Show rue 0 0 r f n a t u tin tinI J I 0 D r I I II C 11 M j astr astri n i R rr w s s1 1 v cS ly r Cc c mr By ELMO SCOTT WATSON JULY 17 of ot last year rear just Just one fifty-one years tor totI to r the tI Tie day and ond to the O w hour after Buffalo Dill Cody killed d Yellow nand hand the Cheyenne war chief In a 0 duel near nar the th banks rA A of ot War Bonnet creek L W In South Dakota so sos sos-ald said eald the ne newspaper re- re reports reports re reports ports of ot the offal r there was unveiled at nt the Cody Me- Me Memorial Me Ie- Ie morial ASSI Association clation museum at ot CodY ro rt painting of flint classic fight In frontier history II is well that this tills Incident was chosen n ns as the subject for n a pIctorIal tN rd of his lils Indian fighting fume fame for onions among all nil the slaying Indian feats which have hare been ben credited to the gun M If mil Bill the dramatic killing fit of Yellow land Hand on the lie War Bonnet I la the only one which Is so well authenticated as to leave lea no doubt as asto asto asto to having ha happened At It least such Is the conclusion on one reaches after rending reading The Making ot of A Pill-A A Study In Heroics S 'S recently by the Bobbs- Bobbs ller Bobbs-ller- rill Bobbs Ier- Ier rill rihl company a n book which Indicates that for once at nt least a biographer of tills this noted plainsman has hns taken the the- to fo go back of the cloud dour ot of 1 and DOll tradition that has gath- gath ath erd ent around Cody to seek U the facts till and to write time the lie true story of ot hIs lire life TIle Hie circumstances under which the bi k was written are Interesting It HIR as t as a collaboration by J Walsh and Milton Salsbury Lury bury son of Nate Codys Cody's In the Wild West show but before the first chapter was written died Walsh continued the with with the assistance of ot and sister sister Our largest Inv In Indebtedness however howen r says Fays te fore tore foreword foreword word Is to Johnny Baker Daker tie the foster sm of ot Cody and custodian of the mu mu- mu- mu museum museum seum aT f his Ills grave Our purpose was not so much to tell the story of a lire life liS as to study the processes by which n a created Un- Un Unlike Un Unlike figure was like thos those popular heroes heroS who grow In fortuitously Buffalo Bill was tIC the subject of the deliberate and In Inv In finitely skill skillful use of publicity Hill Bill Cody himself Is well worth knowing versions of ot his life liCe have ha been appearing for tor half n a such would century to add another IJ be worse lIrse than futile W IP wanted lo to find lind and 1 tell lell 11 the true facts which seemed dramatic than the lh I is much more fiction nail more romantic because And their search lII tucy lire ure credible tot II i the Ihl facts fads led them to a n conclusion which Is perhaps as us true an nn eval- eval of Buffalo Bill as has his ever er yet yi-ilin-n yi el line written It Is contained In the Last of the rue Great The fhe Stools Soul from which the ll urn ur taken F Cody William Witham Mon liin and boy winning of h he h thoS ihu span of the r I- I Ir IW C Cr f t 1 r f 4 W 1 t i t f rl t it i t 1 f r f J jf f J l rl lI J j I I ft t t f i J JI 11 t i d i M Mw w w id rf o fr 17 r f i fj 1 1 j x f ff J j i t vt J t fJ f lr i w jr I I J ll rt h f j r 1 t l r 7 d i 1 tf 11 jj ki kiA 1 1 I t F t 1 r jf N I M f fi j 1 i s j i d ril 11 ij It LW f iJ fI f A E 1 J o JIff l r J t t r f 1 j gi b ti it f ft k r I a i W r 1 11 S ii s Ii Ii f r 3 J r- r 4 l K i t r l t tt 1 i of j Effi tI I 7 t Wl h 1 I it t t Ji i Ao Jf w J r j o 1 air quo M I IL L 0 t West Vest He lIe first crossed the Missouri when It was the off jumping place of cIvilization He lIe Jived lived to see the plains crIsscrossed with barbed wire and hard roads 0 o hear airplanes zoom over the passes where the prairie schooners had lumbered to promote a canal and say proudly Aint I the father of IrrIgation Irrigation Irrigation gation gation to own roadside Inns In the mountains and even to project a dude ranch Of those who worshiped him as the valorus champion that beat back the redskin kin and saved an nn Inland empire few realized that his bli active life on the plaIns ended when he was as but twenty twenty- twentysix twenty six sIx years old The Indian wars ware were over the plains had no future to offer him and he was wondering whether he could get a job In the city as S coach coach- coachman coachman coachman man or driver of a tire Are engine Then came caroe Neda Ned the dime novelist mad ind on his heels John Burke Durks probably the greatest round all press agent that ever lived to persuade him magnify him and make him their creature Certainly no Individual before the days of o movies and radio ever had such effective personal exploitation Fot FOI nearly alf Mit a century he was con con- con continuously held before the public In the thEl pages of nickel and dime novels on the boards in blood and thunder melo- melo melo melo- melodrama drama and In the astounding Wild show which toured from th the