Buffalo Bill's Wild West In England (Part2)

Pauls' Sensational Entertainment.

Determined that London should not remain the unchallenged possessor of the sensation of the season in the shape of Buffalo Bill s Wild West show, Paris has organized an entertainment which virtually introduces Parisians to the life that the Arabs of the desert lead in Algeria The equivalent for Buffalo Bill in this show is the Shelk Abdallah-ben-Ahmedben Sliman, and he has brought with him to Paris enough of his tribe and their belongings to give a very realistic exhibition of Arab tent life. Male and female Arabs may be seen in their native dress, tents are pitched, horses and asses are tethered beneath the palm trees, native dances are performed to the accompaniment of native music, there are specimens of Arab skill in equitation, and the whole spectacle concludes with an effective tableau, in which a number of zouaves, chasseurs d'Afrique, spahis and other Franco-Algerian troops take part.--Home Journal.

Buffalo Bill on the Cowboy. I should greatly like to say a few words respecting a topic which I regret to find is understood in the inverse proportion to which it is discussed. I refer to that unique specimen of humanity, the cowboy of today. In order to be brief I will, like a cowboy, take the bull by the horns, and lay down the axion, once for all, and most emphatically, that a cowboy is not a blackguard; nay, more, he is in nine cases out of ten better than his fellows, more especially as in nine cases out of ten his fellows are the offspring of an effete civilization. He has certain attributes that commend him to creation. He is manly, generous and brave. He is not merely a creature of impulse, but uses discretion which might well be copied by more of us. In putting in these few words for a class of men who have only to be understood to be admired, I speak after years of study resulting in a conviction which nothing can shake.–London Globe Interview.

THE WILD WEST.

The Greatest Attraction of the American Exhibition in London--"Buffalo Bill's" Camp in the Heart of the British Metropolis-Royalties Paying Homage to a Sovereign of the American Prairies.

FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT.

LONDON, England, Aug. 17, 1887.

There have been three events which have combined to make the Wild West the most popular and best-paying show for the same length of time and the money expended in its planting that has ever been seen in London--the first being its picturesque and realistic character, the second its patronage by the royal family and the best people in London generally, and the third the phenomenally fine weather that has prevailed during the whole time from its "opening to the present day, there having been but one storm in ninety odd days--and that only lasted a few hours--so that performances have been given day and night without impediment for more than three months. It is no uncommon remark for a traveled Englishman to say to a Californian: "Why, you have brought your climate with you."

BEHIND THE SCENES

Before preparing this letter I accepted an invitation from "Buffalo Bill" to accompany him through camp, and was afterward entertained by Major Burke, the general manager, I learned from Major Burke that the inclosure of the Wild West took in seven acres right in the heart of London, cast of the Thames, at or near a locality called Earl's Court, through which passed several steam railroads; the "underground" and many "bus" lines. I saw that much work had been performed so that the camp should have good drainage and good tenting grounds, and I learned that for these two purposes alone 25,000 cartloads of gravel and soil had changed places; and I saw that there were surface and underground systems of drainage; separate lavatories, etc., for Indians, cowboys, Mexicans and Staff, and that all were furnished with hot and cold water, marble basins, porcelain baths, and that everything pertaining was clean, healthful and inviting, and particularly those set apart for the women, nearly all of whom are married, I may add. There are 215 people in all in the company--ninety-one Indians, twenty-five half-breeds, twenty Mexicans, fifty cowboys and other Western men, and about twelve women, not including squaws, there being ten of the latter. The Indians occupy tents of the old Sibley pattern, and all the others wall-tents of the army regulation size each. The cowboys, the Mexicans, the herders, Indians, women and staff having villages of their own. Then there is a big dining wall-tent each for the whites and the Indians, who have three meat meals a day of the best of beef and mutton, and cooked as well as at the Metropole. They eat no pastry, but have as choice butter, cheese, cream and milk as the Queen has at Windsor. The larder showed canned fruits and vegetables from California and elsewhere, and as white a lot of bread as anyone ever saw in St. Paul, and tea, coffee, sugar, and all the other concomitants, and an ice machine quietly at work. Buffalo Bill's dining-tent has seen some very excellent [viands?] and wines put out of the way, and such personages as General and Lord Beresford, Hartington, Churchill, and hundreds of their kind, have dangled their lower limbs under Cody's improvised mahogany. He can seat eight at his table, and the interior is illuminated by incandescent lights, tapers and gas, and sometimes presents a really oriental and brilliant appearance.

Colonel Cody's living tent and reception room is a most attractive place, constructed of two large wall tents, and furnished a la Wild West, in which the hides and horns and antlers, and woods and roots and implements of prairie life and savagery have been uniquely manipulated and transformed into tables, chairs, lounges, carpets, rugs, drapery, flower-stands, picture-frames, etc.

