La Grande evening observer., August 25, 1913, Image 4

PAGE FOUR
LA GRANDE EVENING OBSERVER.
MONDAY. AUGUST 25, 13.
THE OBSERVER
BRUCE DENNIS. Editor and Owner
Entered in the post-office at La
Grande, Oregon, a second clasa
? ' matter.
ernment scout was done In that state.
' . The old plains men who made it
possible for civilization to spread out
over the Kansas prairies have nearly
all followed the last trail and even the
memories of them are fast dying, Buf
falo Bill is the last link between the
days of the wagon train, the plains
man, the buffalo hunter, the Indian
fighter, the scout, the pony express
rider and the present era of the trans-
transcontinental express train.;
There is no more prairie; the cow
boy is becoming a myth; the few In
dians that remain are getting to be
BUFFALO BILL.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, after
life of thirty years, has gone to piec
es in Denver. Last week the sheriff
old the bucking bronchos, the Indian
ponie:, the cars, seats, canvas, every
thing, at public auction to satisfy the ' most uninteresting, civilized persons;
debts and that will be the last of the buffalo have long ago disappeared
Buffalo Bill's Wild West they are irrigating the sagebrush des-
Buffalo Bill, the old scout, has fol-, nd ralsm ear,y 8Prin Ktable
lowed hiB last train, his Indians have where the mustang used to prance and
rone back to their reservation, his:111 antelope roamed. In fact, for a
cowboys back to real ranches, his bor-. number of years there has been no
rowed European troops back to home w'ld West left outside of Buffalo
service, and Buffalo Bill has gone back Blll's show- And now t 18 K0"'
to "Scout's Rest," his ranch near the o, and with it has disappeared the
North Piatt jlapt link of , the Wild West phase of
,: His only concern now is to save his our n'8tory'
ranch from the financial wreck. He Other Wild West show and other
bought it for a plaything, as a place Bis mav coroe to keeP "ve tte br-
in which to entertain distinguished, aer orama, out. uieywiu ws cnep
visitors in the days when money roll
ed in upon him and he was worth up
wards of a million dollars. : Now, if
they take this ranch from him he will
be "dead broke' and homeless and he
Is nearly 70 years old.
- There is grave danger that this
itations. Buffalo Bill has taken with
him the poetry that made him more
than an actor and greater than the
greatest of scouts.
His life story, to the youth of this
country, is the finest story in Ameri
can history; his career more thrilling
ONLY FIVE DAYS MORE OF
WESTS REMODELING SALE
FINAL PRICES NOW IN EFFECT
man, the ideal of Young America, the ( than , the knights of old, and the de
embodiment of all that is dashing, spair of every boy who has the real
- daring, heroic, who has figured in the spirit of adventure and what boy
public mind for half a century as one has not? j
of the most picturesque and gallant he- j ' As; scout and Indian fighter "Buf-'
roes of American life, may close his falo Bill's" fame rests on a firm foun
days In poverty. The debts of his show datioh. Our greatest generals have
aggregate $100,000, the property of borne official witness to his gallant
the show was worth about $50,000. His services, and throughout the west his j
creditors may have to seize the ranch
to make up the balance.
But, at any rate, Buffalo Bill says
he is through with the show Business.
He made a fortune at it and spent it
with a lavish hand. ' Last year the
show lost money. This year a mistake
was made in sending the show into
Birmingham and Atlanta in June, en
tirely out of season, the expenses av
eraging $4,000 a day and the receipts
never covering it. That was a fatal
. mistake.
Other factors in the bankrupting of
the show were the moving pictures of
Wild West scenes and the many imi
tations of' his Wild West show that
flooded the, country in recent years,
and by their very tawdriness, detract
ing from the fame of the real thing,
Buffalo Bill is a Kansas Product.'
