| 272" In common with all your countrymen I want to let you know that I am not only gratified but proud of your management and general behavior ; so far as I can make out you have been modest, graceful and dignified in all you have done to illustarte the history of civilization on this continent during the past century. I am especially
[image]
COLONEL, WM. F. CODY----" BUFFALO BILL"
pleased with the gracful and pretty compliment paid you by the Princess of Wales, who rode in the Deadwood coach while it was attacked by the Indians and rescued by the cowboys. Such things did occur in our days and may never again. "
So wrote the late William T. Sherman some years ago to his friend and comrade, Colonel William F. Cody, America's Buffalo Bill.
" A gracful and dignified illustration of the history of civilization on the American continent during the past century." This is to be opened to the patrons of TH HERALD adict columns. Buffalo Bill's Wild West, which receives the encomiums of not
[image]
" NATE " SALSBURY.
only America's most renowned and greatest citizens, but likewise from the crowned heads, the kings, queens and emperors of England and Europe.
" Every person inserting a paid adlet in " THE HERALD OF SUNDAY, July 16, will receive a ticket to this high-class exhibition of pioneer life and the wild west during its incipient stages of settlement.
Fascinating Histroy.
There is probably no field in modern American history more fascinating in the intensity of its interst than that which is presented on out repidly extending frontier.
The pressure of the white man, the movement of the emigrant train and the extension of our railays, toghter with military power of the general goverment, have, in a measure, broken down the bar- riers behind which the Indian fought and defied the advance of civilaztion, but the west in many places is still a scene of wildness.
The story of our country, so far as it concerns life in the vast Rocky Mountain
region and on the plains, has never been half told ; and romance itself falls far short of the reality when it attempts to depict the trappers and scouts, who, moving always in front, have paved the way----frequently with their own bodies---for the safe approach of the masses behind. The names of " Old Jim Bridger," " Kit Carson, " " White Beaver," " Wild Bill," " Californing Joe," " Buffalo White," " Texas Jack," " Buffalo Bill," Major North and scores of others have already
[image]
MAJOR BURKE---" ARIZONA JOHN."
become identified with what seem to be strange legends and traditions, and yet the lives and labors of these men from a part of the development of the great west. Most of them have died fighting bravely, and all of them, in their way, have been around whose exploits contemporaneous writers in and out of the army have thrown the halo of heroism. Our most distinguished officers have repeatedly borne tribite to their usefulness and valor, and to day the adventures of the army scout constitute a theme of never-ending interset. Keen of eye, sturdy in build, inured to hardship, experinced in the knowledge of Indian habits and language, familiar in the hunt, and trustworthy in the hour of extremest danger, they belong to a class that is rapidly disapearing from our county.
High Aim of the Exhibition.
To hundreds of thousands of people now in the great world's fair city the methods and amnner of living of these people are comparatively unknown, and it is the purpose of Colonel Cody in conjunction with his genial associate Nate Salisbury, the erst- while eminent actor, to illustrate in its various aspects life as it is witnessed on the plains. The Indians, the cowboys and Mexican Vaqueros ; the herds of Buffalo, the lassooing of animals, the manner of robbing mail coaches, feats of agility, horsemanship, markmanship, archery and kindred scenes of the border, and the wild west as it was but a few short years ago,
The exhibitions given by Buffalo Bill's Wild West have nothing common with the usual professional exhibition. Their merits are dependent on training of a natural kind.
At each performance marked skill and daring are presented. Not only from the standpoint of spectator, but also from a critical point of view the auditor has depicted before him the actual and realistic scenes and faithful pictures of the habits of these folkm down to the smallest detail.
The history of Buffalo Bill is a most interesting story and gives a very fair idea of his popular entertainment, which in truth is a fitting climax to his career as a guide to the " Course of Empire." He gives a retro-spective view of what our forefathers contended with, and also a glimpse of the last bitter struggles of the American red man as he is crowded father and father toward the setting sun.
His Life a Prairie Poem.
Colonel Cody is an Iowa product. He was born in Scott County, Iowa, from whence his father, Isaac Cody, emigrated a few years afterward to the distant frontier territory of Kansas, setling near Fort Leavenworth. While still a boy his father
[image]
JOHNNIE BURKE NO-NECK AND CHIEF NO-NECK.
was killed in what is now known as the " border war, and his youth was passed amid all the excitments and turmoil incident to the strife and discord of that unsettled community, where the embers of political contentions smoldered until they burst into the burning flame of civil war.
