The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-01-16
MEN, WOMEN.
 AND THINGS

Recently took Buffalo Bill's death 8;
 peg to hang on development story
 for Birmingham. Now I wish to give a
 bit of gossip about him as a man.
 Ills was truly an eventful llfe-pioneer
 frontersman. pony express rider, scout
 regular, legislator. judge advocate gen. eral author, showman-a man who had friends among the lowly and the truly great
 How did William Frederick Cody get the sobriquet of Buffalo BiIl?" Simple enough. He earned it by making good on contract to furnish the Kansas Pacific railroad with all the Buffalo meat neoes- sary to feed the laborers engaged in con struction and in Is months QS67-S) killed 42SO buffaloes, Pause for a moment and think how conditions have changed ir the great west doubt if there are over 1000 buffaloes in America today. I saw the figures recently, but have forgotten them.
 I Here was a man who was received and decorated by royalty He acted as guide 1 in the west to scions of the European no- l bility. When abroad he was chumning with princes. The hand that grasped that 1 of the Queen of England and Elm press of India in the battle of Indian creek killed Yellow Hand, Cheyenne chief, in hand to-hand fight. Where can ! you find stranger career? He took part l in more Indian battles than any other liv- ing man.
 | I first saw him in the prime of his splen- did manhood. He was one of the hand somest men I ever met. When he walked of all eyes. I was impressed with this one day in London, as I saw a crowd of Englshmen trailing behind him. You just had to stare and look at him. He was not merely picturesque, but manly in appearance.
 recall an instance which hap pened at Nashville during my student days at Vanderbilt university. His Wild West came to town for a week and camped and showed on the spot now grown into beautiful Centennial park. It is needless to say I spent my afternoons
 in the camp.
 .I, i, fo all hN1I if another wonderful westerner, Buck Taylor the greatest cowboy of his day. In Buffalo Bills absence, Buck was
 in charge. heard pistol shot and saw a half breed boy holding a smoking gun in his hand By his side was noted Indian scout who had married squaw. I thought I had heard picturesque pro- fanity, mad exhibitions of pure "cussin' D and paroxyisms of vituperation, for had not lived at Vicksburg and frequented the levee and heard steamboat mates re- lieve themselves! But they were tame affairs to the line of talk which flowed, infuriated father calling upon heaven to witness, men to hear, and hell to record all that he would do to the man who gave the pistol to his boy.
 So much for the cursing. Now for the finest bit of strategy l ever witnessed. Up strode big Buck Taylor. In min ute he took in the situation. How he sympathized with the father How he de- nounced the perfidious wretch who had lent or left his pistol where the child could get it. Just when he had the ear and heart of the old scout he said: Pitch the gun out in the grass and dare the flash the gun was thrown to the ground. In that inimitabe cowboy gait, Buck reached out and got it and, leveling it at the old man, ordered him into his tent, and he went. If Buck was living, the Kaiser might get him to stop the war. Buck was a diplomat.
 
 I saw the Wild West show in London. was present at the Gaiety one after noon. Edward VII, the Prince of Wales, occupied a box and on the opposite side In box sat Buffalo Bill. As is the custom when the royal party entered the royal box, the audience arose to tits feet and stood until royalty was seated. And then the Prince, who was | a good fellow, looked across the theatre and spied his old friend Buffalo Bill, and gave him a hearty nod. that is if rOyalfy ever mods If wasn't a formal but friendly greeting. I sat and looked at both men--circumstances made Ed ward a prince, nature did it for our William. n
 l The cussing Indian scout, dwelt on | a few paragraphs back, recalls an in- cident in which I was an embarrassed party when the Wild West show was at the Liverpool exhibition. was out on the grounds, after the exhibition, standing within the corral in converse tion with one of the home sick cow
 punchers. Up to the gate came an Eng lishman, rosy of cheek. With that ag-
 gravating insolence which gets the average American raw, he quietly ad-
 justed his monocle, and with baby
 stare and a patronizing manner, in his
 British drawl, said to my compatriot
 My good man. do you speak English ?'
 That was the fuse that lit the spark
 that caused the greatest eruption ot
 undiluted swearing that I ever had tc listen to. It makes me shudder to this laax +bo,,oht fho cOwhov yvou1d dif