Whenever Buffalo Bill drops into Philadelphia the old town is awakened by tail stories of western life and western character. Colonel Cody's ever faithful megaphone is Megargee of the Philadelphia Times. The colonel was in the Quaker City recently and Megargee regaled the Times' readers with Bill's inimitable tales. Here are a few of them:
When Buffalo Bill started upon his stage career—that was in 1873, long before the inception of the Wild West show—he was associated with
Meanwhile the Buffalo Bill combination felt the loss of Wild Bill; not the loss of his personality, but the deprivation of his sanguinary fame, and, therefore, that the public might be fully satisfied they rigged a mild-mannered man up in the full fierceness of Wild Bill's long-haired aspect. There was no change in the lithographs; none in the glaring posters; none in the public advertisements. Wild Bill appeared on the mimic plains every night and murdered as many victims as of yore. But Wild Bill—now out of a job—heard of this and determined that the public should not be so infamously deceived, and with the good of the people at heart and with the prickings of an empty pocketbook touching his conscience, he determined that this wrong should no longer be continued, and with that object in view he figured on the front row as one of the audience which attended the Buffalo Bill-Texas Jack performance in the town of Binghamton, N. Y. When, in the course of the entertainment, Morlacchi, the pursued maiden, cried out, "Where is Wild Bill?" and the bogus desperado was about appearing from the wings, the only original ruffian arose from the audience, climbed over the musicians in the orchestra, smote his imitator hip and thigh and scattered the assembled sanguinary supers in the wings. He then stepped back, the way he had come, into his seat, and with a calm wave of his hand, exclaimed: "Now let the show go on."
A policeman stepped down the theater aisle and tapping Wild Bill on one shoulder said sternly: "I want you."
The untutored William looked over his shoulder and said quietly: "How many of you are there?" and when gravely informed that the policeman was alone he calmly said: "Well, you'd better get some others." A reinforcement of one resulted in a similar colloquy, and when in response to the second suggestion three policemen appeared Wild Bill simply said: "You men make me tired. Go way and get some reinforcements." Then down the aisle came the sheriff of the county, and seating himself behind the gentleman from the far west, and placing a hand kindly upon his shoulder, and talking to him gently, brought forth the response: "Now, you're a gentleman. I always give in to a sheriff, 'specially when he's a gentleman. I'll go with you."
The next morning he was subjected to a small fine, which was paid by Buffalo Bill. But a few years ago Wild Bill went up against the wrong man, and now he is wild no longer.