A Roman Holiday.
If Duke SERMONETA [2] expected to butcher Buffalo Bill to make a Roman holiday he was disappointed. The cowboys of the Wild West rode the untamable steeds of the Pontine marshes, accomplishing the impossible in the presence of an audience of 200,000 people, and if the owner of the animals was disappointed he was the only disappointed man in the crowd.
The cable says that these 200,000 people roared with delight when the cowboys, after a five minutes' struggle, mastered the leaping, bucking, struggling animals which Duke SERMONETA had declared no man could stay mounted on, and rode them around in the pouring rain.
It was a spectacle for modern Rome, or ancient Rome either, for that matter, well worth beholding. The accomplishments of the gladiator sink into insignificance when compared with the feats of the American cowboy. The cowboy triumphs by the use of his wits. He would mount and ride one of those gladiators as easily as he conquered Duke SERMONETA'S brutes, and when he goes to Spain he will astonish the matador by hitching the savage bull to a bull cart in the short space of half an hour.
Now let the Romans try to ride the bucking bronchos.
Note 1: Buffalo Bill's Wild West performed in Rome, Italy, February 20-March 9, 1890. [back]
Note 2: Onorato Caetani (1842-1917), the 14th Duke of Sermoneta, 4th Prince of Teano, Duke of San Marco, Marquis of Cisterna, and a senator of the kingdom of Italy. [back]
Title: A Roman Holiday
Source: McCracken Research Library, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, MS6.3777.053.04 (Rome)
Date: 1890
Topic: Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Italy & Spain
Keywords: Audiences Caetani family Cowboys Gladiators Horses--Training Nobility--Italy Romans Wild horses
People: Caetani, Onorato
Places: Pontine Marshes (Italy) Rome (Italy)
Sponsor: This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Geraldine W. & Robert J. Dellenback Foundation.
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