WILD WEST, AT OKLAHOMA. ' Washing Irving, years ago, made famous in his books that stretch fo Western country which has since been organized into the Indian Territory and Oklahoma, but what was then popularly known as "No Man's Land." This was from time immemorial the arena of the conflicts of the red men. Later the conflict raged there between the Indian and the white men, and how it is famous for the prosperity which has come from its recent settlement and opening up by the Government.
As it was one of the few places where primitive conditions prevailed, it naturally attracted many of the old scouts and Indian fighters, companies of Buffalo Bill (Col. W. F. Cody), who settled there and are now prospering.
THE WILD WEST AT THE VATICAN.--"BUFFALO BILL'S" INDIANS AND COW-BOYS AT THE ANNIVERSARY CEREMONY OF LEO XIII.
New York Herald, March 4, 1890,--(From our Special Correspondent). ROME, March 3.
One of the strangest spectacles ever seen within the venerable walls of the Vatican was the dramatic entry of "BUFFALO BILL" at the head of his Indians and cow-boys this morning, when the ecclesiastical and secular military court of the Holy See assembled to witness the twelfth annual thanksgiving of Leo XIII for his coronation. In the midst of the splendid scene, crowded with the old Roman aristocracy, and surrounded by walls immortalized by Micheal Angelo and Raphael, there suddenly appeared a host of savages in war paint, feathers, and blankets, carrying Tomahawks and knives.
A vast multitude surged in the great square before St. Peter's early in the morning to witness the arrival of the Americans. Before half-past nine o'clock the Ducal Hall, Royal Hall, and Sextine Chapel of the Vatican were packed with those who had influence enough to obtain admittance. Through the middle of the three audiences, the pathway was bordered with the brilliant uniforms of the Swiss Guards, Palantine Guards, Papal gendarmes, and private chamberlains. The sunlight fell upon lines of glittering steel, nodding plumes, golden chains, shimmering robes of silk, an all the blazing emblems of pontifical power and glory.
THE WILD WEST MAKE THEIR ENTREE.
Suddenly a tall and chivalrous figure appeared at the entrance, and all eyes were turned towards him. It was COLONEL W. F. CODY, "BUFFALO BILL" With a sweep of his great sombrero, he saluted the chamberlains, and then strode between the guards with his partner, MR. NATE SALSBURY, by his side.
ST. PETER'S AND VATICAN, ROME.
"ROCKY BEAR" led the Sioux warriors, who brought up the rear. They were painted in every color that Indian imagination could devise. Every man carried something with which to make big medicine in the presence of the great medicine man sent by the Great Spirit.
"ROCKY BEAR" rolled his eyes and folded his hands on his breast as he stepped on tiptoe through the glowing sea of colour. His braves furtively eyed the halberds and two-handed swords of the Swiss Guards.
The Indians and cow-boys were ranged in the south corners of the Ducal Hall, COLONEL CODY and MR. SALSBURY were escorted into the Sextine Chapel by chamberlains, where they were greeted by Miss Sherman, daughter of General Sherman. A princess invited COLONEL CODY to a place in the tribune of the Roman nobles.
He stood facing the gorgeous Diplomatic Corps, surrounded by the Prince and Princess Borghesi, the Marquis Serlupi, Princess Bandini, Duchess di Grazioli, Prince and Princess Massimo, Prince and Princess Ruspoli, and all the ancient noble families of the city.
THE FAFAL BLESSING.
When the Pope appeared in the sedia gestatoria, carried above the heads of his guards, preceded by the Knights of Malta and procession of cardinals and archbishops, the cow-boys bowed and so did the Indians. "ROCKY BEAR" knelt and made the sign of the cross. The Pontiff leaned affectionately toward the rude group and blessed them, He seemed to be touched by the sight.
As the Papal train swept on, the Indians became excited, and a squaw fainted. They had been warned not to utter a sound, and were with difficulty restrained from whooping. The Pope looked at COLONEL CODY intently as he passed, and the great scout and Indian fighter bent low as he received the Pontifical benediction.
After the Thanksgiving Mass, with its grand choral accompaniment, and now and then the sound of Leo XIII'S voice heard ringing through the chapel, the great audience poured out of the Vatican.
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ROMAN WILD HORSE.
TAMED BY COW-BOWYS. RIDDEN IN FIVE MINUTES. HOW "BUFFALO BILL'S" BOW-BOYS TAMED THE ROMAN WILD HORSES.
(Per the Commercial Cable to the "Herald.") Rome, 4th March, 1890.
All Rome was to-day astir over an attempt of "Buffalo Bill's" cow-boys with wild horses, which were provided for the occasion by the Prince of Sermoneta.
Several days past the Roman authorities have been busy with the erection of specially cut barriers for the purpose of keeping back the wild horses from the crowds.
The animals are from the celebrated stud of the Prince of Sermoneta, and the Prince himself declared that no cow-boy in the world could ride these horses. The cow-boys laughed over this surmise, and then offered, at least, to undertake to mount one of them, if they might choose it.
Every man, woman and child expected that two or three people would be killed by this attempt.
