Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-17
Wild WEST IS HERE
Buffalo Bills Troupe Has First
Dress Rehearsal.
VETERAN SCOUT IN SADDLE
Men From the Wild West and Far
East Practice Their Parts.
SCENES AT SHOW GROUNDS
Greatest Hust1ing Needed to Get
Everything in Readiness for the
Afternoons Entertainment.
SCENES AT SHOW GROUNDS

Several hundred wagon loads of ashes
tranSformed sea of mud into an imi-
tation OF a western prairie out at 18th
and II streets northeast this morning,
and over the imitation plains, on which
a tin can now and then stuck up its
head in lieu of cactus plant, mob
Of cowboys, Indians, buffalo hunters.
ropemen. cowmen, cowgirls, Monaghan
0arbarians, trick riders, insurrectos,
Mexicanos, Moors, hussars. crack shots.
pony express men and several hundred
other geniuses of the show business
went through the first dress rehearsal
of the season.
The vast aggreSation-to use a-per-
fectly good word found on the program
is the select company of ladies and
gentlemen travelling under the name or
Buffalo Bits Wild West and Pawnee
Bits Far East At times the whirling
mob ran into such riot of horseback
performance that one could not tell just
which was east and which was west,
and the only thing that one could really
tell anything about at all was the re-
sounding voice OF johnny Baker, who
seems TO be the pivot of the show. He
is about three feet through the chest
each way, and has a voice which could
be used I'm place of a cold chisel or
charge of dynamite When johnny
yell Dress on the right. half nun
dred NongOlians jump to get into line.
and if Johnny has any fear OF the
yellow peril it was not evident at dress
rehearsal this morning. Not much.
A Huge Undertaking.
Planting wild west and far east show
In the mud, getting the canvasmen
broken in, putting up new stuff and act
uaIly having the first dess rehearsal OF
the season-all is no mild undertaking. II
- q Job to squeeze the profanity out Of
an even-tempered person. And yet as big
q Job as this combined series of her
culean feats was, the show people got
away with it this morning in fine shape.
The mud was transformed into per-
fectly good plain, to be used as prairie
and a Russian or Siberian "steppe" by
turns: the stakes were rammed home, the
side show began TO turn over in its sleep
and wake up like hydra headed
monster, with the same dear old fairy
tales painted on the canvas in front: the
ticket man began selling cardboards: the
band began to thump-thump and blare
away in that wonderful staccato time
that was invented by p. T. Barnum and
has been held as 8. sacred and inviolate
right in the canvas-topped shows ever
since.
Buffalo Bill Getting Practice.
When. Buffalo Bill, with his flowing
white hair, saluted the elite who sat in
the dollar seats at the opening of the
show this afternoon he did il with an
easy grace that disarmed suspicion, but
In reality the old scout had been hard at
work all the morning practicing his part
OF the show, looking over the rest of the
RE, shooting glass balls, just to get up an
appetite. White he was spelling glass
balls in the rehearsal this morning Paw
nee Bill, attired in an Easter suit with
. mottled tie and smoking a long black
cigar, told every one in the little group
watching the performers that this morn
ing was the very first time since the last
glass ball season that Buffalo Bill had
performed the stunt.
Its the hardest shooting feat in the
world, asserted the Pawnee person ION
gailoping horse. with the saddle going
up and down, that shooting of glass
balls is certainly a wonderful feat. I,
looks easy, but II isn't
Fighting Without Firing.
The sight of battle with the Indians
IN which the fighters shouted direction.
to one another and used no pistols, wa.
IN odd sort OF thing. But that's the
way they do it. In the rehearsals Al
the afternoon show, with thousands OF
kids thrilled with the sight Of the death
Of the noble red men and the heroic cow
boys. there was popping of guns that
wouJd apneaSe the Widest liver NJ ths