The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-09-12

the desert and who afterwards rode at the
head or on the TANKS of half a score of
expeditions, and had his services writ in
memorial medals and official dispatches
That stalwart teamster, who went with
custer; who was in at the death of Cen
eral Carr in '6S and General Royal in SO,
ana was first among the bullets on Short
Nose creek in 20, and was miles ahead Of
the advance against the Sioux in II; who
began his career in the dark days of Bleed
ing Kansas, and crowned them with luster
on the CORY bank of the Little Big Horn
this teamster, put down in department ink,
In every barracks between the Mississippi
and the Black Hills as Buffalo BILL who
mas since been royal guest of every brav-
cry loving sovereign of Europe, was re-
Gently notified by bulletin from Wichita
kas that he was not Buffalo Bill. The ex-
posure appeared almost simultaneously in
the Philadelphia Press, the Chicago Post
ana half score of smaller papers. The
Buffalo Bill with 80 years of official record
was suddenly unmasked-the medals torn
from him; the war department leaves were
ripped out of the books of history, and the
national eulogy blotted by a tear
The tear was recognized as Capt. Jack
Crawford's. So was the rip and the whole
sad exposure.
When the fell announcement reached
New York there was blight on the groups
at the Army and Navy Club, and at the
Hoffman House; a look of dismay passed
from face to face in Printing House
Square. Another illusion gone" said Gen.
Porter Another fond halucination ripped
up by the roots" remarked Gen. McCook
so departs the glory of man. said Gen.
Howard as he wiped tear away. do
you know, / have been fondly nursing the
childish notion all these years that l knew
Buffalo Bill on the tented field and at the
camp fire, and actually saw him breasting
the billiards. of the Northwest, when the
thermometer was 40 degrees below zero.
Well, well, l gave up the Ratchet story
and William Tell and Santa Claus long
ago, and now l suppose 1 must give up
Buffalo Bill"
But the two newspaper men with a hard
ened prejudice that a soldier does not feel,
refused to relinquish their idol, and insisted
On knowing who Capt. Jack Crawford was.
He is said Nate Salisbury, "a poet
scout-he has written some very amusing
verses to his mother and his child: be had
habit of writing them when he was sup
posed to be scouting He came to New
York and climbed tree in Central Park
and wrote one immortal verse:
o land Of the great West which 1 have
just left.
How l do of thee in this foreign place
feel bereft.
My heart allows that it no longer cares
to roam
But turns to thee mother dear, who are
still my childhood's home "
A policeman refusing to arrest him for
climbing tree. the book of poems did not
secure the recognition that it's hOmely but
filial tenderness deserved.
And Captain Jack then lectured on tenn
parance, gave limitations of Webster's reply
to Hayne, and wrote play. But in none
of these things did Captain Jack strike his
exact gait-which was biography-until lie
came across the banker of Wichita. The
one master stroke of his literary career
was the discovery that Col Cody is not
Buffalo Bill, and that a modest man by the
name of William Matthewson, who is run
ming bank in Wichita, is. 1t was only
by the most persistent prodding that Cap
tain Jack extracted the secret from the
Wichita man and gave it to the world, and
nothing but the assurance that it would re-
verse history and turn back the hands of
time induced the banker to give up the
fatal truth that he was Buffalo Bill, and
Captain Jack should be his Boswell. 1t
now appears from Captain Jacks story
that while Col. Cody was reaping recog-
milton and medals from the government
and army officials, and traversing the earth
with his honors thick upon him, the real
fellow was counting out his money there in
Wichita and saying not a word, till he met
Captain Jack This does, indeed, stagger
history, and makes the Tichborne case hunt
it's tabled hole. When the story reached
New York that Col. Cody was a yelled
prophet and Captain Jack had dug up the