tank tow towns ns to the very very thrones of Iu- Iu Europe Europe rope Truth about him has beers beed hard to come oy ay Those who knew him In youth are dead or forgetful The fhe rec- rec records records rec records are brittle sparse and often orten tab tab- fab fabulous ulous uleus For fortunately there le Is 1 at al the disposal of the authors of this vol- vol vol volume ume utne before a mass of never be- be be fore available to any biographer Burrow In these collections and In andIn the historical records we learn us IS might be guessed that the he flesh and flesh blood blood Bill Cody was somewhat less In stature than the Dill of or the ink and the limelight Cut But we leery too that his life had hidden romances Into which the professional romancers did not delvo delve Ev Even n If he had fought nil all the Indians that were credited to him the youth the on plains could nE nev- nev never nev never V- V Ver er have bave rivaled In courage e and endur endur- endurance endurance ance the he man that Buffalo Dill Bill be- be became be became came as ns he fought debts deLts and r rand and Illness ss nn and Injustice In his hll old ng age Let none doubt that he was wee then n a hero rho fhe story ol of Buffalo Lilts Bill life as its It ItIs itis ItIs Is usually told Is BO so well known us liS tu to need neetI no nu n how lurl ht here how rc-how how lie he WU wow born In n Iowa In 18 1 18 1840 0 weal nl wll with h his parents to lu un l ls during th the slavery flit n Ii ht of ot ile I he II fills fill's utiA how bury hIs father fattier was killed het the tn- tl tv IS is isa a Free Seller Then the III old eleven ll yeu old boy hoy Jcl got a Job joh j b aiti Ith u and lid II the fu 11 1 out 1111 iii f f frel freighters and IIla neater r orl l Neb killed his hill lust Indian Although upon flat fiat the IIII whole Uro of Buff iii Bill Bills y pre lige us tie II u II r was wis reared n no nn nl n ree reon ord of rf lI It has inis ci u bus In found nod such conflicting stories have han been told about It that there there Is a legitimate doubt as ns to the truth of nn any of ot time the surrounding the Inci inci- incident Incident dent which pave gave Billy nilly Cody the title ot of The youngest Indian slayer on the plains In fact tact the dime novelists no such as asCol asCol CO Col Prentiss Ingraham and Ned r Buntline have ha so confused the record of Bu alo BIlls BIll's life lire with their exaggerations exaggerations that doubt can easily be cast upon many other feats tents attributed to him and alleged to have been per per- performed performed formed during his friendship n L og as a the Civil war as ns n 8 pony ony e express ress rider I and as os a n scout In the Indian wars Especially Is this true In the latter case and In particular In regard to tonn toan toan nn an Incident nt second only to the Yellow hand I killing for tor Its publicity value alne That was the killing of ot Chief Tall Bull at the Battle of Summit SprIngs Colo In 1860 Althou Although h Cody Is credited d with having killed Tall hail Ball stron strongest st evidence points to Frank Frunk North r organizer of ot the famous Pawnee Scouts as ns the actual slayer ot of that chief It seas 1 us at ut this time that Ned Nd Bunt Bunt- Buntline line Bunt line appeared In Codys Cody's life liCe and the heroIcs which were were- continued 1 by Burke durin during Codys Cody's ear career pr as a showman began They made But But- Buffalo falo talo Lill Bill the popular hero and ond the theman man of world renown re Though ten years has hns elapsed since his death that I renown n Cs survives The chapter The Magic of n a Nil Name me says The spirit of ot Buffalo Dill Bill broods broods not only over the promontory Lookout mountain near Denver Dener where he Is burled buried on the margin ln of the prairies where here he ho chased the buffalo but fRio falo but also alo al o over nver the Big DIg Horn Casio where he pioneered and skylarked d Wyoming celebrates his reach each ench February In the town which he d ho he rides forever on a 1 horse hone of bronze and where the Iho Cody trail winds off oN towa toward the Yellowstone stands stalls a replica of the TE TI his hlA hl house More than then a R decade d after I death the name of Buffalo Bill still has I magic to 10 draw th the crowds crowd advertisements lure travel travel- ers Hallway Callway DUll Duies r country countr ers era Into Inlo the Buffalo Ruffalo Bill DIll go to the ranches ran In Increasing num nuin numbers bers bera I In n the shops of Cody they and buy the th chaps ily lly tr try on which en- en entitle entitle en entitle and sombreros an and lariats al Rt little for n R title them to ih play Y bIrt being rough riders of the West Wt And each July dude and timers old oid old timers heck lIok to 10 the t when Stampede when Ie the n on their basin b put I of the hoy co In fur furn fura tora shirts and com coin jingling ta e racial bill boil n a frolic froth of roping to 10 keep kp d dogging and bronco busting the days that thai alive memories of nf Bill Jill made 1 glamorous I i |