This state of affairs among the white occupants of the territory and the ingrained ferocity and hostility to encroachment from the native savage created an atmosphere of adventure well calculated to educate one of his natural temperament to familiarity
with danger, and self-reliance in the protective means for its avoidance.
From a child used to shooting and riding, he at an early age became a celebrated pony express rider, then the most dangerous occupation on the plains. He was known as a boy to be most fearless and ready for any mission of danger. and respected by such men then engaged in the express service as Old Jule and the terrible Slade, whose correct finale is truthfully told in Mark Twain's " Roughing It. " He accompained General Albert Sidney Johnston on his Utah expedition, guided trains overland, hunted for a living, and gained his sobriquet by wrestling the laurels as a buffalo hunter from all claimants--notably Comstock, in a contest with whom he killed sixty-nine buffaloes in one day to Comstock's forty-six became scout and guide for the now celebrated Fifth Cavalry (of which General E. A. Carr was major), and is thoroughly identified with that regiment's western history :
was chosen by the Kansa Pacific Railroad to supply meat to the laborers while build-ing the road, in one season killing 4, 862 buffaloes, besides deer and antelope ; and was chief of scouts in the department that protected the building of the Union Pacific.
A Western Nobleman.
In these various duties his encounters with the red men were innumerable and are all well authenticated by army officers in every section of the county. In fact whereever you meet an army officers there you meet an admirer and indorser of Buffalo Bill. He is, in fact, the representative man of the fron-
tiersmen of the past---that is, not the barroom brawler or bully of the settlements, but a genuine specimen of western manhood---a child of the plains, who was raised there and familiar with the country previous to railroads and when it was known on our maps as the " Great American Desert. " By the accident of birth and early association, a man who became sensibly inured to the hardships and dangers of primitive existence and possessed of those qualities that afterward enabled him to hold postions of trust and, without his knowing or intending it, made him, as he to-day, famous.
Associated with Colonel Cody as director of the amusement department is Nate Salsbury. Mr. Salsbury long ago invested heavily in the cattle bussiness in Montana, and is now part owner of one of the largest and most valuable ranches in the northwest.
During his repeated visits to the same he becam impressed with the scene and episodes witnessed, and thought of the feasibility of presenting them as far as practicable to the citizens of the east. An interchange of opinions with Colonel Cody disclosed a similar intertion, so that to the fertile brains of Messrs Cody and Salsbury we are indebted for the first conjuring up of this noverl project. They spoke of it years ago, and Salsbury went to Europe to see if it would be advisable to take such a show on the continent. Meanwhile, with Mr. Salsbury's knowledge, " Buffalo Bill" started the enterprise to see if it could be made sucessful in this country. Experiences were proof that it could, and perhps no show ever taken from America to Europe ever met with such phenomenal and deserved success as the Wild West as now, greatly imporved, is produced in Chicago.
" The Cowboy Kid. "
Among the expert performers with the Wild West entertainment there are none more popular than Johnnie Barker, " the cowboy kid."
Cradled amid pioneer suroundings and dandled on the knees of all the most celebrated frontiersmen, the genuine odl buckskin trappers---the first frontier invaders----
[image]
WILLIAM SWEENEY. BANDMASTER OF THE COW
BOY BAND
his childhood witnessed the declining glories of the buffalo hunters' paradise, and the advent of his superior, " the long horn of Texas," and his necessary companion, " the cowboy." The appearance of these brave, generous, free-hearted, self- satisfaing rough riders of the plains, literally liying in the saddle, enduring exposure, hunger, risk of health and life as a duty to the employer, gave him his first communion with society beyond the sod cabin threshold, and impressed his mind, as well as directed his aspiration to an emulation of manly qualities necessary to be ranked a true American cowboy.
When the pony express, the stage coach and the wagon trains were supplanted by the steam horse Baker's station became useless, and " Old Lew," his father, removed bag and baggage to North Platte, a little town of magical railroad growth. Here her build a fine house, which became the headquarters of the " old timers," and many a tenderfoot ccan remember the thirling incidents related of "life on the trail"--- a life that now belongs alone to history and to romance---while old Lew dispensed hospitality like a prince. But the ways of " city life" a too big heart, of which the " shiftless, genial affinities" and rounders took due advantage, caused his former prosperity to be a remembrance only and Johnnie to work manfully, for one of his age, to lend a helping hand. Perfectly at home in the addile, he was never content unless with some cowboy outfit or at Mr. Cody's, where his active spirit found congenial associations until he became recognized as " Buffalo Bull's boy." in the winter months he occasionally went to school,being an apt sholar, has a fair education.
