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Show (Proposed Memorial to Annie Oakley Fails but She Remains Enshrined in Hearts of Thousands of Americans Reference has already been made in this article to Annie Oakley's Oak-ley's famous shooting match with the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, Rus-sia, one of the outstanding events in her career. The match was arranged by the prince of Wales (later Edward VII) during Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887. The story of that match, which, as it turned out, had political results of considerable importance, is told in considerable detail by her biographer, Courtney Ryley Cooper, Coop-er, whose book, "Annie Oakley Woman at Arms," published by Duffield and Company of New York the year after her death, was the first accurate account of her career, minus the embroidery of legends fostered by imaginative press agents. Cooper's version of the shooting match follows: "The request of the Prince of Wales brought consternation and much argument to the camp of the Buffalo Bill Wild West. " 'Go on!' said Nate Salsbury, you can beat him!' " 'Hold on there!' Buffalo Bill broke in, 'there's just this hitch. She shouldn't beat the Grand Duke. That'd be terrible.' "Thus the argument went on; Cody, the showman, believing that one should do the proper b,, " 1. ELMO SCOTT WATSON '.. (leased by Western Newspaper Union.) D RESS dispatches recently recent-ly carried the news of . an unsuccessful effort by :;jj,e Greenville (Ohio) Histor-L Histor-L society to convert the 4arly home of Annie Oakley Ito a shrine in her memory, fhe place, a 10-acre farm Lr Greenville, was lost jirough lack of funds and has ij0ff become private property. proper-ty. But even though the plan jlo make a public shrine of lhis home failed, it will make Mo difference so far as the preservation of the memory (Annie Oakley is concerned. "'For long ago she was en-hrined en-hrined in the hearts of in- Annie Oakley in action as sharpshooter. I , i I ; VI -V t i ' -! If & yr y&t ; vailed upon her to shoot against the professional. The girl not only won the match, but also won the heart of Frank Butler and a year or so later they were married. She began be-gan taking part in her husband's act and for some, time they were billed as "Butler and Oakley." Then Butler, who was a skillful showman, began giving his wife more and more of the limelight and pushing himself more and more into the background. Within With-in a short time she was a noted figure in the eastern theaters. At one time while they were playing in St. Paul a delegation of Sioux Indians, who were ' on their way to Washington for a conference with the "Great White Father," attended the theater where Butler and Oakley were presenting their act. One of the delegation was the famous Sitting Bull, who gave evidence of his approval of the girl's marksmanship marksman-ship with many a "Waste!" (Good). Finally as she performed per-formed her most difficult feat that of shooting the end from a cigarette held between the teeth of her husband, Sitting Bull arose in great excitement shouting "Watanya Cicilia!" (Little Sure Shot). Little Sure Shot was the name of one of his daughters who had died, and so greatly was he impressed with Annie Oakley's prowess that he sent an interpreter interpret-er to her after the show and ""umerable Americans and er place there is secure, jing before the movies made tlary Pickford "America's Veetheart," that title had Neen won by Annie Oakley lid in the minds of many she a ever surrendered it to any iccessor. Born on August 13, 1866, in Pat-...ison Pat-...ison township, Darke county, ! bio, a short distance from the Jage once known as Woodland ir. t now called Willowdell, she is christened Phoebe Anne J'.lkley Mozee but she was des-'"lied des-'"lied to make the shortened form b' her name, "Annie Oakley," t mm throughout the world. For '. became "Little Miss Sure undoubtedly the greatest brkswoman in history. I A Modern Cinderella, i put there was more to her 3e than her skill with a rifle ;- give her the place in the hearts :t Young America which she '.-Ce held. Her life story was a ""jnbination Cinderella fairy i iry, frontier melodrama but a .l:Jan melodrama and a sort of -ale Horatio Alger-rise-to-fame m. The Cinderella part of it ;5 pn in that little log cabin in ;J Jrke county where lived Jake ij jzee and his wife, whom, as a year-old child he had rescued ffl a brutal stepfather in Penn-,yvania. Penn-,yvania. He had given her a pe with his sister and, after ,. , irrying her when she was 15, JKout with her to make a new epiie in the Ohio country. In this fcs home Mozee and his wife Fght a constant battle with pri-:.