Show D i r I 0 Q a j I me 0 N r FALO FALOR B R air l EIS Y n jA 7 r l i lE E es n l By ELMO SCOTT WATSON III Increasing popularity of ot Hobby Shows through the country Is bringIng Into the Ule limelight ht once once A more a n type hpe of native literature to to which an nn older generation of or Amer l Amer-l lemma leans Ican loop looks back with fond memo memo it ries rles For nearly all ail such fluch exhibitions display examples of the little little yellow backed books which the time boys boya c of or yesteryear read In n secret with avid Interest their enjoyment 4 heightened by time the almost knowledge that discovery meant a stern this tidal I Reading Heading a n dime nO l novel 1 I from disapproving parent or teacher I Those of a later r generation who get theIr vicarIous thrills from Crom watching movie melt melo- melodramas melo dramas or listening to radio murder mysteries I are Inre likely to be scornful of ot the time thunder blood and h heroes roes whose desperate deeds and hairbreadth escapes so enthralled Dad Aw w bunk 1 they say I 1 there never was any such fella itS as 3 Dick the King KIn of the Cowboys or Captain Cool made Blade the Shark Man of or the Mississippi I t A Maybe bc not I But ask Dad about some of oC the dime dimo novel heroeS heroes y Didn't he the smuggle a copy of or Buffalo Bill BIn The Border norder King lane up to bed with him one on night and there here by the dim light of the old oil coal lamp read how with WWI one leap the Border King sprang p ip behind his disguised yard pard back to back and opened fire with his trusty revolvers on the yelp yelp lug redskins And a n few months later didn't he go down to the county seat scat town to and wIth Ws his own e eyes see that same Border King ent r the arena of ot Buffalo Bills Bill's Wild West show ush red red In ID by a blaring band and the excited yell yell vC of several severn hundred youn young Americans like him himI delft clU I That tall lon longhaired long clad buckskin-clad fIg figure ure rue sitting on his white horse with regal grace grace- grace wasn't he a n storybook story hero bero come to life liCe Yes din Despite the fact that many n a Bloody Pete and Shot D Dead Shot Dick and Heck Reckless less Ralph existed only lu fu the fertile Imagination of ot old Erastus F BId BId- Biddie's Bid Ulea dies die's scribblers some Ome of ot the characters immortalized Immor Immor- Immortalized In n that prolific publishers publisher's Dime Novels Dime Half Dime Library Pocket Novels or Boys Library Library- were real persons even though the they never had tenth one-tenth of ot the adventures ascribed to then them Chief among t them em of or course was thIs same Border King William Frederick Cody youthful guide ulde for tor army officers In Kansas In 07 and hunter who supplied meat for builders of ot the time Kansas Pacific railroad may have been dubbed Bill by the grate grateful Cui K K P workers or he may flave won voa that sobriquet In a shooting buffalo buffalo match with Billy Comstock But It remained for two dime novelists Edward Edword Zane Carroll Judson who wrote under the time name of or Ned ed Buntline and CoL Cot Prentiss Ingraham to make it world famous Other dime novel no heroes who had bad counterparts In real life me were Wild Bill nm California Joe Texas Jack Pawnee Bill BIB Capt Jack Arl Arf Arizona zona onn Joe Buckskin Sam Roving Moving Joe Fan Fancy cy Frank Deadwood Dick Diamond Dick CalamIty Jane Jan Jane The Evil ZU Spirit of ot the Plains and Old Grizzly James Butler HIckok a native of Illinois a i and scout in the Union army urmy In Missouri during the Civil war Overland O-erland stage stase driver mar marhal total ahal hal of ot roaring Kansas cow towns gambler and gunman par excellence was already famous as ai Wild Bill before ever er Buntline multiplied his ten Cold In the little yellow yellow back back books Sven Hyen after Ida bis assassination In Deadwood S S- S D Dla la fa 1870 1160 he was as still good copy for the dime as s he be has been for the more serIous historians several of ot whom have tried to sort sortA ut at A the e fiction from fact tact and write auth authentic of or him In recent years However Texas Jack was a name of Bunt Buntline's lines Unell manufacture for tor John n B a native of ot Virginia who emigrated to Texas before be before tore fore the Civil