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A tolerably good notion of the extent to which the Wild West show is the rage among the aristocrats of London is afforded by the statement that a titled English lady made a sensation in the dinner line by inviting her friends to meet some of Cody's Indians. To make it particularly pleasant for the savages invited the hostess sent her chef to ascertain their favorite food, how it should be cooked, etc. As a climax to this prodigious doing of the honors to these aboriginal Americans, the lady sent her carriage, and the Indians rode forth to dinner in lofty style. A Boston contemporary suggests that, under the circumstances, it is incumbent on Buffalo Bill to get up a banquet of roast dog and other favorite Indian cates, and invite the English lady, with her high-toned associates, to meet the squaws. It is a good scheme, and would be carrying international comity clear back to first principles.
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BUFFALO BILL'S TRIUMPHS.
According to a letter received from Buffalo Bill (Wm. F. Cody) by a friend in New Orleans, that distinguished American has achieved both financial and social success in England. With a frankness characteristic of his Western training, Mr. Cody states that he has "captured England from the Queen down, and is doing them to the tune of $10,000 a day." He confesses that it "pretty hard work with two and three performances a day and the society racket, receptions, dinners, etc. 'No man, not even Grant, was received better than your humble servant." As a proof of this, Mr. Cody says he has "dined with every one of the royalty from Albert Prince of Wales down." It is not to be wondered that these royal surroundings have somewhat dazed Mr. Cody, causing him "to wonder if it is the same old Bill Cody, the bull-whacker." But with a loyalty to old associations worthy of commendation, Mr. Cody concludes: "Well, I still wear the same sized hat, and when I make my fill I am coming back to visit all the old boys. If you meet any of them, tell them I ain't got the big head worth a cent. I am over here for dust. Will be glad to hear from any of them."
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A Western Ritual Said Buffalo Bill: I had been elected a magiestarate for the State of Nebraska, and was one evening astonished by the visit of one of the sergeants of the post who desired to be married. I had never performed a civic marriage or even assisted at one, and the statues of Nebraska contained nothing in the way of form or directions. I therefore had perforce to rely upon my ingenuity on the occasion, and felt somewhat consused. However. I turned to the lovers and said to the bridegroom: "Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, to support and love her through life?" "I do." replied the man. "And do you," I said to the bride, "take this man to be your lawful wedded husband!" "I do." said the woman. "Then join hands, and know that I pronounce you two to be man and wife, and whomsoever Buffalo Bill joins together let no man put asunder."-London Globe.
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MALE HOUSEKEEPING -------------------------------- Some Amusing Features of Life on the Great Ranches of the West.
One of the most comical features of ranch life is the absence of femininity. No wonder. We are two hundred miles from a milliner's shop, with the distance constantly on the increase. Last Christmas a desperate effort was made to celebrate the occasion by a ball. Over 10,000 square miles of territy was raked over, and the result was seven fair maidens and over forty dancing men. Each lady had six partners--a rather more than Scripture allowance. As every body here is engaged in cattle-raising, and only gives the odds and ends of his mind to housekeeping, the full capacity of the male for that industry never is developed. He seldom or never gets much beyond the manufacture of plain bread, coffee and steak. These three articles he will produce from the raw materials, taking his meat from the foot, if necessary, upon very short notice. Even an untrained chef can boil potatoes, or open one end of a fruit-can and pass it around the table, letting each feeder extract with his fork ad libitum. Cooking, however, is only one detail of successful housekeeping. The laundry must be attended to. The cook must occasionally act as chambermaid and undertaker--all of which is a severe tax upon untutored masculinity.
One of the most celebrated men in the West is Mr. --------. He has shot innumerable Indians, and is always in demand when there is a horse-thief abroad. He wears his hair long, and strikingly reminds one of Buffalo Bill. I first saw an immense photograph of this warrior in the window of a saloon, and it was a sight to chill a man's blood. A few days afterward, stopping at a ranch, I noticed a man with his rifle beside him, bending over a wash-board and peacefully soaping a pair of stockings. This was Mr. -------, the terror of --------- County, and for whom awaits some day a bloody death. He is one of the most hospitable of men. Whoever visits him is sure of a good dinner, although female hand has never consecrated his cook-stove. His ranch is of baronial proportions, and if it only had a floor, would be almost luxurious. The adobe walls are decorated with either white muslin or brown wrapping-paper. A suite of rooms in brown is preferable, because after the lapse of a few years, the virgin purity of the white muslin is apt to get fly-specked and torn.
The male housekeeper makes short work of his duties as chambermaid. As the guests sleep in blankets and he only sweeps out once a month, he borrows no trouble. One wash-basin and towel (renewed weekly) supply the household. By and by the tooth-brush will make its appearance, and afterward the barber. But we will not anticipate matters. For the present every man is his own artist and tailor. The cowboy, as a rule, is a great reader. His appetite for magazines and newpapers is abnormal.
It is marvelous how comfortable an open-air camp can be made. It takes but a few minutes to feed and hobble the horses and build a fire. In ten minutes or more the bacon will be sizzling in the skillet, the dough browning and the coffee-pot bubbling and walloping. There is no table. Each gentleman helps himself. There are a dozen ways of making a comfortable bed in the open air. If the night is windy, and no cedar is near the wagon-box (if you happen to have one), set up against the wind makes an excellent shelter for the head, and with the feet to the fire, and a saddle for a pillow, and a couple of blankets, one can sleep like a King. It never rains. If the night is very cold fires are made up and allowed to die, and the boys sleep in the warm ashes and sand. What about sickness? This is an item never calculated upon. An occasional horse-kick or a gun-shot would is the extent of the cowboy's ailments. As there are no doctors to be had, every one must be his own physician. Occasionally a man meets a violent death. As there are no preachers, and praying is a lost art, the funeral is soon dispatched. A craker-box for the head, and sand for the winding-sheet, and the howl of the coyote, and the everlasting winds of his requiem, constitues the frontiersman's obsequies.
It is wonderful how much good nature and cheerfulness this open-air life develops. While the ranchmen are by no means saints, and have rather more than the average of sins, yet they are full of good fellowship. The housekeeper is always glad to receive guests--the more the merrier. A large ranch has cabins at every water-hole, and the rent is always free. A stranger usually takes posession, cooks at the fireplace, sleeps in the best bed-room and in the morning is off and no questions asked. --Arizona Cor. Indianapolis Journal.