--aon and poverty. Then Mozee, Jrning from the mill, was ten to death in a blizzard and fthe mother fell the whole of providing for her seven Hren" t the age of six Annie began Jing fill the family larder by (IfPing quail and a few years ii;jr she had made the first start Sl'the rifle career that was to her famous. One of the irJ possessions which Jake ;.tee had brought with him from j.teylvania was a 40-inch cap J ' hall Kentucky rifle, which ""l over the fireplace, but fl.th had never been used be- again. He sent an interpreter to Sitting Bull with the word that "Watanya Cicilia" was with his show and wanted Sitting Bull to join also. There was no further argument. Sitting Bull came forthwith! And the crowds which turned out to see the reputed leader of the Indians at the Custer Cus-ter battle, the great buffalo hunter hunt-er and the great markswoman increased in-creased at every city in which the show appeared. After a successful season of 1886 on Staten island and in Madison Mad-ison Square garden, New York, Buffalo Bill began looking around for new worlds to conquer. He found it first in England where he took his show on the occasion of Queen Victoria's jubilee in London. Lon-don. It was during this engagement engage-ment that Annie won her famous shooting match with the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, a match which had been arranged by the prince of Wales (later Edward VII). V Two years later Buffalo Bill's Wild West show was showing in Paris. Cody had met with financial finan-cial reverses and he hoped to recoup re-coup his losses in the French capital. capi-tal. But on the grand opening day, with the president of France and other high officials ' present, it soon became apparent that the show was doomed to be a "flop." The French simply couldn't "get" the meaning of it all the bucking buck-ing horses, the mimic warfare between be-tween the cowboys and the Indians, In-dians, whom, incidentally, they thought were fakes. But when Annie Oakley gave her exhibition of marksmanship then it was different. Here was something they could understand, and she was given an ovation that a queen might be thrilled over. For the French had never seen such shooting as this. Here are a few of the stunts that she performed:' per-formed:' In shooting clay pigeons, she stood 20 feet back of the traps, started with the pulling of the trap, ran the 20 feet, picked up her gun and broke the pigeon while it was still in the air. Using Us-ing three double-barreled shotguns shot-guns she broke six glass balls thrown into the air at once. She shot a dime from between her husband's thumb and forefinger at 30 paces. Perhaps the most famous of her stunts was that of shooting the ashes from a cigarette cigar-ette in the mouth of Kaiser Wil-helm, Wil-helm, then the crown prince of Germany. Had her aim been a little less true, the World war might never have been fought! Tragedy Comes Again. Annie Oakley ended her career with the Buffalo Bill show in 1901. Then tragedy came into her life again. On the last journey of the season the show train was wrecked in North Carolina. Annie Oakley was desperately injured. But the same courage that had always carried her through every emergency carried her through five operations and years of agony. Although the doctors had said she could never handle a gun again, she staged a "comeback," "come-back," and at Pinehurst, N. C, in April, 1922, she broke 100 clay targets straight, shooting from 16 yards. Annie Oakley had many other interests besides her shooting. She was probably the first advocate advo-cate of the one-piece bathing suit for women, coming out for it as early as 1894. Although at one time she was making $1,000 a week a large salary in those days her estate at the time of her death was comparatively small. Perhaps the fact that she supported and educated an adopted adopt-ed family of 18 children, as well as giving generously to many charities, had something to do with the smallness of her estate! She died in the home of friends in Greenville on November 3, 1926. Her husband, Frank Butler, But-ler, was seriously ill in a hospital in Detroit at the time and he died 20 days later. They are both buried in a cemetery near Brock, Ohio, where stands a simple monument mon-ument with this inscription: "Annie Oakley-1926-At Rest." Annie Oakley at the height of her career, wearing some of the medals she won in shooting matches. thing at all times especially when a Grand Duke of Russia believed himself a good shot. But Annie Oakley and her husband hus-band had a different idea. " 'If what we hear of him is true,' said Miss Oakley, 'I wouldn't have to let him beat me. I'll have to do my best shooting to even tie him.' " 'Shoot him off his feet!" said Nate Salsbury, while the be-whis-kered Maj. Burke, press agent extraordinary, all but wept. To be so unkind to royalty! "The conference at last was over, and Frank, Butler and his wife went into the arena where the contest was to be held. There they made use of a little private information. The Grand Duke bore the reputation of being one of the best shots in Russia. But from what Annie Oakley and her husband had heard of him, he got his best results on clay birds, which flew about 40 yards from the trap, a slower flight than Annie Oakley prepared for him on that day of their private match. " 'We'll just make it a good test,' she said, and