Mr. Cody, on organizing his distinctively American exhibition, could not leave little Johnnie out. He can be seen every day with the Wild West, mounted on his fle
[ Image ]
MAJOR BURKE IN SUMMER UNIFORM.
little mustang, riding, roping, shooting----repeating on the mimic scene his own experience and the boyhood life of his elder, more famed associates, and any of his own age ho can excel him in shooting, riding and lassoing can " break every man in the outfit," as there are none who will not risk their pile on " the cowboy kid."
Everybody's Friend.
Two other interesting characters conected with the exhibition are Major Burke and his foster son, the little papoose, " Johnnie Burke No-Neck." Major John M. Burke for a number of years familiarly known as Arizona John, and among the Indians as Open Hand, because of his liberlity with them, in general manager of the " Wild West" and has held the postion since the first organization of the company.
Major Burke with his portly figure, flowing hair, smiling countenance, is as full of geniatiy and good will to his fellow man as the proverbial egg is of meat. Like the late John E. Owens, he is everybody's friend, and whether strolling down the Strand in London or through the Champs Elysee in Paris, on Broadway, New York, or State street, Chicago, he is known and recognized by thousands, and when he has particular business to attend to he he is forced to take a closed carriage in order to go from place to place without being interrupted by his friends. His brain teems with ideas for the improvement of the attractiveness of the entertainment which he represents and for the proper placing of the same before
[image]
BIG CHIF KICKING BEAR.
the public through the various medium of advertising at his command. He is ever on the alert for novelties, and nothing is too good in his estimation to be added to the many novel and attractive features of the " Wild West. " His empolyer's interests are certainly his own, and in conversation as well as in action he has the one predominating feature, his loyalty to and enthusiasm for the great exhibition. THE HERALD is pleased to present a likeness of the genial major and introduce him to the few unfortunates who are not familiar with his features.
A Battlefield Waif.
Little papoose " Johnnie Burke No-Neck" promises to become, and indeed he is so already, a character of considerable historic interest. He is a bright little fellow 8 years old and has no one in the world excepting his foster-father, Major Burke. All of his family, band and tribe, were wiped out at the battle of Wounded Knee. When Big Foot and his hand were annihilated at that last virulent Indian outbreak there did no appear to be a living object on the battlefiedl. It was here, crouching down
[image]
FRANK HAMMITT, TYPICAL COWBOY.
| 272" In common with all your countrymen I want to let you know that I am not only gratified but proud of your management and general behavior ; so far as I can make out you have been modest, graceful and dignified in all you have done to illustarte the history of civilization on this continent during the past century. I am especially
[image]
COLONEL, WM. F. CODY----" BUFFALO BILL"
pleased with the gracful and pretty compliment paid you by the Princess of Wales, who rode in the Deadwood coach while it was attacked by the Indians and rescued by the cowboys. Such things did occur in our days and may never again. "
So wrote the late William T. Sherman some years ago to his friend and comrade, Colonel William F. Cody, America's Buffalo Bill.
" A gracful and dignified illustration of the history of civilization on the American continent during the past century." This is to be opened to the patrons of TH HERALD adict columns. Buffalo Bill's Wild West, which receives the encomiums of not
[image]
" NATE " SALSBURY.
only America's most renowned and greatest citizens, but likewise from the crowned heads, the kings, queens and emperors of England and Europe.
" Every person inserting a paid adlet in " THE HERALD OF SUNDAY, July 16, will receive a ticket to this high-class exhibition of pioneer life and the wild west during its incipient stages of settlement.
Fascinating Histroy.
There is probably no field in modern American history more fascinating in the intensity of its interst than that which is presented on out repidly extending frontier.
The pressure of the white man, the movement of the emigrant train and the extension of our railays, toghter with military power of the general goverment, have, in a measure, broken down the bar- riers behind which the Indian fought and defied the advance of civilaztion, but the west in many places is still a scene of wildness.
The story of our country, so far as it concerns life in the vast Rocky Mountain
region and on the plains, has never been half told ; and romance itself falls far short of the reality when it attempts to depict the trappers and scouts, who, moving always in front, have paved the way----frequently with their own bodies---for the safe approach of the masses behind. The names of " Old Jim Bridger," " Kit Carson, " " White Beaver," " Wild Bill," " Californing Joe," " Buffalo White," " Texas Jack," " Buffalo Bill," Major North and scores of others have already
[image]
MAJOR BURKE---" ARIZONA JOHN."
become identified with what seem to be strange legends and traditions, and yet the lives and labors of these men from a part of the development of the great west. Most of them have died fighting bravely, and all of them, in their way, have been around whose exploits contemporaneous writers in and out of the army have thrown the halo of heroism. Our most distinguished officers have repeatedly borne tribite to their usefulness and valor, and to day the adventures of the army scout constitute a theme of never-ending interset. Keen of eye, sturdy in build, inured to hardship, experinced in the knowledge of Indian habits and language, familiar in the hunt, and trustworthy in the hour of extremest danger, they belong to a class that is rapidly disapearing from our county.
