The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-01-24

march such as was then before US.
Many were the adventures and in
cidents Of frontier life with which
he was accustomed to entertain us
when around the campfire or on the
march"
The next spring Comstock was at
Fort Wallace, Kan, and his activities
there are recorded in Gen. Phil Sher-
idan's Memoirs" as follows: EN-
ployed as scouts or interpreters were
Mr.. William Comstock, Mr.. Abner S.
Grover and Mr.. Richard Parr. They
had lived on the plains for many years
with different tribes of Indians. had
trapped and hunted with them and
knew all the principal chiefs and head
men.
Comstock had gained such renown as
a buffalo hunter that for some time he
had been known among the officers
there as Buffalo Bill" Comstock. In
the meantime, William F. Cody, who
had done some scouting for the troops
had been offered job as hunter by
the Goddard Brothers, who had con-
tracted to feed the laborers who were
building the Kansas Pacific railroad
west along the Smoky Hill river. Cody
proved himself skillful hunter and
filed his job so well that one Of the
workers made jingle about him which
went as follows:
Buffalo Bill, Buffalo Bill,
Never missed and never will;
Always aims and shoots to kill
And the company pays his buffalo bill.
His fame as a buffalo hunter was
spread by the officers at Fort Hays and
came to the attention Of the officers
at Fort Wallace who believed that
their Buffalo Bill" Comstock had more
right to that title than the Fort Hays
officers Buffalo Bill" Cody. SO they
raised their share of purse of $500
to be given to the winner Of buffalo
killing contest between Cody and Com
stock. Soon posters began to appear
In the stations along the new railroad
which read as follows:
GRAND EXCURSION
FORT SHERIDAN
Kansas Pacific Railroad
BUFFALO SHOOTING MATCH
$500 A SIDE
and the
CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD
BILLY COMsTOCK (The famous SCOUT
and
w. r. CODY buffalo Bin)
Famous Buffalo Killer for the Kansas
Pacific Railroad.
Since the Kansas Pacific railroad
was arranging the excursion, ii was
perhaps natural that it should give the
title Buffalo Bill" to its hunter. But
their confidence in him was soon justi-
fed. The match was held 20 miles east
of Fort Sheridan where buffalo we're
plentiful and the prairie was level
enough for the great crowd of spec
tators (ncluding Mrs. Cody, who had
come on an excursion train which had
been run from st. Louis) to see the
chase. Cody was mounted on his
famous hunting horse Brigham" and
armed with his equally famous needle
gun "Lucretia Borgia." ComstOck used
a Henry rifle which shot faster but
did not hit so hard.
Having located a herd Of buffalo,
the two men rode into it, followed by
referees. The herd split, with Com
stock chasing one bunch and Cody the
other. Cody soon had his bunch run
ming In a circle and he dropped 3S Of
them, all within small space. Com
stock, who rode at the rear of his
bunch shooting them down, killed %
but they were scattered over a route
of three miles. After short rest an
other herd was sighted and again Cody
was the winner by score of Is to IA.
The third run of the day was the
occasion for a spectacular stunt by
Cody. He took the bride and saddle
off Brigham, dashed into his bunch
of buffalos and shot down IL more
then drove the last directly toward
the wagons from which his wife and
some OF the other spectators were
viewing the match. When the great
beast was less than so yards from
the wagon he sent ii tumbling to the
earth as the grand finale Of the hunt.