<h2 class="vspace"><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></SPAN>CHAPTER XXV.<br/> <span class="subhead">THE HOME TRAIL.</span></h2>
<p>From London the Wild West visited Birmingham, where it
occupied the Aston Lower Grounds; thence to Manchester—“Cottonopolis,”
as it is endearingly called by its inhabitants—where
the winter season was opened. In the short space of
two months the largest theater ever seen in the world was
here erected by an enterprising firm of Manchester builders,
together with a commodious building attached to it for the
accommodation of the troupe, whose tents and tepees were
erected under its shelter. The whole of the structure was comfortably
heated by steam and illuminated by electric light. This
building was built on the great race-course, where several
times in the course of each year it is not uncommon for 80,000
or 100,000 persons to assemble; and the buildings in which
Ormonde, Ben d’Or, Robert the Devil, and a thousand other
world-famed equine wonders had taken their rest and refreshment,
were now appropriated to the comfort of the broncos,
mustangs, and other four-footed coadjutors of the Wild West.</p>
<p>The first performance given in Manchester was complimentary,
and the entire beauty, rank, and fashion of Manchester
and the surrounding towns were invited guests. The
mayors, town councils, corporation officials, prominent
merchants and manufacturers, bishops and clergy of all
denominations, and an able-bodied horde of pressmen came
down in their thousands. From Liverpool, across country
through Leeds and York to Hull and New Castle, and from<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</SPAN></span>
Carlisle, as far south as Birmingham, everybody of consequence
was present, and the immense building was filled to its
utmost capacity. The consequence was that from the opening
day, and despite the dreary winter weather, the well-lighted,
well-warmed “Temple of Buffalo Bill and Thespis”—as somebody
called it—was constantly crowded with pleasure-seeking
throngs. Incidentally it may be mentioned that the scores of
requisitions from the heads of schools and charitable institutions
for reduced rates for “their little waifs,” was always
met by the management of the Wild West with a courteous
invitation for the little ones to attend the Wednesday afternoon
performances free of charge. During their stay in “Cottonopolis”
the members of the Wild West were welcomed
with the same ungrudging and overwhelming hospitality that
had marked their visit to the capital. While here Colonel
Cody was publicly presented with a magnificent rifle by the artistic,
dramatic, and literary gentlemen of Manchester, and the
event having got wind in London, the élite of the metropolitan
<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">literati</i>, headed by Sir Somers Vine and including representatives
of all the great American journals, secured a special
train and ran up to Manchester some hundred strong to grace
the ceremony with their presence. The presentation took
place in the arena, and afterward Colonel Cody invited the
whole crowd of local celebrities and London visitors to a regular
camp dinner, with fried oysters, Boston pork and beans,
Maryland chicken, and other American dishes, and a real
Indian “rib-roast” as the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">piece de resistance</i>. The banquet
was held in the race-course pavilion. Among the guests were
the Mayor of Salford, a number of civic dignitaries from both
Manchester and the neighboring borough, United States Consul
Moffat of London and Consul Hale of Manchester, the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</SPAN></span>
latter of whom made the speech of the evening. This dinner
was certainly an entirely original lay-out to the visitors, and
the comments of the English guests upon the novel and
to them outlandish fare they were consuming were highly
amusing to the American members of the party. To the
Englishmen corn-cake, hominy, and other American <i>fixings</i>
were a complete revelation, and the rib-roast, served in tin
platters and eaten in the fingers, without knives or forks, was
a source of huge wonderment. The American flag was rarely
ever toasted more heartily by Englishmen than on that
occasion, and for a week afterward the press of the
country were dilating on the strange and savage doings at
the Wild West camp.</p>
<p>The afternoon of Good Friday, the consent of the directors
of the Manchester race-track having been obtained, a
series of open-air horse races and athletic sports was performed
by the members of the company—red and white—which
included hurdle-races, bareback horsemanship, etc.
