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Buffalo Bill from Prairie to Palace

<h2 class="vspace">CHAPTER XXI. FROM PRAIRIE TO PALACE.</h2> 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 traditions191 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. <div id="ip_191" class="figcenter" style="width: 553px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_190.jpg" width-obs="553" height-obs="330" alt="" /> <div class="caption">THE PRAIRIE HOME OF BUFFALO BILL.</div> </div> 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, and192 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 thought193 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. 194 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 generally195 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. 196 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 <div class="poem-container"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> “Among the few, the immortal names That were not born to die.” </div> </div></div> <hr /> 197 </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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