Wickliffe. Boston people; with a mission to regenerate the world, Indians especially.
Joe. Well, I should think Deadshot would like his errand. He is a Boston man I’ve always understood.
Wickliffe. Yes. He came out here with me ten years ago, just out of college, rich, adventurous and restless. City life was too tame for Arthur Cambridge. You know how he took to the life of a scout, and now, under the name of Captain Deadshot, he is the most famous Indian fighter and scout on the plains.
Title Page, Book of “The Ogallallas”
Imagination could finish the story, but the old, old Beadle Dime Novel of the Scout, the Girl and the Redskins—capture, threatened death, beautiful Indian maidens, villain, hero, heroine and rescue, “You set fire to the girl and I’ll take care of the house”—excellently executed in dialogue and verse, briefly represent the whole thing. The cast of characters in the first night’s production, February 16, 1893, which was widely reviewed and complimented by the critics in next day’s Chicago dailies, was as follows:
CAST OF CHARACTERS.
| Arthur Cambridge, known as Captain Deadshot | Tom Karl | |
| Professor Andover, a philanthropist | H. C. Barnabee | |
| War Cloud, chief of the Ogallallas | W. H. McDonald | |
| Cardenas, a Mexican bandit | Eugene Cowles | |
| Mississinewa, medicine man of Ogallallas | George Frothingham | |
| Wickliffe | } Scouts { | Peter Lang |
| Buckskin Joe | Clem Herschel | |
| Commander United States forces | W. A. Howland | |
| Edith, niece and ward of Professor Andover | Camille D'Arville | |
| Minnetoa, an Indian girl | Flora Finlayson | |
| Miss Hepzibah Small, Edith's governess | Josephine Bartlett | |
| Kate, friend of Edith | Lillian Hawthorne | |
| Cosita, a Mexican girl | Lola Hawthorne | |
| Laura, friend of Edith | Georgie Newel |
“Bill” MacDonald, the big baritone, as “War Cloud,” seized the opportunity of his life. He almost ran away with the piece and anyone ever after, who would say “Ogallallas” could get a conversation out of him that would wind up with “that was the greatest stuff ever written.” When costumed and wearing the Chief’s head-dress (old-timers may recall having observed it hanging in Harry Ballard’s city room of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, at Madison and Dearborn) MacDonald boomed out the War Song of the Ogallallas, he scored the big hit of the opera.