Buffalo Bill's Wild West In England (Part2)

The Lounger

DR. TALMAGE is 'down' on bad literature. So we are all; but the Tabernacle pastor is more vehement in his expression of his likes and dislikes than most of us. He is quoted as saying, among other things:--'Standing as we do chin deep in fictitious literature, shall we read novels?' (I should think it would be hard not to, if we keep our eyes open.) 'I say that there are some good novels which are profitable reading but at the same time I say that 99 percent. of novels are bad and unwholsesome. Pure fiction is history and poetry combined. We can never repay the debt we owe to Hawthorne Cooper, Mrs. Edgeworth, Thackeray and Dickens.' Dr. Talmage is right. We might have been able to repay them if we had thought of it while they were living, but it's too late now. All we can do to-day is to pay their successors. There are some excellent fiction-writers still with us; but we don't seem anxious to pay, or repay, them any more than we have to. Those that were born in this country get something for their work; but how about those who were born abroad, whose books are reprinted here the thousands and tens of thousands, but whom a timid Congress, backed by apathetic or immoral public opinion, permits us to rob systematically under cover of the law?

BUFFALO BILL and the Wild West are a 'hit' in London. Our English cousins, with that squeamish avoidance of slang which characterizes all their speech, have christened the show 'The Yankeries.' The press has visited the grounds, and interviewed the leading actors in the drama of border life there enacted daily by whites, reds and Mexicans; and newspaper readers have been duly enlightened on a thousand points of interest in connection with the exhibition. The Saturday Review, always first to give correct and unbiassed information concerning things American, describes Buffalo Bill as a Government scout and guide, who participated with credit 'in the terrible conflicts which endured from 1863 to 1867.' We take this as a reference to the Civil War (1861-65). As this began when the editor of The Saturday was eleven and ended when he was fifteen, the slip is pardonable.

The St. James's Gazette assumes on the part of the English public a degree of familiarity with the career of Buffalo Bill which is probably unwarranted by the facts. 'Everybody knows that the proper name of this gentleman is the Honourable W.F. Cody, member of the United States for the State of Nebraska. Why he prefers to be called Buffalo Bill instead of a member of the American Parliament may not be so great a mystery after last Friday's proceedings in the House of Commons.' Now 'everybody knows' nothing of the sort. In the first place, 'Honorable' (even when spelt with a u) is not a name, but a title. In the second place, Members of Congress do not represent States but Congressional Districts. In the third place, Mr. Cody is not a Member of 'the American Parliament' at all.

ANOTHER thing which everybody didn't know till The St. James's Gazette repeated the fact is that 'a lady is now being paid 51. a night for whistling in New York drawing-rooms. 'There is more to marvel at in this than meets the eye,' says the writer. 'Any country yokel can whistle to himself, but to whistle before a company is another matter. A well-known English actor, who is a famous whistler, once conceived the idea of teaching the accomplishment. He soon formed a class, and found no difficulty in explaining to his pupils the theory of whistling. But they could never get beyond the theory. When he said "Prepare to pucker!" (or whatever the phrase was), his pupils found they could not do it. He tried to show them the way, and found that he could not do it either. So the class had to be disbanded.' This was a misfortune, for skillful whistling is an accomplishment not to be sneezed at. I am told by persons who have heard him in private, that Wilhelmj can whistle with as much accuracy and brilliancy as he can play the violin. When his bow-arm fails him, he can come back to New York and still make $25 a night.

WHAT is there about chopping trees that makes it so fascinating a pastime to public men? There is no more familiar figure in modern American history than that of Horace Greeley chopping down trees in the woods of Chappaqua. In England 'the Grand Old Man' Gladstone finds his chief amusement swinging the keenbladed axe; and going further back, we have honest George Washington hacking with his little hatchet at the bark of a cherry tree. Perhaps it was the example of Washington that inspired Greeley and Gladstone. One reason, I suppose, why men with a weight of cares on their backs like to fell trees, is that they get exercise and at the same time cannot think of anything but the work in hand. Who ever heard of Greeley writing an editorial or Gladstone framing an address while swinging his axe? They couldn't do it. They must think of the sharp instrument they are wielding, or they will deal themselves a blow that will end their thinking altogether. Let the scoffer scoff! These brain-weary gentlement know what they are about; and I venture to say that the only real waking rest they enjoy is when they are making the chips fly from a stubborn hole.