ordered the traps to be screwed down to 65 yards. "That'll be something to shoot at.' "Promptly at 10:30 o'clock, according ac-cording to Annie Oakley's recital, four carriages rolled into the Wild West grounds. They contained con-tained Edward, the Prince of Wales, Alexandra, the Princess of Wales, the Duke of Clarence, George, now king of England, the grand Duke Michael of Russia and his suite, the Princess Louise, the Princess Maude and one very important personage in the eyes of the Grand Duke Michael, the Princess Victoria. The English papers had not been at all hesitant hesi-tant about stating that Michael was in England upon a special mission, that of uniting the two countries by proposing a marriage mar-riage in which the Princess Victoria Vic-toria and himself were to be the principals. Some opposed the marriage; others were in favor of it. "The contest began . . . while the royal party assembled in the boxes to watch the battle . . . And when the end of the match arrived, it brought a result by which Annie Oakley had missed only three targets out of fifty, while the Grand Duke of Russia had failed on fourteen. "Then began a perfect torrent of lampooning in those papers unfavorable un-favorable to the Grand Duke's alleged al-leged mission. " 'It was the most amazing and unexpected publicity I ever experienced,' expe-rienced,' said Annie Oakley in later years as she jotted down notes of her memories. 'The papers that were against his courting expedition were pink with sarcastic accounts of this dashing cavalier who was outdone out-done at his own game by a little girl from America, of this Lochin-var Lochin-var who was no match for short dresses and whose warlike career faded before the onset of the American kindergarten. Whether this had anything to do with what followed, I of course can only guess. But about that time the engagement was broken off . . .' " ke Mozee was a Quaker with ll'Quaker prejudice against fire-ils. fire-ils. The tomboy Annie, how-ll1!, how-ll1!, did not share that prejudice. P'.saw in the weapon an instruct:-" lor getting more food for cfcj'i brothers and sisters, and : gained her mother's reluc-Ji-j consent.. si? the beginning of her career o'X;; markswoman was soon in- I "fpted. She went to the county ItS-wary to get the chanoe to at-tstf at-tstf school, and while there a lyklnger appeared and offered to fiIj!ne of the girls at the in- to work for her "board ,fi;lkeep." Annie was the girl :JW and in the home of this J began her Cinderella exist-5 exist-5 The man was a brute and 0. wife a virago. Annie was as a virtual slave subjected 1 sorts of cruel treatment. ! when she fell asleep over t oket of mending the woman J; V her out into a snowstorm flaked. After two years of istence she finally escaped turned home. le,e she continued her for-i for-i rle of provider for the fam- jtoUi the rifle and thus laid '' .foundation for the marvelous ' which was to make her a famous. News of her skill :gfa(1 throughout Darke county 'een to Cincinnati where ho-'- TOers had been buying the t 6 which she killed. When T as 15 there came to Cin- ' Jv the "far-famed team of r and company, performing I s of daring and dexterity Ujli "rearms, seldom exhibited itSa eyes of an audience." II bHcity stunt, Frank E. ,)Iv, Was accustomed to issue t ;f "enge to all comers to a ' .p'H match. The challenge yff Ken up by one of Annie's bi'-i eePing patrons who pre- Sitting Bull, chief of the Sioux, who named Annie Oakley "Little Sure Shot" and adopted her as his daughter. asked permission to adopt her as his daughter. She consented and the ceremony took place at the hotel. After that managers were more eager than ever to book the act of Sitting Bull's adopted daughter. In the' meantime Col. W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," had organized organ-ized his Wild West show, but the first year had been almost a failure. While it was playing in New Orleans, Frank Butler and Annie Oakley, who were then traveling with a circus, visited the show and decided that they would prefer being a part of this outfit than of the circus. Cody could not afford to pay the salary that Butler asked so nothing came of it at the time. But the next year their trails crossed again at Louisville, Ky., and Nate Salsbury Sals-bury Buffalo Bill's partner, who happened to be passing by while Annie and her husband were rehearsing re-hearsing their act, was so impressed im-pressed by it and its possibilities as a part of his show that he hired them on the spot. So in the year 1885 Annie Oakley joined the Buffalo Bill Wild West show and there began that series of amazing triumphs which this former for-mer Ohio waif was to share with one of the greatest figures the show world has ever known. It was through her influence that another feature was added to the show which greatly enhanced en-hanced its popularity For some time Buffalo Bill had been trying to induce Sitting Bull to jom his company. But the old Sioux leader lead-er steadfastly refused After Annie joined the show Cody tried |