In connection with the habitués of one of London's most fashionable suburbs. A large company was bidden to the opening of the Exhibition proper, which preceded Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. As is customary upon such occasions, a pleasant lunch was given by the executive, after which the visitors adjourned to a platform erected by Washington-avenue, the name of the location in the Exhibition where the function was held. Amongst those present were Alderman Sir John Staples, the always-youthful Sir John Bennett, Sir H. C. Knight, Colonel Hughes-Hallet, M.P., Cardinal Manning, and the Venerable Archdeacon Farrar, D. D. After the Grenadier Guards' band had played "Hail, Columbia," Dr. Farrar read a prayer, a proceeding which appeared to be almost painfully artificial, the crowd barely preserving a decent silence, and the clergyman, as he read the words from broad slips of blue paper, really seemed to be acting a part; and at this point, as throughout the whole of the proceedings connected with the opening itself an air of unreality prevailed. Upon the conclusion of the prayer, which was followed by some verses from the First Book of Chronicles, and a repetition of the Lord's Prayer, the Grenadiers played the National Anthem.
Upon the conclusion of Colonel Russell's speech, Mademoiselle Lilian Nordica, the famous prima donna associated with Mr. Mapleson's Royal Italian Opera, made her appearance upon the platform, and was loudly cheered. After being presented with a superb bouquet of azaleas and white roses, the cantatrice sang with charming feeling "The Star-spangled Banner," and in response to the applause which it evoked gave a verse of "Rule Britannia," the notes in the upper register being delivered with a crystalline resonancy, the effect of which could be heard in the most distant corners of the building. troupe gave their performances. In fact, so dull and so dreary was the make-believe speech-making, that long before Mr. Whitely had concluded his remarks nine-tenths of the audience were racing rapidly up-stairs, ready to cross the bridge which leads to the other part of the grounds. Here a word. The pitch at this flight of steps is most dangerously steep. In the event of a panic occurring with a crowded audience, it would be, to all appearance, practically impossible for a large number of people to walk swiftly down them, and the directors of an Exhibition which is otherwise remarkably well provided with almost every modern appliance pertaining to the comfort and security of those who patronise it should certainly in this respect make some slight structural alterations. On arriving within the arena set apart for Buffalo Bill's show, a most picturesque spectacle presented itself. Two-thirds round the expanse set apart for the evolutions of the redskins, the Western cowboys, and their various cavalcades, has been constructed an enormous range of seats, which rise tier above tier. This was absolutely crowded with a dense mass of spectators. On one side may be seen—and the make-believe is most perfect—the blue skies of California, its rocky canons, and its waving pine-trees. Punctually to the moment appointed, what is quaintly termed the "orator" of the show, confrères, a long procession of braves and Indian warriors was now seen making its appearance, gaily garbed in moccasins and feathers, daubed from head to heel in hideous green or yellow ochre, and presenting a fluttering of finery, the chief artistic merit of which was its violent contrast of tint. As the redskins entered the enclosure, and while the long line of riders and steeds was still coming into the field of view, they wheeled sharply round, and the various bands of colour seen as the whole tribe deployed was striking in the extreme. The several tribes into which Buffalo Bill's contingent of Indians is divided were then described by the orator as they shot ahead at a hard gallop, and then suddenly checking the speed of their steeds, reined in as immovable as statues, within a few paces of the grand stand. After a race, and such illustrations of frontier life as an old-fashioned pony race, an attack on an emigrant train by the Indians and its defence by frontier's men was depicted. The waggons composing the train, with the emigrants within, and covered with linen, plough their way across the plain, when suddenly, with a wild, savage yell, the Indians appear and dash forward, firing as they speed towards the point of attack, many of them hanging upon the sides of their horses and firing under the neck. The emigrants respond, hurriedly compelling their cattle to lie down, and making temporary breastments of their bodies. The battle is changed in favour of the attacked by the appearance of the frontier's men, who discharge shot after shot with their revolvers with telling effect. The fault, however, of the scene—and it is a fault which mars the exhibition—is that the realism is only carried up to a certain point. Enough gunpowder is burned to make a mimic Sedan, but not a man or horse appears to be touched, and in an instant everybody gallops merrily away from the scene of what ought to have been a most bloody conflict.
After some very clever shooting by
After the performance, those present adjourned to the Sioux village which has been erected close to the entrance into the grounds from the West Brompton Station. Here the redskins and their gaily caparisoned "squaws" did the honours of their wigwams to all who chose to pay them a visit. With the exception of a wooden floor, the tents are practically the same as those used by the tribes on the prairies. In the plaster tents huge fires were burning, the smoke finding its way out of the rafters on the top. The lodges are pitched right and left at two main roads converging to a common point, and form quite a pretty spectacle. Buffalo Bill's hut is a miracle of really luxurious comfort, with its costly skins and cosy easy chairs; and all the appliances of the camp, including the rough log hut, with the aperture by the sides of the door for taking a "pot shot" at visitors who were not wanted, is an odd reminder of the necessities of existence amongst those who first designed this somewhat primeval kind of dwelling. The windows in its walls are almost too small for the ingress of a human body, and light is consequently somewhat scarce, but it is a faithful reproduction of the earliest settlers' huts. From the Indian encampment the visitors strolled into the gardens, which comprised an area of some twelve acres in extent, and which during the coming summer may become a very pleasant popular place of resort, seeing that no less than four railway stations, those at Earl's-court and West Kensington as well as the two West Brompton Stations, give access to the grounds.