MRS. MARGARET J. PRESTON, the poet, is not blind, as has been frequently stated. Her eyes, as noted in last week's CRITIC, have been strained with much reading and writing, so she uses them as little as possible. She gets some one to read aloud to her, and uses the type-writer instead of the pen. It is about thirty years since Mrs. Preston published her first volume. Ten years later she published 'Beechwood: A Rhyme of the War,' which was written during the evenings of one week. Her 'Old Songs and New' appeared in 1870 and was highly praised by The Saturday Review, which said that many of her classical themes would never have appeared if she had not previously made the aquaintance of.

THE first copy of the Coronado Evening Mercury is to be sold at auction at a concinial gathering to be held in the Pavilion.

A BOSTON paper printed its welcome to Queen Kapiolani in the Kanaka language, Pretty hard Kanaka, too, probably.

OUR good friend and hearty coadjutor. the Express, thinks that the prospecrive raid of Government officials on smugglers at San Diego and along the Mexican border, announced in yesterday morning's TIMES, is a "fool canard." Wait and see.

WE sincerely hope that San Francisco will not become infected from the two cases of small pox imported there by the steamer Gaelic, Los Angeles has no desire to retaliate in kind by quarantining the Golden Gate city, albeit she was a little brusque with us in time past.

"KANSAS CITY is still working desperately to keep up with Los Angeles in the real-estate boom," says the San Francisco Post. "A clergyman informs a St. Louis Globe-Democrat reporter that a Kansas City preacher recently gave out his text from 'block 4, lot 5, of Matthew's addition to the New Testament."

ATTENTION is called to the fact that , for more that twenty years, the sunrise and senset guns at all military posts of this country have been fired with Confederate powder, captured at the end of the war. The powder is all gone now, and most of the people of the United States are glad it has ended in smoke.

THE gravediggers of the Holy Cross Cemetery, New York city, are out on a strike. The gravamen of thier grievances is, "The foremen are blasphemous, there is a great difference between the graves of the rich and those of the poor, the drinking water is not wholesome, the gadener ha amonopoly of the flower business, and the graves are not deep enough." Whether they have yet boycotted any dead bodies is not reported.

THE TOLEDO Commercial thinks that if the Prince of Wales can only persuade Buffalo Bill and his Wild West show to permain permanently abreod, and give the American boy a chance to escape the influences of that youth demoralizing exhibition, he will have the thanks of American mothers. In a certain sense, the Commercial is right. But again, Buffalo Bill enjoys the advantage of the long haul. He is now more talked about in the United States than ever before. It is talk that reaches the American boy, more that personal exmple, in this case.

BUFFALO BILL AT WINDSOR.

THE Queen having expressed her wish to the Chum to Potentates that the Wild West Show should appear before Her Majesty at Windsor Castle, you correspondent escorted taht body into the royal presence on Tuesday last. A large audience of Nobles had assembled to do honor to the aristocratic redmen of the far West, and the Royal Maroon Band played "Lo, the Conquering Hero Comes," as the tribes bowed their respects to Her Majesty. The braves in honor of the occasion wore a new coat of of paint and the regulartion three feathers in their back hair--a costume which was at once effective and gentlemanly, if, as an old authority on dress has said, "A gentleman's dress is never conspicuous." A large space in front of the castle had been cleared for the performance, and after a light luncheon Mr. Nate Salsbury mounted a pedestal from which the statue of William the Conqueror had been temporarily removed, and explained to Her Majesty that the Comanche tribe from the suburbed of Boston, would now see how near they would come to running over Prince Battenberg without really hurting him.

This was followed by an exhibition at shooting, when Buffalo Bill shot the Koh-i-noor out of the Queen's Spring crown seven times running, much to the delight of her Majesty and the wonder of the assembled Nobles. Several cow-ladies were then introduced, giving the British aristocracy a fair imitation of high life in New York city. The Queen was much surprised at the refined way in which American ladies do their shopping on bucking ponies, and when one of the young ladiese with auburn hair showed with what facility American girls use their firearms when their young gentleman friends decline to take them to the opera, the royal family was nearly carried away with delight. At the request of Chum Mr. Buffalo Bill gave a graphic representation of New York's first familites on their way to church. The old camp wagon was brought out and Mr. Cody disguised as Mr. Vanastorbilt, stepped up on the box and started the horses off. Grace Church was represented by a canvas tent, and Fourteenth Street was shown by a pole stuck in the ground. The Queen could hardly restrain herself when the team ran away, and the nimble Buffalo Bill, tying a lasso around his waist, stopped them by casting the noose over a stump on which were growing some wistaria vines and which was supposed to represent a lamp-post. Her Majesty had heard of Mr. Vanastorbilt, but never supposed he was so clever a man.