U war became a 11 mustang breaker and Imd rancher a soldier In n the Confederate arm army and afterwards arter a hunter scout and Indian fighter until his death th In lA llIe d Colo In 1850 In 1875 1376 Buntline brought Cody HIckok and to Chicago wrote a lla play Scouts Scoots of othe the Plains for them In less than four hours which prompted the classic remark of or one re re- reviewer I viewer Une One wonders why It took him so long lont and presented them In It to the public next day The case of ot California Joe Is similar to that of ot Wild hill Bill In to that he be was famed under that name before ever the dime novelists no took him up Although one of or Ingraham's novels char characterized him as Time The Mysterious Plainsman An A Unknown Stan Man whose real Identity like that of 01 othe the Man nn of ot the Iron Mask Is still till unsolved there was vas no real about mystery his hla identity Uc lie was Moses E It E a n KentuckIan who ho first crossed the Plains In Vie fie t le Golden Day Days of 01 9 40 was wa Hit Y r r r AlV CALIFORNIA JOE the Mysterious ous Plainsman n eat iffy at 11 ft MW 1 Sr cox COL o o ott R wu IOU aIG na eR cT W s a r R RG RL G L al r talc ID pray n io ae ao H arR Reproductions of dime novels from the col- col collection col lection of Charles Brooklyn N Y a miner In n Montana and the Pacific Northwest and for Cor n a brief time chief of ot scouts for Gen Cen George A A Custer during the campaign of US Ga against the tribes of or the Southern Plains Ill He Halso also served as a scout and guide for army In Wyoming and Montana In the jOg TOs was a n pros pros- prospector prospector l ector In the Black BInck Hills gold rush and met time the same fate tate as his friend HIckok Like Wild Bill he was shot down from behind by an as- as assassin as assassin sassin In 1576 just before setting out from Crom time the theold theold old Red Iced Cloud agency In Nebraska to guide ulde the expedItIon of Gen Oen Ranald S Mackenzie against the tho Sioux and I Pawnee Bill was Maj Gordon Lillie Lilile a native of Illinois who went vent to Oklahoma In the time earl days das as a Boomer was a friend of or the Ule Pawnee Indians who adopted him Into their tribe was associated for a Q time with Cody In the Wild West show v business and later had a n similar show of ot his own own He Be Is still living In Oklahoma us as the prosperous owner of or a ranch famous for Its herd of or buffalo Capt Jack was John Wallace Crawford a native of Ireland a boy soldier in the UnIon army a prospector and miner In the Black BInd Hills u scout for Cor the army In the Sioux war of ot 1811 1576 und and until his death In 1017 was widely known as asa asa asa a chautauqua and lyceum lecturer under the name of Capt Jack the Poet Scout Arizona Joe was Joseph Bruce a noted frontier character a miner Indian fighter and anda a close friend of or Texas Jack Calamity Jane was the notorious Martha Jane Canary a native of ot Missouri who dressed In mens men's clothes worked as a teamster with OeD Cen George Crooks Crook's army In the Sioux war of ot was a picturesque figure In the Black Hills mils gold rush and later drifted to Montana where she died In 1903 1003 Fancy ancy Frank was Dr Frank Powell who started In life as os a newspaper re re- reporter re- re reporter reporter porter studied medicine had a varied career on the frontier was associated with Cody In the Wild West Vest show In which ho he was known as White Beaver and the medicine man of or the and ended his bis In hIs bis career n nn an- an five Wisconsin where he was mayor of ot one town and a ft practicing physician In n another Both Buckskin Sam and Roving Joe were somewhat anomalous characters In that they were both heroes of dime novels no and writers ot of ol such literature Buckskin Sam was Maj Sam aro aroI I on the frontier where he led an adventurous ud life lite before turning his attention to producing such auch thrillers as na Double Dan time the Dastard or The Pirates of or the Pecos and Ker whoop Ker whoop ke ce I or The Tarantula of ot Taos ater Later he tie made his bis home In the East where he be hea a wiry little man according to one historian occasionally showed his virile Western Vestera man man- manhood manhood hood by going on a shooting rampage at ot his bis In WilmIngton Delaware Joseph E B E Badger Batler i was