The anxiety and enthusiasm were great. Over 2,000 carriages were ranged round the field, and more than 20,000 people lined the spacious barriers. Lord Dufferin and many other diplomatists were on the Terrace, and amongst Romans were presently seen the consort of the Prime Minister Crispi, the Prince of Torlonin, Madame Depretis, Princess Colonna, Gravina Antonelli, and Baroness Reugis, Princess Brancaccia, Grave Giannotti, and critics from amongst the highest aristocracy. In five minutes the horses were tamed.
Two of the wild horses were driven without saddle or bridle in the Arena. "BUFFALO BILL," gave out that they would be tamed. The brutes made springs into the air, darted hither and thither in all directions, and bent themselves into all sorts of shapes, but all in vain.
In five minutes the cow-boys had caught the wild horses with the lasso, saddled, subdued and bestrode them. Then the cow-boys rode them round the Arena, whilst the dense crowds of people applauded with delight.
AMERICAN WILD WEST EXHIBITION.
Editorial from the "London Times," Nov. 1, 1887.---The American Exhibition, which has attracted all the town to West Brompton for the last few months, was brought yesterday to an appropriate and dignified close. A meeting of representative Englishmen and Americans was held, under the presidency of Lord Lorne, in support of the movement for establishing a Court of Arbitration for the settlement of disputes between this country and the United States. At first sight it might seem to be a far cry from the Wild West to an International Court. Yet the connection is not really very remote. Exhibitions of American products and scenes from the wilder phases of American life certainly tend in some degree at least to bring America nearer to England. They are partly cause and partly effect. They are the effect of increased and increasing intercourse between the two countries, and they tend to promote a still more intimate understanding. The two things, the Exhibition and the Wild West show, supplemented each other. Those who went to be amused often stayed to be instructed. The Wild West was irresistible. COLONEL CODY suddenly found himself the hero of the London season. Notwithstanding his daily engagements and his punctual fulfillment of them, he found time to go everywhere, to see everything, and to be seen by all the world. All London contributed to his triumph, and now the close of his is selected as the occasion for promoting a great international movement with Mr. Bright, Lord Granville, Lord Wolseley and Lord Lorne for its sponsors. Civilization itself consents to march onward in the train of "BUFFALO BILL." COLONEL CODY can achieve no greater triumph than this, even if he some day realizes the design attributed to him of running the Wild West Show within the classic precincts of the Colosseum at Rome.
This association of the cause of international arbitration with the fortunes of the American Wild West is not without its grotesque aspects. But it has a serious impact, nevertheless. After all, the Americans and the English are one stock. Nothing that is American comes altogether amiss to an Englishman. We are apt to think that American life is not picturesque. We have been shown one of its most picturesque aspects. It is true that "RED SHIRT" would be as unusual a phenomenon in Broadway as in Cheapside. But the Wild West for all that is racy of the American soil. We can easily imagine Wall Street for ourselves; we need to be shown the cow-boys of Colorado. Hence it is no paradox to say that COLONEL CODY has done his part in bringing America and England nearer together.
A GREAT PONY-EXPRESS RIDE
While riding pony-express between Red Buttes and Three Crossings, seventy-six miles, CODY had a dangerous and lonely route, including crossing of the North Platte River, one-half mile wide, often much swollen and turbulent. An average of fifteen miles an hour had to be made, including changes of horses, detours for safety, and time for meals.
On reaching Three Crossings, finding the rider on the next division, a route of eighty-six miles, had been killed during the night before, he made the extra trip on time. This round was made without a stop, except for meals and change of horses, one of the longest and best-ridden pony-express journeys ever made.---Buell's History of the Plains.
"MAJOR" BURKE'S APPEAL FOR A PEACEFUL SOLUTION ON THE INDIAN TROUBLE.
[From the Washington Post.]
Perhaps one of the most eloquent and effective pleas for a peaceful solution of the Indian trouble was that made by MAJOR JOHN M. BURKE, at the famous conference in the Ogallalla camp on the 17th of January, when negotiating for the Indians' surrender with Capt. Lee. The proceedings, as reported for the Department, gives Major Burke's remarks as follows:-
"My friends, I came here on the invitation of many of my Ogallalla friends who know me. I am happy to sit down among you to-day, because it is so much quieter than for some weeks. I do not come here in behalf of the Government, or any society, but because I travel and live with the Indians, and they are my friends for many years. When I first heard of this trouble, GEN. CODY ("BUFFALO BILL") sent me to do what I could for you. I have been here eight or nine weeks--have listened, heard and seen a great deal. From the first I saw no necessity for this trouble. A great deal of it came from a misunderstanding and the lack of confidence among the Indians as regards the intention of the Government. Our friend, Cap. Lee, does not carry arms, neither do I. While it looked like peace daily, you were just like scared birds, ready to stampede at any time. I am going to Washington to see the great counselors, and I want to be able to say that when I left all was peace, and that the Indians fully understood Gen. Miles' intention. I want you to place every confidence in him. When the earth loses something God sends something else, and when God took your friend Gen. Crook he sent you Gen. Miles, who is now your benefactor. The foundation of all good in men is truth and honor. When a man has these foundations he has right, and can stand open handed and talk for his rights. He needs no gun, which is dangerous and causes