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

A TRUMPET-TONED ORATOR.

The Herald of Buffalo Bill's Show Dies Far Away From Home.

[SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.]

NEW YORK, February 6.—In a few days an ocean tramp steamer will bring back to the city he loved so well all that remains of Frank Richmond. The trumpet-voiced herald of the Buffalo Bill "West" died at Barcelona so suddenly that some of his friends and relatives have not yet recovered from the shock. It was supposed that he had an iron constitution, and certainly he was a rugged man in appearance. But one cold day at Barcelona he delivered his lecture in the open air without a coat to protect him, and from that circumstance dates his sickness. Richmond had protested against speaking in his light costume. But Cody was firm, and he insisted that the auditors should not be made more uncomfortable than they already were by the suggestion of a frigid temperature.

Early in his youth he became the adopted son of the veteran playwright, Charles Gayler, whose wife was with him at his death. Mrs. Gayler has just returned to the city after a two years' sojourn in Italy. She is frank and forcible in her complaint against the Wild West proprietors. On the day that Richmond last lectured, she says, the receipts were not over $10, yet Cody insisted upon giving a show.