also a Westerner who wrote the story of his life on the frontier calling It Roving Hoving Joe Joeand and signing It A A H n Post Pst later he became one of Beadles Beadle's star writers under his bis own o name ot of Badger Under As for Deadwood Dick and Diamond Dick he DIck the orl originals of ot both have hll been le legion ln But the best evidence Is that Deadwood Dick was wasa wasa it a purely fictitious character created by Edwardi i Edward dward I Wheeler n a writer for Beadle Hendle and Adams and the first Deadwood Dick story appeared In Bendl Beadles s 's DIme Library In lu ISiS It was not nol Wheelers Wheeler's first novel el says Edmund Pearson In Ids his book Dime Novels or Following an Old frail In Popular Literature Little Brown and andI I Company but never ne again In all his list of did he ever chance upon a n name so I or H II character ao so appealing n to tu his rend read ens rs as that of ot 1 Deadwood Dick As early as 1006 an original ot or Deadwood I w Ym Col Prentiss In c cx x za I BILL B t Pistol P wt t Y Dick a certain Frank Palmer died In Denver In 1020 another original died In Los Angeles Angeles- Angeles this time being Richard Bullock who had bad been beena n a guard on the stagecoaches which brought bul bul- bullion bullion bul- bul bullion lion out of ot the Black Hills In recent years and aDd until his death In n 1030 1930 a n certain Richard W V Clark of South Dakota was widely publicized as the original of or Deadwood Dick Says Sas Pearson There Is a far away resemblance between the pIctures of the old frontiersman aged eighty eighty- two eighty two In 1028 8 and the drawings of the youn young desperado of the eighties in Mr Wheelers Wheeler's sto sto- stories stories ries ties I 1 fancy that this distant resemblance Is nil that obtains between the car career r of or Richard Clark and Deadwood Dick As for or Diamond In Dick Dick In 1882 1832 Beadle and Adams published Diamond Dick the dandy I from Denver Den A true story of or the mines of New Mexico by Maj Sam S Hall Buckskin Sam But the great popularity of ot the Diamond DIck stories came in tho the late eighteen nineties and early nineteen hundreds when ben according to dIme novel Dovel experts this tills form of ot literature was begin beginning ning to degenerate from Crom the time virility and red red- red bloodedness bloodedness or which characterized the early ones But nut In the minds of many people Dr Richard RichardJ J Tanner of Norfolk Neb Is the original of Diamond Dick A native e of Illinois he went to Nebraska at the age of or nineteen became an ex expert pert Invert with both the rifle ride and pistol and after aCter a career of or 20 o years ears with a circus where he was billed as Diamond Dick he be decided to study medicine and retired from from the show business For n a quarter of ot a century he be concealed his clr cir circus cus Identity and was known only as a country doctor In a Nebraska town Then In 1025 when he be took part In an American an Legion show In Norfolk the fact tact that he be was the former Dia Dla Dia mond Dick was made known The Evil Spirit of ot the Plains was Dr Frank carver a frontiersman and hunter buffalo falo a far greater reater one than Cody according to some author author- authorIties authorities sties and better entitled to the title of or Buffalo Bill maInly because of ot his victory over oer falo ralo Jacks Jack's Jack Jack-Jack Jack McCall Mcall the slayer of ot Wild Bill ln in ln a n buffalo shouting contest who was as for tor a n time associated with Cody In the Wild West Show V ho business and later Inter when he and Cody quarreled produced his own show Old Grizzly was one of the time most interesting of ot all nil the orl originals of dime nO l novel 1 IH heroes rues s lie was James Capon Caplin Adams born near Dear Seneca i Lake l ike N Y who became famous as 85 a bear benr turn tamer r he lie was accustomed to go about the country riling riding on an enormous grizzly eri bear witha with a second secund similar huge e beast beast as a sort of ot a body body- bodyguard I I guard for him His dime novel no fame started In n a alook book look written by his nephew James Fenimore Cooper Adams who was himself later known as a ft Bruin Brain Adams and was as the subject of or several eral dime novels by CoL Prentiss In I 1 CI 0 b by Western M r Union |