90

Dispatch May 12

CHIEF OF SCOUTS

Frontier Hero Whose Name
Will Live in History.

Colonel William F. Cody and His
Valuable Services to
His Country.

His Valor and Courage the Theme of the
Great Writers of the War-Praised by Custer,
Logan and Sheridan, and Indorsed by
Buell, Emory, Merritt and Sherman- Endured
the Terrors of the West for the Protection
of the People and Not for Cheap
Notoriety.

In the mind of the rising generation there
exists considerable doubt as to whether or
not such a thing as a real live frontier scout
ever existed. Yet along the borders of the
Arkansas River and its numerous tributaries,
on the sides of the black hills, are hundrends
of little graves where no loving hand
has set even a headstone to mark
the spot where a scout lies, while
on the great prairies and in the river
bottoms and valleys hundreds of little heaps
of whitened bones show where faithful
scouts, in twos and threes, have fallen beneath
the shower of hostile arrows.

Greatest of Them All.

Among those who have survived the awful
privations of this hazardous life,
the most conspicuous of all the
heroes of the plains is Colonel W. F.
Cody, or, as he is better known, Buffalo Bill.
During the past thirty years no name has
been so often mentioned in the war office
reports as that of Colonel Cody. In the
writings of Generals Custer, Logan and
Sheridan, as well as many other famous
Indian fighters, Colonel Cody is a prominent
figure and is held to the light as the ideal
scout, a courageous soldier and a
patriot of the stamp to which the west owes
its present prosperity. No thoughtful person
can hesitate to give such men as Wild
Bill Hitchcock. California, Frank Gruard,
gallant Jim White and Buffalo Bill
the undying credit they deserve. Of
these brave men who guided our
little frontier regiments in and out
of hostile countries, who role by night
and day to fight and die beside the wagon
train or adobe cabin of some unfortunate
settler, Buffalo Bill alone remains. The history
of his life is but part of his
country.

Name Lives in History.

Thousands of letters from such men as
Generals Sheridan, Custer, Logan, Buell,
Emory, Merritt and Sherman show
how high Colonel Cody was held
in their estimation and how much confidence
these warriors placed in his abilities
and advice. In late years Colonel J. W.
Forsyth and General Miles have shown the
same confidence, which the records of the
war department prove was never violated.
Though in the service of his country
many years and the hero of
a thousand desperate rides, and though
he could justly claim the credit of
so dozen battles, Colonel Cody has asked
nothing from the government beyond the
ordinary pay of a scout when on actual duty,
and, while holding a colonel's commission,
he has always preferred to assume the more
dangerous duties of a scout.

It is as it should be, that the honor or conveying
to the residents of foreign lands at
least a faint idea of the hardships and
privations that marked the onward march of
the pioneers in bygone days, should
devolve upon the man whose very
name was held in reverence
by those of weaker sex who, by chance
or fortune, had found their way into the far
west; whose name has in war times brought
something akin to fear to the stoic red man.

Buffalo Bill is proud of his title; he thinks
more of the uncouth appellation than of the
military handle "Colonel," which his army
connection entitles him to use. Nor
is this altogether to be wondered
at. It is under this cognomen that
he learned the cunning of the copper-skinned
aboriginals and became an adept in fighting
them with their own weapon - devilish
stealth. Under this title W. F. Cody earned
the reputation of being the "greatest scout
on earth."