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BUFFALO BILL'S EARLY DAYS. -------------------------------------------- Kansas City Remembers how He Whipped an English Bully in the [?] Days. -------------------------------------------------- The Hon. William F. Cody, whose exhibition has recently been visited by her Majesty, the Empress of India, was a protege of the famous border hero, Wild Bill, with whom he hunted and scouted, and who made him first deputy when holding the responsible and dangerous position of City Marshal of Abilene, [Kan.?] Buffalo Bill had achieved a reputation on the plains before Ned Buntline brought him, in his Wild West dramas, prominently before the people of the East as a typical frontiersnian. A little before this time he figured in an exciting pugilistic encounter in Kansas City. He was a young man then, as now, superbly developed physically, of undaunted courage, renowned for his exploits in the killing of buffalo and as a Government scout in times of Indian troubles, and doing at leisure intervaly a little work, conspicuous for its conscientious attention to details, in the way of painting frontier towns in hues of scarlet and vermillioin.
Kansas City was at that time the rendezvous of the Buffalo hunters and general outfitting point for expeditions over the plains. It was an ungainly, overgrown settlement, strung along the steamboat wharves at the foot of the bluffs on the Missouri river, opposite the mouth of the Kaw, but giving even then some promise of its subsequent marvelous growth. It was in the red-hot stage of local development and had a population fearfuly and wonderful to contemplate. Here were gathered ex-bushwhackers of the war just finished. Union and Confederate, with animosities yet unhealed, buffalo hunters and trappers from the plains and mountains, Mexican freighters from over the Santa Fe trail, roustabouts from the steamboat landings, and gamblers from everywhere, who mingled, caroused and fought on the drop of the hat, while, attracted like camp-followers to the field of carnage, painted, showily dressed women practiced their allurements in numerous dance halls and lent a gaudy adornment to the muddy streets. Almost every man carried weapons and was prompt to use them on occasions with, and often without provocation
Here in this frontier paradise appeared an athletic and bumptious Englishman, who soon made himself objectionable to the community by his fondness for fist-fighting. He possessed both strength and science, and courted encounters at fisticuffs, from which he invariably came out victorious. He had "done up" successively every man who could be found to meet him, from those who made pretensions to ability under the rules of the prize ring to the unpromising boatman, half-horse, half-alligator, who fought viciously rough and tumble. He was bullying and overbearing of demeanor, and had become a source of chronic exasperation to the fighting population of Kansas City. He went ostentatiously without weapons, and there existed in the minds of many a prejudice against shooting an unarmed man, which interferred with the adoption of the ordinary methods of getting rid of an obnoxious party in the community. A popular sentiment had arisen, however, and was rapidly extending, favorable to his assassination, when in informal conclave it was concluded, after some discussion, to await the coming of Buffalo Bill, who was daily expected to arrive from the plains, and to then contrive that a hostile meeting should occur between them.
In the course of time Buffalo Bill appeared in town, and as soon as possible after his arrival a meeting was effected between him and the Englishman in a saloon, a quarrel easily started, and a fight arranged. A back room of the saloon was the arena, and both men set to business with promptness and energy. For the first fifteen minutes Buffalo Bill, who was as little and quick as an Indian, fought on the defensive, and did little but dodge and parry the blows of his antagonist, who followed him about the room hitting heavily, but generally ineffectively, and who soon got warm and began to lose wind and temper. Then Buffalo Bill, who, though somewhat punished, had kept his coolness and temper, assumed the aggressive. Avoiding a terrific blow at his face, he sprung with the movement of a panther under the Englishman's guard and caught him with both hands by the throat in a grip like steel. For a few moments the Englishman rained short-arm blows on him and struggled to break his hold, but his efforts could not loose the grasp on his windpipe, and presently he grew black in the face and fell to the floor. Buffalo Bill held his grip until his opponent was motionless and apparently dead, and then released him and walked away, bearing some marks of punishment, but victorious. It took a long time to bring the Englishman to, and for a while the task seemed hopeless. He was shaken and rolled, deluged with ice-water, and strong hartshorn was held to his nose, but under these provocatives he lay like a log. It seemed he was gone beyond recall, but under the most strenuous effors he finally revived, and was eventually, as far as physical injuries went, all right. The encounter, however, broke his reign of terror in Kansas City, and was one of the occurrences that went to establish the prestige of Buffalo Bill. --Kansas City Journal.
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Buffalo Bill's Accomplishments.
[Extract from London Court Journal.]
Hon. F. W. Cody (Buffalo Bill) was a close companion of a man named Boone, who discovered Kentucky in 1869. Mr. Cody married a granddaughter of a distinguished gentleman, known as Sitting Bullfrog. Cody was twice governor of Chicago and was at one time mayor of the Arkansas legislature. He served in the confederate army, in the command of Gen. Butler, who so gallantly defended New Orleans against the threatened invasion of the federal Gen. Longstreet. After the war Mr. Cody went to congress from the province of Detroit and introduced a measure for the relief of the citizens of Buffalo, which gained for him the name Buffalo Bill. He has contributed largely to The Atlantic Monthly, a newspaper edited by Mark Twain and Uncle Tom Cabin, a man who is mainly noted for his negro dialect sketches. Mr. Cody has a ranch of many acres in St. Louis, where he keeps a large lot of Indians and ponies constantly on hand.
