FROM PRAIRIE TO PALACE.
In olden times, when a great leader of an “army with banners” was
about to depart for a foreign country, bent on conquest, great was
the outpouring of the people; loud sounded the drum and fife, and
gay bunting flirted with the joyous breeze; salvos of artillery and
great shouting rent the air, and songs were sung in honor of the
mighty host decked in all the glittering panoply of war. All this
in anticipation of the spoils of conquest to be brought back by the
victor--human prisoners, coffers of gold, or blood-bought titles
to war-won territory. How different in spirit, in action, and in
expression was the assemblage that bade “God speed” to Gen. W. F. Cody
on his departure as commander of the little heterogeneous army that
sailed from Columbia’s shores. Yet no leader ever started on a mission
possible of such rich achievement; none ever embarked upon a voyage
destined to be so thoroughly and completely a tour of conquest and of
glory. His project included neither the shedding of blood, the conquest
of territory, nor the enslaving of prisoners. His was the mission of
peace; the awakening of the Old World to the contemplation of fresh
truths in the picturesque history of the New. Columbus had told old
Spain of the savages that greeted him on his landing upon the shores of
the New World; the Pilgrim Fathers had sent messages of their terrible
struggles with their bitter Indian foes; but General Cody took with him
great chieftains who called him friend. As evidences and traditions
of the past, and for the delectation of peasant and prince “across
the water,” they danced their war-dance and sounded their war-whoop.
But to the thoughtful it must have been a grander sight to see them,
in the hours not devoted to duty, grouped in friendly conclave around
the man who, appearing first among them as a foe, they had learned at
last to understand and appreciate as their friend indeed. What a lesson
to power, what an exemplification of the true spirit that moved the
founders of the great American Republic! No compulsion was used by this
hero of the plains to enforce the attendance of these bronzed warriors
on his journeys; but trusting to his word alone as the guerdon of their
safety, they willingly, gladly, went into a far country among scenes
and people strangely new to them.
[Illustration: THE PRAIRIE HOME OF BUFFALO BILL.]
How appropriate that such an army, under such a leader, and on such a
peaceful and glorious invasion, should carry into and plant in sturdy
England, sunny France, historic Spain, mighty Germany, and poetic Italy
the flag that proclaims to all the world that “all men are, and by
right ought to be, free and equal.”
Before following the Wild West of America in a mimic display across the
seas into foreign lands, it may be well to here consider something that
this wonderful man among men has done in the way of educating our own
and other people into knowing what the Indian really is.
Glancing now over the history of the Indians, we recall how cruel has
been their mode of warfare, and massacres innumerable rise up before
us, from the red scene in the Wyoming Valley to the death of the
gallant Custer and his brave 300 boys in blue.
Yet, reared upon the frontier, amid scenes of courage, and learning
from actual experience all the redskin could become as a foe, Buffalo
Bill yet accorded to them the rights that others would not allow.
If fighting them, he yet would befriend them in time of need and was
never merciless to them in defeat.
Winning fame as scout, guide, and Indian fighter, Buffalo Bill was
seized upon as a hero for the pen of the novelist, and volumes have
been written founded upon his deeds of daring.
Then, like a meteor, he flashed upon the people of the East,
impersonating upon the stage none other than himself, living over
before the footlights his own life.
Men who have criticised Buffalo Bill as an actor forget wholly that he
is the only man who is _playing himself_.
He plays his part as he knows it, as he has acted it upon many a field,
acting naturally and without bombast and forced tragic effect.
Be the motive what it may, love of lucre or the gratification of pride,
the fact still remains that in his delineation of border life Buffalo
Bill educated the people to seeing the hated and ever-dreaded red men
in another light.
He was their friend in peace, not their foe always because once upon
their trail; and he brought the red man before the public in a way
never witnessed before.
Buffalo Bill never was a man-killer, and there was nothing of bravado
in his nature and not a tinge of the desperado.
Brought face to face with the stern reality that either his foe or
himself must die, when it was in the discharge of duty or self-defense
William Cody never quailed in the face of death, and acted, as his
conscience dictated, for the right.
But his stage experience gave William Cody the thought of producing
border life upon a grander scale than could be done within the walls
of a theater, and from this sprang the Wild West exhibitions that have
delighted the world.
