<h2 class="vspace"><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></SPAN>CHAPTER XXVIII.<br/> <span class="subhead">BACK TO EUROPE.</span></h2>
<p>After peace was restored Buffalo Bill secured Government
authority and selected a band of Indians—composed
equally of the “active friendly,” headed by Chiefs Long
Wolf, No Neck, Yankton Charley, Black Heart, and the
“band of hostages” held by the military under Gen. Nelson
A. Miles at Fort Sheridan, and headed by the redoubtable
Short Bull, Kicking Bear, Lone Bull, Scatter, and Revenge—for
a short European tour, and they left Philadelphia in the
chartered Red Star steamer Switzerland. The significance
of this fact should <i>still</i> forever the tongue of those who,
without rhyme, truth, or reason, have tried to stain a fair
record, which has been justly earned; and by its very
prominence, perhaps, difficult to maintain.</p>
<p>Coming direct from the snow-clad hills and blood-stained
valley of the <i>Mauvaise Terre</i> of last winter’s central point of
interest, it can not be denied that an added chapter to Indian
history, and the Wild West’s province of truthfully exhibiting
the same, is rendered more valuable to the student of primitive
man, and to the ethnologist’s acquaintance with the
strange people whose grand and once happy empire (plethoric
in all its inhabitants needed) has been (rightfully or wrongfully)
brought thoroughly and efficiently under the control of
our civilization, or (possibly more candidly confessed) under
the Anglo-Saxon’s commercial necessities. It occurs to the
writer that our boasted civilization has a wonderful adaptability<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</SPAN></span>
to the good soils, the productive portions, and the rich
mineral lands of the earth, while making snail-like pace and
intermittent efforts among the frigid haunts of the Esquimaux,
the tangled swamps of Africa, and the bleak and
dreary rocks of Patagonia.</p>
<p>A sentimental view is thus inspired, when long personal
association has brought the better qualities of the Indian to
one’s notice, assisting somewhat to dispel the prejudices
engendered by years of savage, brutal wars, conducted with
a ferocious vindictiveness foreign to our methods. The savageness
of Indian warfare is born in the victim, and probably
intensified by the instinctive knowledge of a despairing weakness
that renders desperate the fiery spirit of expiring resistance,
which latter (in another cause) might be held up for a
courage and tenacity as bright as that recorded in the pages
dedicated to the heroes of Thermopylæ.</p>
<p>After all, in what land, in what race, nationality, or community
can be found the vaunted vestal home of assured
peace? And where is human nature so perfected that circumstances
might not waken the dormant demon of man’s innate
savageness?</p>
<p>But then again the practical view of the non-industrious
use of nature’s cornucopia of world-needed resources and
the inevitable law of the <i>survival of the fittest</i> must bring the
“flattering unction to the soul” of those to whom the music
of light, work, and progress is the charm, the gauge of existence’s
worth, and to which the listless must hearken, the indolent
attend, the weak imbibe strength from—whose ranks the
red man must join, and advancing with whose steps march
cheerily to the tune of honest toil, industrious peace, and
placid fireside prosperity.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</SPAN></span>
Passing through the to them marvelous experience of the
railroad and its flying express train; the sight of towns, villages,
cities, over valley, plain, and mountains to the magic
<i>floating house</i> (the steamer); sadly learning, while struggling
with the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">mal de mer</i>, the existence of the “big waters,” that
tradition alone had bruited to incredulous ears, was passed
the first portion of a tempestuous voyage. Its teachings were
of value in bringing to the proud spirits of the self-reliant
Dakotans the terrible power of nature, and of white man’s
marvelous skill, industry, and ability in overcoming the dangers
of the deep; the reward of patience being found in a
beautifully smooth approach to land. The Scilly Islands and
a non-fog-encumbered journey up the English Channel—unusually
bright with sunshine; the grand panorama of England’s
majestic shores, her passing fleet of all kinds of marine
architecture, the steaming up the river Scheldt, with its dyked
banks and the beautifully cultivated fields, opened to the marveling
nomad his first edition of Aladdin, and landed him—wonderingly
surprised at the sight of thousands of white men
peacefully greeting his arrival—in the busy commercial mart
of Antwerp.</p>
<p>After introducing the Indians to hotel life for the first
time, a tour of the city was made, among the notable points
visited being the cathedral, which grand edifice aroused their
curiosity; the grand picture, Rubens’ “Descent from the
Cross,” bringing to the minds of all—white men, “friendlies,”
and “hostiles”—the “Messiah craze”; all interest intensified
by the fact that the æsthetic-looking Short Bull and some of
the others had been the leading fanatical believers (probably
even apparently conscientious), promoters, and disciples of
the still mysterious religious disease that lately agitated the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</SPAN></span>
Indian race in America. In fact, after the death of Sitting
Bull the central figures of this strange belief were Short
Bull as the religious leader and Kicking Bear as the war
chief. Grouped together with Scatter, Revenge, and
others, in moody contemplation of this subject, was the late
defier of a mighty nation of 65,000,000 people, nearly all of
whom teach or preach the truthfulness of the picture’s traditions.