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Personalities.
-Mrs. Cleveland's birthday iwll be July 21. She is 23.
-Buffalo Bill was born in Iowa in February, 1845
-Archibald Forbes' illness is an aggravated case of exzema.
-Sarah Bernhardt invest $18,500 in chicago real estate last week.
-Froude is engaged upon a book about his recent visit to the West Indies.
-Mrs. Thurber still insists that America opera will sweep the country - next year.
-Deacon Whte has been made and LL. D. by the trustees of Knox college, Galesburg, III.
-Gov. Bartlett, of California, who has been seriously ill, is now on the road to recovery.
-Adonis Dixey beleives in a mascot to wear plain gold band on the right thumb below the joint.
-Ex-Secretary Manning has not become a Washingtonian, but will resume residence at Albany.
-Sala has quarreled with the publishers of The Illustrated London New, and writes no more for that paper.
-The hope is again indulged that the unfortunate ex-Empress Carlotta will fully recover her mental powers.
-Congressman Reed, of Maine, left Chicago last week with a party of friends to spend the month of July in Alaska.
-A street in Buffalo has been named Cleveland avenue in honor of the President.
-Mr. Bandcroft keeps eight type-writers busy at his Newport home this summer.
-Professor Terry, of Evanston; III., has been acting as an adviser in the sale of the Rouke library at Berlin
-H. Rider Haggard says that he is more desirous of being considered a good sportsman than a capable novelist.
-C.P. Huntington, the railway magnate, takes a morbid delight in attanding all the fires in New York city when he is able.
-John R. McLean, of The Cincinnati Enquirer, expects to spend his summer vacation at Chester, Pa., as the guess of Capt. Harry Edwards.
-Ex-Senator Thurman's son and youngest daughter are trying to induce him to accept hte democratic nomination for governor of Ohio.
-J.W. Longley, attorney general of Nova Scotia, is an ardent advocate of a commercial union of the dominon and the Unite States.
-General R. M. Speer of Huntingdon, will sail for Europe on the 18th inst., on the Arizone.
-George Gould says his father stays away from his office not because he is ill, but because there is nothing for him to do.
-Powderly says that he never retires before 2 o'clock in the morning. To this fact he attributes his present delicate health.
-Charles A. Dana sailed for Queenstown on the Cunard steamship Servia, Saturday. He will remain until about September.
-The presidency of Adelebert college, at Cleveland, has been offered to Prof. Herbert B. Adams, of the John Hopkins university.
-The national camp meeting at Eaton Rapids, Mich., opening next Thursday, will be led by Bishop Mallalieu, Sam Small and Mrs. Van Cott.
-Ex-United States Treasurer Jordan has been presented with a handsome silver punch bowl by the employes of: the treasury department.
-Georgia, the very center of Mr. Grady's "new south": sends colored men to the penitentiary for stealing an article valued at 10 cents, and lets go free white men who murder negroes.
-Willis H. Bocock, who was last week elected professor of Greek in Hampden Sidney college, Va, is said to be the youngest college professor in the United States. He is 22 years old.
-A Washingtom milliner has successfully introduced a new style of summer hat, which she has named Dorathy Whitney in honor of the naval secretary's baby girl.
-General Sheridan will spend the later part of June and nearly all of July in Chicago. He is the president of the Jockey club there, and seldom fails to attend the races.
-The library of Henry Ward Beecher, now in the keeping of the American Art association, contains few novels. There is not even a copy of Mr. Beecher's Norwood.
-Bertha von Hillern, the athletic landscape painter has returned from California and settled down for the summer in her studio in the Shenandoah valley, Virginia.
-Gen. S. W. Crawford, the old commander of the Pennsylvania reserves, was elected vice-president of the military institure at Chester in place of the late Bishop Stevens.
-Mr. Lewis Morris, the assistant poet laureate for the jubilee occasion, is the author of the Epic of Hardes. He owes his elevation to the partially of the prince of Wales.
-Bishop Ninde preached in the German Methodist church, at Berlin, last Sunday. He is on his way back to America from a tour through the far east, and is accompanied by his wife and daughter.
-The remains of the sculpto, Joel T. Hart, which were brough home from Italy two years ago, were finally interred at Frankfort, Ky., last Saturday. Robert Burns Wilson, the poet and painter, delivered the eulogy.
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MEN. In ex-Goveno Gilpin's divorce case the jury found a verdict for plantiff, who charged his wife with cruelty.
Price Bismarck is growing sensibly weaker. He recently drank at one fel gulp a quart of champagne.
Sir Buffalo Bill W. W. S., has been asked to write for english periodicals. If sir Buffalo yields he lost the reviewers will scalp him.
When a man can make $20,000 a year writing hymns, as W. H. Doane, of Cininanti, does, what is the use of a newspaper poet sitting up all night with wet towels round his head writig epicat at 10 cents an ep.