Notwithstanding very inclement weather during the earlier
part of the day, an attendance of nearly 30,000 was recorded,
and the weather cleared up and kept fine during the progress
of the sports.</p>
<p>During this visit to Manchester the Freemasons of the
district treated Colonel Cody with marked hospitality, and he
was a frequent visitor at their lodges. A mark of especial
honor from this occult and powerful body was a public presentation
to him of a magnificent gold watch in the name
of the Freemasons of England. The season in Manchester
was a grand success in every way, and the people had begun
to regard the institution as a permanency among them; but
their engagements in the land of the stars and stripes were<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</SPAN></span>
as fixed and unalterable as the laws of the Medes and
Persians, and on Monday evening, May 1st, was given the
last indoor representation in Manchester. The occasion was
a perfect ovation. On Tuesday afternoon a benefit was tendered
Colonel Cody by the race-course people. An outdoor
performance was given, and despite the unfavorable weather
the turn-stiles showed that nearly 50,000 people had paid
admission to the grounds. Thus ended the Wild West performances
in Manchester.</p>
<p>On Friday morning, May 4th, at 11 <span class="smcap smaller">A. M.</span>, amid the
cheers, well-wishes, and handshaking of a vast crowd, the
Wild West left Manchester by special train for Hull, where
the last performance in England was given on the afternoon
of Saturday, May 5th, and at 9 o’clock on that evening
the entire effects of the monster aggregation were aboard the
good ship Persian Monarch, upon which vessel, under the
command of the brave, gallant, and courteous Captain Bristow,
the Wild West left for New York the next morning at 3 o’clock.
On the homeward voyage Colonel Cody’s favorite horse
Charlie died. For fifteen years he had ridden Charlie in sunshine
and in storm, in days of adversity as well as prosperity,
and to this noble animal’s fleetness of foot Colonel Cody owed
his life on more than one occasion when pursued by Indians.</p>
<p>During the night of May 19th, the Persian Monarch
arrived off New York harbor, and by daylight of the 20th
steamed up toward Staten Island, where they were to debark.</p>
<p>The arrival of this vessel, outside of the company’s reception,
was an event of future commercial importance to the port
of New York, from the fact of her being the first passenger-ship
of her size, draught, and class to effect a landing (at
Bechtel’s wharf) directly on the shores of Staten Island, thus<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</SPAN></span>
demonstrating the marine value of some ten miles of seashore
of what in a few short years must be a part of the greater
New York.</p>
<p>Upon the arrival of this giant combination at its home, it
would seem that a long and undisturbed rest would have been
natural and consequent. Such, however, was not to be the
case. The master-mind concluded that it would be well to
show to his own countrymen what manner of exhibition it was
that had accomplished such wonderful results on its visit to
Albion. A summer season was inaugurated at Erastina, S. I.,
and New York followed. In this latter city Colonel Cody
originated, at Madison Square Garden, the now popular and
much-copied idea of leviathan spectacle. Visits respectively
to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington followed, and this
remarkable exhibition closed, at the Richmond, Va., exposition,
a wonderful and uninterrupted season which had begun
two years and seven months before at St. Louis, Mo. Faithful
to his promises, and following his invariable custom, Colonel
Cody saw that all his people, from the Texan cowboy and
the Mexican vacquero to the Sioux warrior of Dakota, had
safe and pleasant conduct to their homes. The realistic story
of America had been told in the mother country, and the
interest of Continental Europe had also been awakened.
The returning red man, cowboy, and Mexican had had experiences
and learned lessons the value of which it is impossible
to compute, and the influence of which must perforce permeate
their entire lives and broaden their thought and moral
nature, leading to results of unbounded possibilities. The
cowboy by the camp-fire of his prairie home, the vacquero
among his companions in Mexico’s mountains, and the red
man in his lodge and with his people, had wonderful tales to
tell during the winter nights of their well-earned resting-spell.</p>
<hr />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</SPAN></span></p>
</div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />