The William F. Cody Archive: Documenting the life and times of Buffalo Bill

BUFFALO BILL'S NEW SHOW.

The exhibition to be opened on Monday, the 22d inst., in the Madison-Square Garden, by Buffalo Bill and his Indians, cowboys, and Mexican vaqueros, will be entirely different in form from the Wild West exhibition which proved so successful on Staten Island last Summer. A "drama of civilization," written by Steele Mackaye, will introduce all the original celebrities of the show, headed by the renowned W. F. Cody, together with a number of trained animals belonging to the Forepaugh circus. Mr. Matt Morgan has been at work for weeks past, with a score of assistants, painting realistic scenes to be used as a background, and his labor has covered over 15,000 yards of canvas with the best results of his art. The Indians will arrive from their reservations to-morrow. Among them will be tribes of Crows and their hereditary enemies, the Sioux. It is the design of Buffalo Bill to utilize the occasion by holding a grand council, at which he hopes to cement a lasting peace between them. This will be no easy task. Over $60,000, it is said, will be spent in alterations to the Garden before the doors are opened. Everything will be done on a great scale, and it is expected that one of the most interesting and novel exhibitions ever seen in this vicinity will be the result.