ROYALTIES WHO HAVE VISITED "BUFFALO BILL."

Here Colonel W. F. Cody, better known as "Buffalo Bill," receives his friends and other callers. In this tent he has received the Queen of England and the Prince of Wales, the Princess, her two sons and three daughters, Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg and hundreds of other royal or otherwise noble and distinguished people. He also receives a good many Americans daily; and by the by, I dropped in yesterday morning and who should be there but Simon Cameron, General Hawley (the genial Senator from Connecticut), Sanders Johnston, Richardson of the Baltimore Sun, Perry of the Boston Herald, Potter Palmer of Chicago, and George Alfred Townsend, better known, perhaps, as "Gath."

There are 150 horses in al, and as finely stabled as at any race-track, and fountains of drinking-water all over the grounds. The pistols and guns are all loaded by the armorers, 500 of which are discharged at every exhibition, or about a thousand a day. All the cartridges except those for the Winchester rifles, and all the clay-pigeons and composition balls are made on the grounds by experienced and trustworthy employés brought from America. There is also a powder magazine erected under the supervision of a London law office.

THE ARENA AND VISITORS

The arena is one-third of a mile in circumference, and contains an iron grandstand which holds 20,000 people, all of whom pay a shilling (21 cents) for general admission, and then from 1 to 5 shillings for choice sent and from 20 to 35 shillings for boxes. On Monday last there was received alone for reserved places from the 20,000 people present $7,000, and the popcorn-stand took in 3,400 sixpences, or nearly $500. Over 300,000 Buffalo Bill books and upward of 400,000 Buffalo Bill programmes were sold at sixpence catch, which figures up into a good many tens of thousands of dollars, a sixpence being 12 cents. Then there is a bar or a series of bars 900 feet in length where 300 kinds of American drinks are named and said to be made. Cigar-stands, soda fountains, Indian curiosity stores and photograph stands, the latter sometimes selling 1,000 a day. the greatest number being of "Buffalo Bill," and the next of "Red Shirt"--a wonderfully fine-faced Indian. "as fine as has ever been seen in England," so the Prince of Wales says and many others; "a mixture of Napoleon's and Wellington's features." a number of good judges think. Buffalo Bill is, undoubtedly, one of the handsomest men in face and physique to be met with anywhere. And he is abundantly supplied with good sense and superior reasoning faculties, and has been glowingly endorsed by Sherman, Sheridan and a hundred others of our officers. His is an unerring shot, a superior rider, and can take a bouttanaire off a man's coat with a lariat. Beside, he has fine manners, a good, sweet, sonorous voice, and is so much a lion that society seeks him from all its high places, he having received as many as a hundred invitations of various kinds in one week. So much from behind, the [sccues?]. B.C.

--------------- It Is Reported That the school bell will soon be heard in the land That work on the Settlers' ditch has been resumed That the big I and little [?] philosopher has reached Boise. That Miss Jennie Glenn has come to Boise to remain a while. That the last crop of hay in the valley is about ready to be mowed. That the school vacation is almost over and the schoolmaster will soon [?] to business. That the National Editorial Association began its annual convention at Denver yesterday. That the W.C.T.U will hold one of their monthly meeting at the Presbyterian church on next Sunday evening. That the temperance meeting under the auspices of the Y's, at the PResbyterian church on last Saturday evening was very good, but the audience was quite small. That men, women and children went over to the depot grounds on Sunday to take a peepr at the train, and it was a rare treat to those who never saw the like before. That Buffalo Bill is going to take his Wild West show to Rome and play it in old Coloseum, where Spartacus used to claw the brains out of luferior gladiators. That Rev J. II Barton's sermon on the History of Presbyterian on last Sunday morning was exceedingly interesting. Their choir is now composed of trained voices and the singing is most excellent. That G. W Vance, C. Blair, and a good many other, are fixing up their ranches on Five and Ten mile creeks. A building boom will doubtless take place out there next summer. That Richard McMullen lost a valuable colt on Saturday night. It seems that a rope was placed around its neck so as to catch it by when necessary, and that the colt in some way caught it in the fence and in trying to extricate itself fell over a en-foot hank and broke its neck. That C. Ellsworth and family returned from their camping and business tour on Friday last. They had a splendid time hunting and fishing. On their return home they brought back some guns and fish, some of which we had the good pleasure to sample. That the Presbyterians at Caldwell have commenced the erection of their new church in that town. As the most of the church going people in that place are Presbyterians the building when completed will be appreciated and enjoyed by all who have worked so hard to raise funds to establish the same.

If, as reported, Buffalo Bill is obliged by his contract to turn over two-thirds of the receipts of his Wild West Show to the American Exhibition in London, the gal-lant colonel has learned a costly lesson. Next time he makes an engagement with Mr. Henry F. Gillig he will probably take pains to ascertain which is to run the cir-cus and which the aide show.