Show by ELMO SCOTT WATSON SK the average american who was the original but falo bill and the chances are that he will answer without hesitation why F cody of course and f therein he will be wrong for there were at least two other men who earned that title and were cnown by it before william frederick cody made it famosi throughout the civilized world this does not mean that cody did not deserve the title for he won it away from one of the others fairly and squarely tn one of the roost spectacular contests ever staged on this continent but it docs not detract any from hla fame to pay tribute to the prowess of these other two and to set forth their claims to having been the original buffalo bill even though cody was the greatest buffalo bill with all that that title implom the man from whom cody won hla title by right of conquest was william comstock a celebrated guide hunter and one of the favorite scouts or general phil sheridan during the indian war on the sou thein plains in ca comstock Is one of the mys tery men of the frontier in that but little Is known of bis early career aub lie interest la him has been revived recently by the wisconsin state ills society as shown by the following story sent out by the university of news service some wisconsin town Is entitled to considerable fame as the birthplace of william comstock a pony express rider and indian scout who was a comrade of buffalo bill during his romantic pre carcus days comstock Is known to have been born tn wisconsin and to have left early to go west and become daring scout the state historical society accord inc to charles n brown and alfred 0 barton madison la anxious to learn where be was born who bis were and born what part ot alacon ln he went west colonel alomer wheeler formerly of the fifth cavalry who knew corn stock when he BBS chief scout and interpreter at fort wallace ran devotes part of a chapter of his book buffalo days published by bobbs merrill to Con lie Is the authority for the statement that corn block was bom in wisconsin of good parentage and left home at an early age and was one of the original pony express riders at the time cody and wild bill were similarly employed ue was the first owner of the rosa creek ranch situated on that stream about eight miles from the post during bis service at fort wallace comstock had gained such renown aa a buffalo hunter that for some time he bad been known among the officers there as battalo But Talo bill comstock in the meantime william r cody who bad done some scouting for the troops at fort and fort bad been offered a job as hunter by the brothers who hod contracted tr to teed who were building the kansas pacific railroad west along the smoky hill river cody proved himself a hunter and filled his job so well that one of the workers made a jingle about him which went as follows buffalo bill buffalo bill never missed and never will always alms and shoots to kill and the company pays bis buffalo bill his fame as a buffalo hunter was spread by the officers at fort hays and came to the attention of the officers at fort wallace who believed that theira buffalo bill comstock bad more right to that title than the fort hays officers buffalo bill cody so they raised their share of a purse of to be given to the winner of a buffalo killing contest between cody and corn stock soon posters began to appear in the stations along the new railroad which read as follows 0 o BUFFALO SHOOTING MATCH for A SIDE and the OP TUB WORLD between LY COIl K alie and W P BUI killer for the since the kansas pacific railroad was arranging the excursion it was perhaps natural that it should give the title buffalo bill to its hunter but their confidence in him was soon justl fled the match was held 20 miles east of fort sheridan where buffalo were plentiful and the prairie was level enough tor the great crowd of spectators including mrs cody who had come on an excursion train which had been run from st louis to see the chase cody waa mounted on his famous hunting horse brigham and armed with his equally famous needle gun lucretha Luc retla borgia comstock used a henry rifle which shot faster but did not bit so hard having located a herd of buffalo the two men rode into it followed by referees the herd spilt with corn stock chasing one bunch and cody the other cody soon had his bunch run nang in a circle and he dropped 88 of them all within a small space comstock who rode at the rear of his bunch shooting them down killed 23 but they were scattered over a route of three miles after a short rest another herd was sighted and again cody was the winner by a score of 18 to 14 the third run of the day was the occasion for a spectacular stunt by cody he took the bridle and saddle off brigham dashed into his bunch of buffaloe buffalos buff alos and shot down 12 more then drove the last directly toward the wagons from which his wife and somo of the other spectators were viewing the match when the great beast was less than 50 yards from the wagon he sent it tumbling to the earth as the grand finale of the bunt his final score was ca to Com stocks 48 cody continued to hunt for the kansas pacific until it reached short dan and in the space of 17 months he killed of the animals an adal reason for his right to be known as the champion buffalo slayer of the plains A few months after this match corn stocks career came to a tragic close while out on a scouting expedition on walnut creek with lieutenant later gilted lilted at the battle of the arac Lar eeor beecher cast cm 1 colorado Com grover were ordered to visit the camp of chief turkey leg of the who was a special friend of both scouts on the headwaters of the solomon to learn if any of his people had taken part in a murderous raid in the saline valley their reception was very cool one and finally turkey lag told them that they had better leave since his young men wore greatly excited and be could not control them accordingly they started out ac compan led by the chiefs son and six other young warriors who professed the deepest friendship for the scouts but in alie midst of a friendly conversation some of the braves fell quickly to the rear and opened alre comstock fell from his horse at the first fire instantly killed grover badly wound ed also fell to the ground then using the body of bis dead comrade to protect himself be opened fire on the indians and quickly drove them out of range for the rest of the day he held them at bay then under cover of darkness he managed to escape and reached fort wallace two days later half dead from the pain of bis wound and the exhaustion of his long journey nor was comstock the only one to have a claim to the title of buffalo bill prior to clodys codys nearly thirty years later after the name had rocked the arena in every capital in europe and america a rival claimant was brought forward as tho original pos sessor of the title writes richard J walsh in the bilking of buffalo bill published by bobbs AI errill last year he continues he waa william matthewson of it was saia that in 1860 the year ot the great drought when grasshoppers darkened the kansas skies and fell on the crops as thickly as a blizzard matthew son had gone out to kill buffalo sending back of meat to feed the starving settlers and in their gratitude they dubbed him cuff lie mil how did william cody happen to call himself buffalo bill an interviewer asked Maithe weon well he replied you see cody worked for me when he waa a young fellow I 1 reckon ha had begun to read indian stories and see how much was to be made by that kind of a reputation and he was always fond of talk and show I 1 never was any hand to wear my hair long and go swaggering around the country mowing about what I 1 had done cody knows he had no real right to the name but it he wants to show oft as a dime novel hero I 1 have no objection the querulous outbreak shocked and grieved the public of 1894 reporters hurried to quiz cody about matthew son lie replied 1 I never laid eyes on him and of course never worked for him but this la the first alon I 1 have ever had tant an reputable person other than myself has ever claimed the title of buffalo ball A few years ago there were as many claimants tor my name as there were wild yellow flowers that gave their name to the state it reminds me of a portion of a sonnet finishing but as fondly loves on to the close aa the sunflower gives to his god as he sets the same look he gave as he rose the aptness of the quotation waa not made clear by the interviewer considering that in the sixties the plains were black with fifteen million buffalo and that thousands of men were killing them it was not strange that many a nickname was based on the magic word there was buffalo jones thera was buffalo chips and there were other buffalo bills dut cody seems to have won the title fairly sas walsh in conclusion and then tells of the famous contest with comstock after which the ref creba declared cody winner of the prize money and by the same decision as bo claimed finally confirmed alt right to be known as buffalo BUL |