The Washington herald., 1911-04-02

Although the suggestion aroused more
humor than serious enthusiasm, the re-
| cent exploitation of the name of Col.
William Cody Buffalo Bid in connec-
ton with a Senatorship from Arizona
served to bring this strikingly picturesque
figure once again into the limelight. There
is something soul stirring in the mere
mention OF this old frontiersman's name.
He is the last of race of stalwarts to
whom the nation is indebted for the open
ing of the vast domain west Of the Mis-
sissippi- About him hangs the glamour of
an epoch in American history and civili-
zation over which time has turned many
pages.
Speaks with Authority.
As an undoubted authority on all phases
of development in the far West, Col.
Cody's comments in a recent interview
are illuminative as well as interesting.
There is no more prairie: the cow
puncher is becoming a myth; the Indian
civilized person: they are irrigating the
sagebrush desert, and raising early spring
vegetables where the mustang used to
prance and the antelope roamed. In
fact, there is no wild West left. In con-
sequence OF these things. the interviewer
expected to find the colonel cast down
and sad. Herein he was agrceably disap-
pointed.
The colonel. like the other mighty hunt
or OF the same title, is a philosopher and
an optimist. He ought to be, with
perspective of twenty-six years In the
show business and a life of forty years
on the fighting side of the old frontier to
look back upon. There has not been any
rumpus win the Indians since Buffalo
Bill quit fighting them and became
footlight and arena hero that amounted
to much except the trouble at Pine Ridge
in 1891, and then the colonel was on the
spot and at the right hand OF Gen. Mel
son A. Miles as soon as the special tram
could bring him TO the Sioux agency.
The trouble subsidized when he arrived:
not another shot was fired. These are
facts and you can construe them as you
will The colonel did not tell this; he
Is far too modest, and the historians
are going to have a hard time in max
ing him tell Just how big part he
played in the upbuilding Of the new
West.
Years Become Him.
The passing of the years has not az
fected Buffalo Bill, except to whiten the
long curly hair, once shiny jet black
His form is as straight and so!dierly as
ever, his eye as keen as when it scanned
the distant horizon for the red foenan
in the days of old His manner is
littl,, more gentle, more deprecatory, and
there are a few new lines in his face,
but still, he is the beautiful ideal OF a
plainsman: every inch of him perfect
picture of the type Of man who won
our great Western empire from the red
man.
When you go into a restaurant and
order a porterhouse steak, don't You
feel sorry you killed off all the buffalo
in the olden days?" the interviewer
asked him, jokingly, after greetings and
"reminiscences had been exchanged.
THE price of beef Is a trifie high, l
do admit, but it would not be any cheap
err if the buffalo still lived. On the con-
trary, IL we had not killed the buffalo
off. there would DE little beef to-day. It
was the determination of the herds Of
buffalo on the plains that made 1t pos
sible to Craze great herds of cattle over
them.
killing on the buffalo also cut the In
dams of from their principal source or
food supply and brought them to terms.
No, I cannot say that 1 have ever suf-
fered any pangs of regret for the part
l took in slaughtering buffalo. The
passing of the buffalo herds of the West
was ordained by the Almighty to make
roor for the cattle rancher and the
farmer, and bring about the civilization
of the Indian.
"And the passing Of the INDIAN"
That was the will of Providence, too.
Civilization must advance and govern
ments. institutions, human beings, ami