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

THE WILD WEST SHOW IN LEEDS.

Buffalo Bill's "Wild West Show" at Leeds promises to be a great success. It would scarcely be possible to collect together a more unique and at the same time instructive exhibition. Red Indians, cowboys in their rough but picturesque suits, Mexican vaqueros, the Indian tents and encampments with their braves and squaws, the buffaloes of the wild prairie, and the bucking horses, together with most of the other striking features of frontier life, go to make the show a thoroughly lifelike representation of life on the Western frontier, and from the opening until the close the interest of the audience is fully maintained by the exciting and daring feats which follow one another in rapid succession. Colonel Cody, the head of the show, was borne in Scott County, Iowa. His youth was passed amid the turmoil and excitement of stirring times in the Far West; and, accustomed from a child to riding and shooting, he became whilst still a lad a pony express rider, then the most hazardous mode of gaining a livelihood on the plains. Ready for any dangerous mission, he afterwards accompanied a military expedition to Utah; and when this was at an end he guided horse trains overland, entered into a contract to supply buffalo meat to the labourers employed in making the Kansas Pacific Railroad, in one season killing 4,862, besides deer and other game; and in numerous conflicts with the Indians he has acted for the Government troops as guide, scout, and eventually chief of scouts. In the recent uprising in Dakota, it may be remembered, Colonel Cody was selected by the Governor of the State of Nebraska to proceed to the scene of the trouble and endeavor to bring the Ghost Dancers to reason. The leaders of these recently turbulent Red men are now amongst the Indian contingent with the show, apparently as peaceful and contented as if they had never known what it was to take scalping knife in hand and go upon the warpath. The exhibition opened at Leeds on Saturday afternoon. There were several thousand persons present, and the scene, as one exhibition more exciting than its predecessor followed in rapid succession, was a very animated one. At the commencement of the entertainment there is a grand display of the Indians in their full war paint, cowboys, horsemen, and horsewomen, the whole numbering over 100. They make a most brilliant group as they are paraded in front of the grand stand with Buffalo Bill at their head, and then at a signal from their chief gallop helter-skelter back to the stables and quarters, which overlook the River Aire. Of the many dramatic items which abound in the exhibition none is more exciting than the attack on the Deadwood coach by the Indians, and its subsequent recapture by Buffalo Bill and his cowboys after a spirited exchange of rifle shots and a hand-to-hand conflict, in which the Redmen are beaten off. There is also some remarkably clever shooting by Miss Annie Oakley, Colonel Cody, and other members of the company. Riding at full galop with an attendant at his side on another horse throwing glass balls in the air, Buffalo Bill smashes with much ease what a marksman standing still would almost fail to accomplish. The races between the Indians and the mounting of the "buck jumpers" by the cowboys are also full of life, and greatly pleased the large audience.