28

There is not in the whole range of languages, ancient, modern, or profane, terms sufficiently expressive to describe the state of my feelings, the amount of mud on my person, or the chaotic condition of my brain. As soon as the earth settled down to the usual speed of her diurnal motion. I came to the conclusion that it was not always best to judge by appearances. I had been hasty in bestowing a distinctive cognomen on my erratic steed. He had no more deliberation in him than has a fugitive flea under the searching scrutiny of a determined woman. I re-named him. This time I called him "Delay," because delay is -- but it does not matter.

Come to think of it since, the reason was weak. If, however, the reader should pierce the intricate labyrinth of mental ingenuity that conundrum, I trust he will be charitable enough to consider the circumstances connected with its prepetration.

There are times that try men's souls. There are seasons in every Christian's life when he wishes he was not a church member for just about five minutes, that he might have a chance to do justice to the surroundings. Such to me was the trying moment when I gathered my bruised remains together, and, looking around, saw the festive "Delay" quietly eating grass, while a little distance off sat the doctor on his pony, complacently whistling, "Earth hath no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal."
__________

EVERY INCH A FRONTIERSMAN.

The Supremacy of Buffalo Bill in Sport and in Work.

The canvas city of the plains and its motley inhabitants of Indians, scouts, greasers, and Castilians now occupying the Park is quite a study to the visitor, especially so if the privilege be enjoyed during the hours when, in the abandon of everyday life, when the crowd of auditors have not assembled, and unrestricted, the little community revels in its usual Western modes of amusement and social intercourse. Then it is the favorite leader, known to romance as the knight of the plains -- and to his familiars by even a stronger and more enduring title -- "Buffalo Bill," is seen at his best. Raised on the frontier, he has passed through every grade and won fame in each line, while to be proficient in one brings celebrity sufficient to gratify most ambitions. Thus it is he holds supremacy in fact, and receives from his associates an adoration surpassing even his public popularity. Visitors to the camp early the other morning found him joining in every frolic, game, and contest with each and all, and generally excelling. In shooting, in running, in jumping, in trials of strength, feats of agility, horsemanship, handling the ribbons behind four or six, riding the vicious, manipulating the revolver, etc., tackling each specialist, and coming to the front with a generous modesty admired by the defeated.

On Monday, before the auditors, when the big bull buffalo threatened to make things more lively than was desirable, and when one of the most expert ropists had missed at a very necessary moment, up dashed Cody, and, with one of those extraordinary efforts tha stirring emergency necessitates, he made an "underthrow," with the lasso, and, in the nick of time, caught the right hind ankle of the infuriated beast, throwing him, and gaining a salvo of plaudits from the audience, and ringing cheer from Mexicans, Indians, and cowboys. In the camp, when the champion handler of the bull-whackers' whip, Old Nelson, finished a trial, Bill took the same and made the welkin ring as if a Gatling gun was working, and as he finished Sergeant John Ryan, formerly of the 7th U. S. Calvary, under Col. Custer, who had often followed him on the trail of the Sioux, exclaimed: "Didn't I tell you he was every inch a prairie-man?" -- Boston Herald.

Genl. Dave Cook, of Denver, Col., says: -- "As one who has traveled in the States and territories from which he has brought so many representatives; as one who has been with the Indian in their homes in the wilderness; as one who has ridden horses, and with the cowboys of Texas helped to herd and to lasso wild cattle; as one who has been stopped and made to dismount from a Wild West stage coach, we can say taht this bringing thousands of miles of the West to our doors is the grandest realism ever presented. We should call it Cody's Wild West Realism.

"It is not a show. It is a resurrection, or rather an importation of the hottest features of wild Western life and pioneer incidents to the East, that men, women and children may see, realize, understand and forever remember what the Western pioneers met, encountered, and overcame. We see pictures of Washington at Valley Forge, and crossing the Delaware. Pictures of the landing of Columbus, the discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto, pictures of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, the battle of Bunker Hill, surrender of Cornwallis, etc., etc. They represent on canvas or plate what once transpired as great historical incidents. Here we have not pictures, but actual, living, powerful, very much alive and in earnest delegates from the West, all of whom have most effectively participated in what they here reproduce as a most absorbing entertainment.

"Indeed, New York has never before seen so remarkable, enjoyable, and educational an exhibition as this, to the credit of all concerned be it said. It brings the West to the East, and brings its livnig, everyday pictures just as they are, with the real heroes and heroines of the times that try the souls of men, and that are fast passing away.

"Men travel thousands of miles to see even one of these incidents in the West -- here for two hours they are passing in review with rapidity and remarkable realistic intensity.

"Those who fail to witness to exhibition and to study the reserved forces of its great projector, will lose far more than they can gain by one or more trips West or a hundred trips to Europe."
__________

CODY'S WONDERFUL PONY-EXPRESS RIDE.
(Buell's History of the Plains.)

While riding Pony-Express between Red Buttes and Three Crossings, a distance of seventy-six miles, Cody had a most dangerous, long, and lonely route, including the perilous corssing of the North Platte river, one half-mile wide, and, though generally shallow, in some places twelve feet deep; often much swollen and turbulent. An average of fifteen miles an hour had to be made, including changes of horses, detours for safety, and time for meals.

Once, upon reaching Three Crossings, he found that the rider on the next division, who had a route of eighty-six miles, had been killed during the night before, and he was called on to make the extra trip until another rider could be employed. This was a request the compliance with which would involve the most taxing labors, in an endurance few persons are capable of; nevertheless young Cody was promptly on hand for the additional journey, and reached Rocky Ridge, the limit of the second route, on time. This round trip, of three hundred and twenty-four miles, was made without a stop, except for meals and change of horses, and every station on the route was entered on time, the longest and best-ridden pony-express journey ever made.

(27)

There is not in the whole range of languages, ancient, modern, or profane, terms sufficiently expressive to describe the state of my feelings, the amount of mud on my person, or the chaotic condition of my brain. As soon as the earth settled down to the usual speed of her diurnal motion. I came to the conclusion that it iwas not always best to judge by appearances. I had been hasty in bestowing a distinctive cognomen on my erratic steed. He had no more deliberation in him "Delay," because delay is - but it does not matter.

Come to think of it since, the reason was weak. If, however, the reader should pierce the intricate labyrinth of mental ingenuity that conundrum, I trust he will be charitable enough to consider the circumstances connected with its prepetration.

There are times that try men's souls. There are seasons in every Christian's life when he wishes he was not a church member for just about five