A man in two short months transported from the
indescribably desolate, almost inaccessible natural fortresses
of the Bad Lands (<i>Mauvaise Terre</i>) of Dakota to the ancient
city of Antwerp, gazing spellbound on the artistic reproduction
by the renowned artist of the red man’s late dream, “The
Messiah.” Respect for his thoughts and the natural stoical
nature of the Indian leaves to future opportunity an interesting
interrogative of what passed through the mind of the
subtle chief. Suffice it to say that surprise at the white man’s
many-sided character and the greatness of his resources in
the past and present was beginning to dawn more and more
on the new tourists. Arriving the next day at Strasburg,
introduction to the cowboys, the camp life, the cathedral, the
great clock, the fortifications, etc., was followed by the delight
of each brave on receiving his pony, and once more with his
trusty friend the horse, the Ogalalla and Brule in a few days
felt as though “Richard were himself again.”</p>
<p>Joining more heartily than was expected in the mimic
scenes of the Wild West, soon the ordinary routine of daily
duties seemed a pleasant diversion. A grand reception in
Strasburg, the tour resumed to Carlsruhe, Mannheim—including
a visit to Heidelberg Castle, Mayence, Wiesbaden,
Cologne (the Rhine legends of Lurline, etc., giving interest
to the Peau Rouge, en route), Dortmund, Duisburg, Crefeld,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</SPAN></span>
and Aix-la-Chapelle, terminated a tour of Germany filled with
the most pleasant recollections. The tomb of Charlemagne
(Carolo Magno)! The history of this great warrior was interpreted
to attentive ears, a lesson being instilled by the relation
that after all his glory, his battles, triumphs, and conquests
in which he defeated the dusky African prototypes of the
present visitors to his tomb, peace brought him to pursue
knowledge, to cultivate the arts and sciences, and that after a
hundred years of entombment his body was found by Otto
the Saxon sitting erect upon a granite throne, the iron crown
upon his head, imperial scepter in right hand, while his left
rested on an open volume of Holy Scriptures, the index
finger pointed to the well-known passage, “What will it profit
a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
Here by the grave of the founder of Christianity stood the
latest novitiates to its efforts, who may yet, in following its
teaching, it is hoped, make such progress through its aid and
education as to furnish one of their race capable of holding
the exalted chieftainship, the presidency in their native land—the
Empire of the West. Who can say? Why not?</p>
<p>Belgium—Brussels its Paris—brings vividly to mind, in its
semblance of language, people, habits, beauty, wealth, culture,
and appreciation, remembrance of our delightful sojourn in
the capital of (how truly named) la belle France. Visit
Waterloo! From Pine Ridge to historic Waterloo! The
courteous treatment and repeated visits and kindly interest of
that most amiable lady the queen—an enthusiastic horse-woman—her
pleasant reference to London in the Jubilee year,
combined to increase the gratitude the Wild West voyagers
felt for the treatment everywhere received in Europe since,
in 1887, the Wild West invaded old England and pitched<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</SPAN></span>
their tents in the world’s metropolis, London. So after a
short season in Antwerp the motley cargo set sail across the
North Sea to make a farewell visit to their cousins of the isle,
revel in a common language (bringing a new pleasure to the
ear), hoping to deserve and receive a continuance of that
amicable appreciation of their humble efforts that the past
seemed to justify.</p>
<div id="ip_266" class="figcenter" style="width: 554px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_265.jpg" width-obs="554" height-obs="380" alt="" />
<div class="caption">EARL’S COURT, LONDON.</div>
</div>
<p>Returning to England was next to going home to the
wild Westerners, after wandering through foreign lands, and
they were welcomed as though indeed “cousins” in the real
sense of the word.</p>
<p>A tour was made which was most extensive, for exhibitions
were given in Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester,
Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham, Leicester, Cardiff,
Bristol, Portsmouth, Glasgow, and then back to London,
where Colonel Cody gave a special entertainment in the
grounds of Windsor Castle before the queen and her invited
guests.</p>
<p>It was upon this occasion that Buffalo Bill was honored
with the presentation of an elegant souvenir from the queen,
while Mr. Salsbury and the writer were also remembered with
handsome gifts from her majesty.</p>
<h3>CONCLUSION.</h3>
<p>Thus concluded the second tour in Europe. The Wild
West had been received and treated with marked kindness by
every nation, every city, and by persons of every rank and of
every station—press, public, and officials. Every one had
shown a willingness to lend a helping hand and displayed a
fraternal interest and general appreciation toward them and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</SPAN></span>
their country’s flag, so that returning home it is a pleasant
duty to record the same, believing that in presenting their
rough pictures of a “history almost passed away” some
moiety of good may have been done in simplifying the work
of the historian, the romancer, the painter, and the student of
the future, and in exemplifying in themselves and their experiences
the fact that “travel is the best educator,” and that
association and acquaintanceship dispel prejudice, create
breadth of thought, and enhance appreciation of the truism
that “one touch of nature makes the whole world akin.”</p>
<div id="ip_268" class="figcenter" style="width: 342px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_267.jpg" width-obs="342" height-obs="505" alt="" />
<div class="caption">GRAVE OF THE INDIAN CHIEF LONG WOLF, AT WEST BROMPTON
CEMETERY, LONDON.</div>
</div>
<hr />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</SPAN></span></p>
</div>
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