Then as the carriage neared Fourteenth Street, the low, ominous war-cry of the Sioux Indians was heard, arid the faithful picture of Ne wYork life that then followed, with its awful butchery and bellowing of buffaloes on Union Square, needs no description for you readers who have grown so familiar with it in the daily round of life. Suffice it to say that the British aristocracy fairly yelled with joy as Mr. Vanastorbilt slew file after file of the attacking party, losing only his scalop and four children in the melee.

The exhibition was closed by a pastoral scene showing how the Indians and whites live peacefully together in Philadelphia, with an allegorical tableau at the end, showing a six-foot Comanche labeled William Penn, standing beside a small four-inch stage sword, the significance of which her Majesty immediately percieved, for as she left the grounds she spoke of the pathetic rendering of the old proverb, "The Comanche is mightier than the dagger."

In return for the pleasure he had given her, Buffalo Bill and "Potato-Faced-Charley" were invested with the Order of

Buffalo Bill Returns Thanks.

LONDON, May 29.-The American Indian, Red Shirt, visited the Savage Club on Saturday night in full war paint. There were also present, Fly Above, Little Bull, Col. Cody, Mr. Burke, Broncho Bill and Wilson Barrett. A pipe of peace was smoked. Red Shirt promised to send the historical calument to the club on his return to America. He alluded to the members of the Savage Club as "brothers" and returned thanks for receiving the warm hand of friendship. Colonel Cody also made a brief address, speaking to the kindness with which he and his companions had been received everywhere since their arrival in England.

LITERARY NOTES.

--The Rev. Dr. Bartol, of Boston, wants to raise a fun to build Walk Whitman a summer cottage.

--Mr.Swineburne's volume of selections from his own poetical work has just been issued, and is for sale in this country by Worthington Company.

--The report that a new literary weekly is to be issued in Boston, to be called "The Twentieth Century," is now stated to be incorrect, or at least premature.

--Mr. Justin Winsor's "Was Shaakespeare Shapleigh?" of which we spole recently when it appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly," has been brought out by Houghton, [Mifflin?] & Co. in the form of a very tastefully printed monograph.

--Mr. Edwin Arnold has just presented to the Indian Institute at Oxford, through the Vice Chancellor of the University, the Buddhist manuscripts and Pall books given to him by the priests of Ceylon during his recent visit to that island.

--Continental papers report that the King of the Belgians is engaged on a history of the Norman conquest of England, and that his recent visit to England was made for the purpose of personally examinig the battlefield of Hastings. The "Athenaeum" gives this iten as "under all reserve."

--Says the "Pall Mall Gazette:" "It is distressing to those who value the relics of the book world of to-day, nevertheless it is a fact that the original manuscript of 'The PickwickPapers' has been secured by a wealthy new York citizen much to the delight of the idol worshipers of that city."

--M. Chevreul, the distinguished French chemist and author, is approaching his one hundred and first birthday. He is in excellent health. He lately went to vote a municipal election, and upon being congratulated on his public spirit, said, "Yes, I am voting early. I shall soon be a year old."

--The Concord Summer School will open its ninth term on Wednesday, July 13, and will continue about two weeks. Lectures will be given morning and evening, except Saturday evening, on the six secular days, at the Hillside Chapel, near the Orchard House. The terms are $5 for each full week; or for all the lecture, $10.

--The "Book Buyer" for June shows a decided advance in variety and freshness; the literary topics are well chosen and presented with point and clearness. The :Book Buyer" has a field of its own, which it gives every promise of occupying in the most satisfactory and adequate fashion. As a monthly resume of current literature it is unique.

--Professor Knight, of St. Andrew's University, has discovered in Leicestershire, England, a large number of letters from Wordsworth, Coleride, Southey, Scott, and others which are unpublished, and which were addressed to Sir George Beaumont, the painter. It is beliebed that two large volumes will be required for their publication, and David Douglas, of Edinburgh, is said to have the work in hand already.

--Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has written the opening article for the "Beecher Memorial" Now being prepared for Mrs. Beecher and her family by Mr. Edward W. Bok, of Brooklyn, N.Y., to which Mr. Gladstone, President Cleveland, the Duke of Argyll, and some seventy five other distinguished Americans and foreigners have also contributed articles. Only one hundred copies of the "Memorial" are intended for the public.

--The "Saturday Review" mentions, as a curious fact connected with the Buffalo Bill show, that an extensive republication is going on in England of Fenimore Cooper's novels. "It seems," it says, "as if everybody who has paid a visit to the Wild West at Earle's Court must forthwith form the acquaintance of 'The Last of the Mohicans,' 'Leatherstocking,' and 'The Pathfinder.' It thinks that in common justice Captain Mayne Reade 'should have his share of the luck.'"