69

"Sure enough." -and the man went away, after giving him an admiring glance at the long "ha'r" of the scout.

Looks were exchanged between the reporter and Mr. Cody; each repressed a smile, and the conversation continued:

"How many of your relatives will be here to meet you and accompany you to Pilot Knob to-morrow?" the reporter asked.

"Those who are here are my sisters, Mrs. Julia Goodman, of Valley Falls, Mrs. Eliza Meyers, of Jackson county, and Mrs. Nellie Jester, of Jackson county. Mrs. Mary Bradford, who lives in Denver, will not be able to meet with us."

"Will you remain long in the city?"

"We shall all spend several days in the city, visiting old friends. You see, my father was the first settler who crossed the Missouri river to make Kansas his permanent home in 1853."

Mr. Pryzbylowicz, who is an old residen, joined in the conversation, and stated his experience of killing his first deer on the ground where a soap factory stands, in 1852, and talked of his acquaintence with Mr. Cody's father. He mentioned the growth of the city, from the time its first house was built until the present time, and had much to say of its ups and downs.

Mr. Cody, in continuing his conversation with the reporter, said:

"I went to work with Majors & Russell, who were freighters at first, and herded cattle for them all over the hills around the present city. I crossed the plains for them in 1857, and afterward bull-whacked it and rode pony-express for the firm until they failed, in 1861. I then went to work for the government. My mother was then keeping the Valley Grove house, as a hotel, in Salt Creek valley; a house which she kept for a number of years. I was in the Seventh Kansas in '44, and was discharged in 1865.

In 1866 I drove stage, and was married in that year. I had steady employment until the fall of 1872, after which I was made chief of scouts of the department of the Platte. There's where

I FIRST BEGAN

my theatrical life, which I have followed every winter since. The first winter was that of '72-73. In 1872 I organized the Grand Duke Alexis buffalo hunt in Nebraska, and was with the party all along as a guide."

Here, Mr. Thomas Leonard came up to shake hands, having been an old-time friend of Mr. Cody, and a side conversation occurred relating to old times. Visits were planned and old incidents recalled. Old names were brought up, and eagerly enquired for by what we may call the citizen-stranger. The old...