The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-08-10

Sun: The Wild West in hook! Buff
falo Bill in the hands Of receiver!
A quarrel between the Hon. William
F. Cody and Pawnee Bill, his partner.
as to their share of q burden of debt
lchargeable against the aggregation!
The Indians on their way back to-
their reservations, nursing the mis-
cry OF unpaid salaries just as If they
were white actors, the residum OF a.
stranded show!
The Deadwood coach stabbed in
remoteness and cowboys without the
price looking the prospect OF work
lin the face with dazed. blinking eyes!
A white haired old man is looking
fate between the eyebrows and Won
dering what to make OF it all.
The war In the Balkans with all
its complications, conquests and
atrosities shows no more doleful pic
ture.
The admired. nay the friend OF co.
100000 people In such straits. tt
sounds incredible. Truly 1t is a time
OF law and order, even in Denver,
Colo, when such things as sheriff's
seizure can be and ruffle the calm
OF the army of cowboys with SO many
guns and nary shot fired in anger
or otherwise!
For thirty odd years has this Lord
of the Wild West gone up and down
the land receiving homage and dol
lars. He should be rich as king by
this time, all will say who knew not
the perils of the show business, but
rich or poor. he sits In his hotel
room today mourned over as poverty
stricken. Was it miserable $50 that
the show owed to charles Anderson
OF Denver that caused his downfall?
Was it the more likeable sum of
$340.22 owing to w. Terry? Was it
the $4,000 due to Fred Biddle of Phil
adelphia, Pa? Rather would we lay
1t to the $4,000 of which TYPOGRAPHY
and printing concern felt the need,
and had the bad taste to sue for. No
doubt in the gross 1t was tidy sum
that caused the furling OF his tents
and the bringing OF woe to Colonel
Cody, for he is also colonel of some
remarkable kind.
Our heart Is with him in his round
up" with the law Of debtor and credit
or. II, as Burke (not the major, heav-
en- rest him) remarked, thousand
swords should have leaped from their
scabbards rather than Queen Marie
Antoinette should die, surely 100000
should leap from the pockets OF half
million American boys of all ages
rather than Buffalo Bill should owe a
cent or face old age without suf-
| ficiency. Fifty years in the saddle.
and more than half OF 1t showing the
world the most gracious picture of
manliness that America could pro
duce. furnishing along with 1t Joy and
entertainment on a colossal scale,
surely should have value. Ameri "a
should syndicate him, should answer
for him, should rescue him from com:
mon creditors, sunder him from Paw.
nee Bill and set him up somewhere
in peace and honor for another quar-
ter century of dignified ease
| Seventy years Of such life as he
has led have not weighed too heavily
on him. From his Irish forbears he
inherited an iron constitution in a
frame of iron. He was born in Scott
county, Iowa, on February 26, 1876.
/ He was nearly forty years of age
when he invented the wild west show.
and had put behind him the efforts of
half dozen strenuous lives before
that. His activities go back to the
! civil war time, but the west, which
he has loved and typified in its from
tier phase, claimed him thereafter
! to lead its wild life and then to make
its wild life known to the world.
For Buffalo Bill was the real thing.
Dead sure he was Bill; Bill Cody. If
you please; and none the less sure
was he a mighty hunter OF the buffalo
when the bison herds came after the
young grass ten and twenty thousand
strong and the thunder of their hoofs
rolled over the plains from Texas to
the Black Hills. He was not the only
lone of his kind by long shot, but he
soon proved that he was in a class
by himself
| Not only had he mastered the ways
lof the migrating buffalo, but he knew
all their traits and Businesses and he
knew the ways Of all the mountain,
VALLEY and prairie game and would
tackle grizzly or mountain lion In
the Rockies as readily as he would
stalk an antelope or lead string OF
hunters on horses ridden at breakneck
ispeed along the skirts of a running
herd of buffalo. That was the peril.
lous exciting work. If the herd swery-
led or the horse stumbled Or wound
ed bull turned with great head lower
led and charged, man wanted quick
wit and lively muscle to come out un
trampled and alive. One look over
that oncoming close packed sea OF
shaggy heads and heavy bodies. thud
ding, thudding over the plain, put
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