His boyhood was spent in Salt Creek'
valley in Leavenworth county. His
: father, Isaac Cody, was murdered
there, the first man killed on Kansas
oil in the struggle for human liberty
- in that state, and he and Buffalo Bill's
mother are buried on the summit of
Pilot Knob, a high mount that over
looks the city, of Leavenworth,' Buf
falo Bill's first job was as a freighter
on the old trail across Kansas. He
killed his first Indian In Kansas. He
was a pony express rider on the route
across Kansas, and his name of "Buf
falo Bill" was gained by killing buffa
loes to supply meat for the builders
of the Kansas Pacific Railway. He was
town marshal in Hays, Kas. When he
married he brought his bride to live in
Sar.sos and his first work as a gov-
Men! This Week Ends
' Yourehance to take advantage of our -
$15.00 SUIT SALE
Where you can buy your choice of hundreds of newest
styles in high grade men's suits at wholesale cost and
below. t ; 'i, '.;.;'
SEE THE WINDOW
$5.00
Buys your choice of all remaining style in a large as-
sortment of
WOMEN'S TAILORED SUITS
NEW WOOL DRESSES
SILK AND WOOL COATS
Come and make your selection before sizes are gone
Don't delay. , -
All Oxfords
and Pumps
Reduced 20
Per Cent
name is honored wherever frontier
memories are cherished. Novelists
have taken liberties, it is. true, with
"Buffalo Bill" and all sorts of ro
mances, fierce and tender, have been
woven arouna mm, dot me irutn is jan(j tney hate(j tne newcomer.- A year chief and spread the money all over
.uwKer.uHu. m - . ' afterward he was subbed while nsak- the table." .
Thrush all the change, of bis car- ; , .j, , rj,, store c d , rf . -
eer, whether en the plains surrounded m Leavenworth.P Frim J he; train tney
LZVTTTLrt "eVer fU"y reC0VMed bUt he became, creaked across8 the prairies and carry
s rs yT:ieJz:rlZu -- " meesageB betwecn the different j.
val ZLtTZ rin BiU" h comnano ke part in "The Battle , tions of the train and between differ.
West aggregation, Buffalo BiU has Hickory Point.. Later he erected a 1 cnt trains.
remained unchanged. -,: '11 at Grasshopper falls, now Val
A tall, perfectly proportioned man, w VMu, , larfft iha rw,W am
as handsome as a picture, long haired gocjety. reaHzjng that, the oniy nope
Greater Sav
ings in entire
lfne summer
dress fabrics
and keen eyed, who sits his horse as if
born in the saddle';" a' tain without
book learning, but wth the modesty
of a woman and a simple dignity that
won' its way everywhere. ' ,
'" In later yeari prominent men her.
aiv.l nbiond have yielded admiring
friendship to Buffalo Bill; he has been
applauded by autocracy and decorated
by foreign potentates,, but his truest
friends are the children. .
William Frederic Cody was born in
Iowa in 1846. In 1854, when he was 8
years old his father, Isaac Cody, rak
ing advantage Of the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill, which provided for the organ
ization of those two territories and
opened them for settlement1 took up a
claim in Salt Creek valley in Leaveen
worth county, and moved his family
from Iowa. Their new home was a
large log house of two rooms.
, Isaac Cody was a free-soil man and.
in the section whe he settled were
many who favored Rlavery in Kansas
for the admission of Kansas as a free
state lay in getting more free-soil
settlers to come, sent Isaac Cody to
Ohio and as a result he brought back,
to Kansas 60 families who settled in
Grasshopper Falls. ' ;
In 1857 Isaac Cody died from the
effect of the knife wound in his lung,
and was buried on Pilot Knob... Soon
thereafter the sawmill burned. ; The
cnt trains.
Buffalo Bill had made a host of
eastern friends on the frontier : For
several year's while stationed at Fort
McPhersoh, '.it had been his delight
to arrange buffalo hunts and rough
riding , exhibitions for the entertain
ment of prominent visitors. Among
these were August Belmont and other
wealthy New Yorkers, who in 1872, in
vited the noted scout to visit New
York. He went in buckskins, the pic
turesque embodiment of what a front
iersman should be. ' Crowds followed
Cody family was in destitute circum-ihim through the streets and stories
1 '-.-.". : , .:' ' ' .
The Test of Time
Time determine whether the policies under which a bank is oper
ated are safe.
This bank has been Id business twenty-els year. .
It bia grown steadily until It baa become one of the strongest and
moat prosperous financial Institutions' in tbe West , .
The soundness u. policies Is attested by the long Hat of conserv
ative business men w:. transact their business here; also by an
earned surplus of i1S0.t.,v.OO, the work of time and the res'ill ot
conservative ' management. '
Tbls bank has facilities for taking care of more' high grade bul-.
' neas and offers its services to those who appreciate the bent In :
banking. '
La Grande National Bank
La Grande, Oregon
Capital, 1100,000.00 Surplus, $130,000.00 Resources, 1,1M,000.0
DESIGNATED DEPOSITORY OF UNITED STATES GOYEKJrMJJIT.
UNITED STATES POSTAL SAYINGS DEPOSITORY.
stances, and "Bill" Cody, only ll 'vears
old went to work T.0 help support the
family.