High Aim of the Exhibition.
To hundreds of thousands of people now in the great world's fair city the methods and amnner of living of these people are comparatively unknown, and it is the purpose of Colonel Cody in conjunction with his genial associate Nate Salisbury, the erst- while eminent actor, to illustrate in its various aspects life as it is witnessed on the plains. The Indians, the cowboys and Mexican Vaqueros ; the herds of Buffalo, the lassooing of animals, the manner of robbing mail coaches, feats of agility, horsemanship, markmanship, archery and kindred scenes of the border, and the wild west as it was but a few short years ago,
The exhibitions given by Buffalo Bill's Wild West have nothing common with the usual professional exhibition. Their merits are dependent on training of a natural kind.
At each performance marked skill and daring are presented. Not only from the standpoint of spectator, but also from a critical point of view the auditor has depicted before him the actual and realistic scenes and faithful pictures of the habits of these folkm down to the smallest detail.
The history of Buffalo Bill is a most interesting story and gives a very fair idea of his popular entertainment, which in truth is a fitting climax to his career as a guide to the " Course of Empire." He gives a retro-spective view of what our forefathers contended with, and also a glimpse of the last bitter struggles of the American red man as he is crowded father and father toward the setting sun.
His Life a Prairie Poem.
Colonel Cody is an Iowa product. He was born in Scott County, Iowa, from whence his father, Isaac Cody, emigrated a few years afterward to the distant frontier territory of Kansas, setling near Fort Leavenworth. While still a boy his father
[image]
JOHNNIE BURKE NO-NECK AND CHIEF NO-NECK.
was killed in what is now known as the " border war, and his youth was passed amid all the excitments and turmoil incident to the strife and discord of that unsettled community, where the embers of political contentions smoldered until they burst into the burning flame of civil war.
This state of affairs among the white occupants of the territory and the ingrained ferocity and hostility to encroachment from the native savage created an atmosphere of adventure well calculated to educate one of his natural temperament to familiarity
with danger, and self-reliance in the protective means for its avoidance.
From a child used to shooting and riding, he at an early age became a celebrated pony express rider, then the most dangerous occupation on the plains. He was known as a boy to be most fearless and ready for any mission of danger. and respected by such men then engaged in the express service as Old Jule and the terrible Slade, whose correct finale is truthfully told in Mark Twain's " Roughing It. " He accompained General Albert Sidney Johnston on his Utah expedition, guided trains overland, hunted for a living, and gained his sobriquet by wrestling the laurels as a buffalo hunter from all claimants--notably Comstock, in a contest with whom he killed sixty-nine buffaloes in one day to Comstock's forty-six became scout and guide for the now celebrated Fifth Cavalry (of which General E. A. Carr was major), and is thoroughly identified with that regiment's western history :
was chosen by the Kansa Pacific Railroad to supply meat to the laborers while build-ing the road, in one season killing 4, 862 buffaloes, besides deer and antelope ; and was chief of scouts in the department that protected the building of the Union Pacific.
A Western Nobleman.
In these various duties his encounters with the red men were innumerable and are all well authenticated by army officers in every section of the county. In fact whereever you meet an army officers there you meet an admirer and indorser of Buffalo Bill. He is, in fact, the representative man of the fron-
tiersmen of the past---that is, not the barroom brawler or bully of the settlements, but a genuine specimen of western manhood---a child of the plains, who was raised there and familiar with the country previous to railroads and when it was known on our maps as the " Great American Desert. " By the accident of birth and early association, a man who became sensibly inured to the hardships and dangers of primitive existence and possessed of those qualities that afterward enabled him to hold postions of trust and, without his knowing or intending it, made him, as he to-day, famous.
Associated with Colonel Cody as director of the amusement department is Nate Salsbury. Mr. Salsbury long ago invested heavily in the cattle bussiness in Montana, and is now part owner of one of the largest and most valuable ranches in the northwest.