Conceiving the idea of presenting border life as it was before vast
audiences, he at once carried the thought into execution, and Buffalo
Bill’s Wild West became the center of attraction wherever it appeared.
After several times swinging around the circle in this country, the
Wild West crossed the ocean in a steamship chartered to carry the vast
aggregation, and landed upon the shores of England.
Behold the result! Opening in London before vast audiences, the queen,
the Prince of Wales, and other royal personages of high rank flocked to
see the man and those he had brought with him into the very heart of
the English metropolis.
There, upon the soil of the mother country, before tens of thousands of
Britishers, the Wild West held sway for months, while the hero of the
plains, the prairie boy, found himself honored by royalty, a welcome
visitor across the threshold of palaces, fêted by men whose names were
known the wide world over.
Bearing the stars and stripes in his hand, mounted upon his finest
charger, Buffalo Bill saluted the queen, who rose, and bowed in
salutation to the American flag, borne by so fit a representative of
his country.
Nor did the triumphal march of the Wild West end here, for Buffalo
Bill sought other lands to conquer, and bore the stars and stripes
into France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and elsewhere,
presenting the American flag before more peoples than it had ever been
seen by during its existence of a century.
Traveling through Europe with three railway trains of seventy-five
cars, carrying over three hundred people, with the horses of our
plains, the buffaloes, and wild steers, the Wild West was the observed
of all observers, and crowned heads everywhere gave Buffalo Bill, his
cowboys, and Indians a welcome, even his holiness the pope granting
them an audience.
Living in their own camp, eating American food, the people of the Wild
West did much to educate foreigners into a taste for American hams,
corn-meal, and other luxuries; and it was through the sending of so
much corn to Cody’s commissary that Colonel Murphy of the Department of
Agriculture won the name of “Corn-meal Murphy.”
From this explanatory sketch the reader can readily see how it was that
Buffalo Bill went from the prairie to the palace.
For the benefit of those of my readers who are interested in the study
of physiognomy, I submit the following physiognomical study of Colonel
Cody by Prof. A. J. Oppenheim, B. P. A., of London:
“The length from the opening of the ear to the outer corner of the eye
shows great intellectual capacity and quickness of comprehension. The
forehead is broad, square, and practical. The deep setting of the eyes
in their sockets denotes great shrewdness and keenness of perception.
The fullness under the eye means eloquence and the faculty of verbal
expression. The downward projection of the outer corner of the eyebrows
means contest--he never gives in. The unevenness of the hair of
the eyebrows shows hastiness of temper and irritability when under
restraint, but the straightness of the eyebrows themselves denotes
truthfulness and sincerity. The height of the facial bone generally
indicates great intensity and strong powers of physical endurance. The
ridge in the center of the nose means relative defense, protection,
quixotism, taking up other people’s cudgels and fighting their battles
for them. The thinness of the bridge of the nose denotes generosity and
love of spending money. Colonel Cody might make many fortunes, but he
would never succeed in amassing one. The length of the nostrils shows
activity; the manner in which they dilate and curl, pride; and their
size denotes courage and fearlessness. The transparency of the eyelids
and the fineness of the eyelashes is indicative of a keenly sensitive,
sympathetic, and benevolent nature. Though a large-sized man, and a
great warrior, his heart is as tender as a woman’s. The angle of the
jaw denotes determination and strength of purpose, but the narrowness
of the lower part of the face suggests a complete absence of coarseness
or brutality. The length of the throat shows a marvelous independence
of spirit and love of fresh air and exercise. The wavy lines in the
forehead mean hope and enthusiasm; the two perpendicular ones between
the eyes, love of equity and justice.”
To-day Buffalo Bill stands as a typical plainsman, the last of a race
of men whose like will never be seen again.
The trackless wilderness, the arid deserts, mountains, and plains are
to-day as an open book through the work of just such pioneers of the
star of empire as is Buffalo Bill.
They have solved the mysteries of the unknown land of the setting
sun as it was half a century ago, and then sprang into existence as
educators, and having done their work well are awaiting the last call
to that great terra incognita beyond the river of death.
Their like will never be seen again on this earth, for there are no new
lands to explore.
As Columbus was the pilot across the seas to discover a new world, such
heroes as Boone, Fremont, Crockett, Kit Carson, and last, but by no
means least, Cody, were the guides to the New World of the mighty West,
and their names will go down in history as
“Among the few, the immortal names
That were not born to die.”