There were at that time two great
highways of western travel, the old
Santa Fe trail,' which started from In
dependence and led west to Santa Fe,
and the Salt Lake Trail, which crossed
the Missouri river at Leavenworth
and ran northwest across Kansas and
on to Salt Lake and California. It be
came a beaten highway at the time of
the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo and
later the thousand? of gold hunters
journeyed over it to California. ;
..All the freight to and from the far
west went in wagon trains over those
two trails and the greatest of all the
freighting firms was that of Russell,
Majors & Wadell, with headquarters
in Leavenworth. . .
of his adventurous career were upon
every lip. ' I
It happened that Cody, escorted by I
a party of clubmen, visited a theatre
one evening where a, well known im
personator had advertised hiB first ap
pearance as "Buffalo Bill." ,
The, original set behind the curtains
of a private box, amazed to note the
enthusiasm produced by a bad replica
of himself.
The natural thought that slowly
formed in the scout's shrewd brain I
was this: If an imitation could win I
such favor how much more successful j
would the real article be. That
thought was the turning point of his
career.
After his return to the west he
wrote to Buntline asking him if he
would write a play for him. Buntline
Alexander Majors had known Isaac i answered that he would and for him
Cody and to him young "Bill". Cody to meet him in Chicago and to bring
applied for. work. ; I along some real Indians.' Buffalo
"But what can a bov no Kmll 1 Bill took Texas Jack and Wild Bill
do?" Majors asked him.
"I can ride, shoot and herd cattle,
but I'd rather be 'an extra on one of
your trains." ' ':-,.'
"That's a man's work and danger
ous, besides," answered Majors.
"I'U tackle it," answered Cody.
In a book which he wrote before he
died in Kansas City, Mr. Majors thus
described that meeting:
"When that boy Cody came to me,
standing straight as an arrow, and
looked me in the face, I said to my
partner: We will take this little boy,
Mr. Russell, and we will pay him a
man's wages because he can ride a
pony just as well as a man can.' I re
member when we paid him $25 for that
f irst month's work. He got it in half
dollars, fifty of them. He tied them
up in his little handkerchief, and when
he got home he untied the handker-
PENDLETON. OREGON
11-12-13.1913
Excursion Fares
Pf oa SaU Sept. 10, 1 1. 18. IS - Waal Ketara Ltolt Sept lAWS.
Furious andExcWrtg
: tttwOoMMMialtrOtHf
. Old CKiini'aiHi mm Ml bm
tmmlM n i Ish i n Mask
' TMrNwwutfOwlai.
Wild and Wonderful
- SIOMCOSUSTIKC. .
INDIANS, COWBOYS
OUTLAW HOUtCS ,
tot Farts and Particular
rYofflanyAoMtO-W.IUIL
Buffalo Bill's maiden effort and he if
promptly effected a partnership. The
Lresult of the move was seen in the new ! '
famous Wild West show.
Notic
Next Thursday, the 28th
will be the
n
s
s
s
tv-four -hours before the nlav that! How England's aristocracy welcom
Buntline advertised was to be given. ed Buffalo Bill is a matter of history; J
"What's the play going to be?" ask- camP of the Wild West in London !
ed Buffalo Bill. was the meeting ground of distin- 'i
. "Why," said Buntline. "I haven't gashed people. . . .
written the play yet" So he sat right His social success abroad was in fact !
down and in a few hours had the one of the most remarkable experi
great realistic border play, "The ences in his remarkable career. It
Scouts of the Plains," all ready, was jubillee year, when London was
"Now," he said, "get plenty of blank crowded with royalties and notables. J
ammunition and rope to-!e. -the hero They feted him and courted ihim, in-
to the burning stake.": ' While the vited him to their homes, cheerfully i
stage manager was rehearsing the In- accepted his hospitalities in return and
riinna. Rnffnln Rill was rommittinp to sent him home unfinmleH Ka boma ' I
memory his few lines. They opened modest, unassuming man that he was i ; L " ' s
to a packed house, and it went with a in his old scouting days. I
hurrah. ..The audience did not see very yet the Prince of Wales gave him
good acting, but enough bloodshed to royaI friendship, princes of the roy
give them ,a .good nightmare every a Mooj ro$e "disguised among the
night for a week. Wild West cowboys as his guests,
A shrewd actor-manager recognized wrtile titled todies of the court sat in
the golden possibilities concealed in the old Deadwood coach.
j Last Day's Sale j
On Furniture at ;
602 O Avenue
FOR SALE Four room house, good
condition,, two beautiful lota, 1 401,
cor. Y and N. Fir. $800.00 cash. No
trades. Until" Sept 16, address R. L.
Bills, 1143V1 E. 30th N. Portland,
Ore. Adv. 8-25 9-15 p.