During his repeated visits to the same he becam impressed with the scene and episodes witnessed, and thought of the feasibility of presenting them as far as practicable to the citizens of the east. An interchange of opinions with Colonel Cody disclosed a similar intertion, so that to the fertile brains of Messrs Cody and Salsbury we are indebted for the first conjuring up of this noverl project. They spoke of it years ago, and Salsbury went to Europe to see if it would be advisable to take such a show on the continent. Meanwhile, with Mr. Salsbury's knowledge, " Buffalo Bill" started the enterprise to see if it could be made sucessful in this country. Experiences were proof that it could, and perhps no show ever taken from America to Europe ever met with such phenomenal and deserved success as the Wild West as now, greatly imporved, is produced in Chicago.
" The Cowboy Kid. "
Among the expert performers with the Wild West entertainment there are none more popular than Johnnie Barker, " the cowboy kid."
Cradled amid pioneer suroundings and dandled on the knees of all the most celebrated frontiersmen, the genuine odl buckskin trappers---the first frontier invaders----
[image]
WILLIAM SWEENEY. BANDMASTER OF THE COW
BOY BAND
his childhood witnessed the declining glories of the buffalo hunters' paradise, and the advent of his superior, " the long horn of Texas," and his necessary companion, " the cowboy." The appearance of these brave, generous, free-hearted, self- satisfaing rough riders of the plains, literally liying in the saddle, enduring exposure, hunger, risk of health and life as a duty to the employer, gave him his first communion with society beyond the sod cabin threshold, and impressed his mind, as well as directed his aspiration to an emulation of manly qualities necessary to be ranked a true American cowboy.
When the pony express, the stage coach and the wagon trains were supplanted by the steam horse Baker's station became useless, and " Old Lew," his father, removed bag and baggage to North Platte, a little town of magical railroad growth. Here her build a fine house, which became the headquarters of the " old timers," and many a tenderfoot ccan remember the thirling incidents related of "life on the trail"--- a life that now belongs alone to history and to romance---while old Lew dispensed hospitality like a prince. But the ways of " city life" a too big heart, of which the " shiftless, genial affinities" and rounders took due advantage, caused his former prosperity to be a remembrance only and Johnnie to work manfully, for one of his age, to lend a helping hand. Perfectly at home in the addile, he was never content unless with some cowboy outfit or at Mr. Cody's, where his active spirit found congenial associations until he became recognized as " Buffalo Bull's boy." in the winter months he occasionally went to school,being an apt sholar, has a fair education.
Mr. Cody, on organizing his distinctively American exhibition, could not leave little Johnnie out. He can be seen every day with the Wild West, mounted on his fle
[ Image ]
MAJOR BURKE IN SUMMER UNIFORM.
little mustang, riding, roping, shooting----repeating on the mimic scene his own experience and the boyhood life of his elder, more famed associates, and any of his own age ho can excel him in shooting, riding and lassoing can " break every man in the outfit," as there are none who will not risk their pile on " the cowboy kid."
Everybody's Friend.
Two other interesting characters conected with the exhibition are Major Burke and his foster son, the little papoose, " Johnnie Burke No-Neck." Major John M. Burke for a number of years familiarly known as Arizona John, and among the Indians as Open Hand, because of his liberlity with them, in general manager of the " Wild West" and has held the postion since the first organization of the company.
Major Burke with his portly figure, flowing hair, smiling countenance, is as full of geniatiy and good will to his fellow man as the proverbial egg is of meat. Like the late John E. Owens, he is everybody's friend, and whether strolling down the Strand in London or through the Champs Elysee in Paris, on Broadway, New York, or State street, Chicago, he is known and recognized by thousands, and when he has particular business to attend to he he is forced to take a closed carriage in order to go from place to place without being interrupted by his friends. His brain teems with ideas for the improvement of the attractiveness of the entertainment which he represents and for the proper placing of the same before
[image]
BIG CHIF KICKING BEAR.
the public through the various medium of advertising at his command. He is ever on the alert for novelties, and nothing is too good in his estimation to be added to the many novel and attractive features of the " Wild West. " His empolyer's interests are certainly his own, and in conversation as well as in action he has the one predominating feature, his loyalty to and enthusiasm for the great exhibition. THE HERALD is pleased to present a likeness of the genial major and introduce him to the few unfortunates who are not familiar with his features.
A Battlefield Waif.
Little papoose " Johnnie Burke No-Neck" promises to become, and indeed he is so already, a character of considerable historic interest. He is a bright little fellow 8 years old and has no one in the world excepting his foster-father, Major Burke. All of his family, band and tribe, were wiped out at the battle of Wounded Knee. When Big Foot and his hand were annihilated at that last virulent Indian outbreak there did no appear to be a living object on the battlefiedl. It was here, crouching down
[image]
FRANK HAMMITT, TYPICAL COWBOY.
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