Fifth Avenue Hotel,
New York, June 29, 1887.Hon. Wm. F. Cody,
London, England.Dear Cody: * * * In common with all your countrymen, I want to let you know that I am not only gratified, but proud of your management and general behavior; so far as I can make out, you have been modest, graceful, and dignified in all you have done to illustrate the history of civilization on this continent during the past century.
I am especially pleased with the graceful and pretty compliment paid you by the Princess of Wales, who rode in the Deadwood coach while it was attacked by the Indians and rescued by the cowboys. Such things did occur in our days, and may never again.
As near as I can estimate, there were in 1865 about nine and a half millions of buffaloes on the plains between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. All are now gone—killed for their meat, their skins and bones.
This seems like desecration, cruelty, and murder, yet they have been replaced by twice as many neat cattle. At that date there were about 165,000 Pawnees, Sioux, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes, who depended on these buffaloes for their yearly food. They, too, are gone, and have been replaced by twice or thrice as many white men and women, who have made the earth to blossom as the rose, and who can be counted, taxed, and governed by the laws of nature and civilization. This change has been salutary, and will go on to the end. You have caught one epoch of the world’s history, have illustrated it in the very heart of the modern world—London—and I want you to feel that on this side the water we appreciate it.
This drama must end; days, years, and centuries follow fast; even the drama of civilization must have an end.
All I aim to accomplish on this sheet of paper is to assure you that I fully recognize your work and that the presence of the queen, the beautiful Princess of Wales, the prince, and British public, are marks of favor which reflect back on America sparks of light which illuminate many a house and cabin in the land where once you guided me honestly and faithfully in 1865–66 from Fort Riley to Kearney in Kansas and Nebraska.
Sincerely your friend,
W. T. Sherman.
CHAPTER XXIV.
A VISIT FROM QUEEN VICTORIA.
“By command of her majesty the queen.”—It must be understood that the queen never requests, desires, or invites even her own prime minister, to her own dinner-tables, but “commands” invariably. A special performance was given by the Wild West, the understanding being that her majesty and suite would take a private view of the performance. The queen, ever since the death of her husband nearly thirty years ago, has cherished an invincible objection to appearing before great assemblages of her subjects. She visits her parliament seldom, the theaters never. Her latest knowledge of her greatest actors and actresses has been gained from private performances at Windsor, whither they have been “commanded” to entertain her, and that at very infrequent intervals. But, as with Mahomet and the mountain, the Wild West was altogether too colossal to take to Windsor, and so the queen came to the Wild West—an honor which was unique and unexampled in its character. When this visit was announced the public would hardly believe it, and if bets had been made at the clubs, the odds on a rank outsider in the Derby would have been nothing to the amount that would have been bet that it was a Yankee hoax. The news that her majesty would arrive at 5 o’clock and would require to see everything in an hour was in the nature of an astounding surprise to the management of the Wild West; but they determined to do the very best in their power, and that settled it. A dais for her majesty was erected and a box specially constructed draped with crimson velvet and decorated with orchids, leaving plenty of accommodation for the attendant noblemen, and all was made as bright and cheerful as possible.
With royal punctuality the sovereign lady and her suite rolled up in their carriages, drove around the arena in state, and dismounted at the entrance to the box. The august company included, besides her majesty, their royal highnesses Prince and Princess of Battenburg, the Marquis of Lorne, the dowager Duchess of Athole, and the Hon. Ethel Cadogan, Sir Henry and Lady Ponsonby, Gen. Lynedoch Gardiner, Col. Sir Henry Ewart, Lord Ronald Gower, and a collection of uniformed celebrities and brilliantly attired fair ladies, who formed a veritable parterre of living flowers around the temporary throne.
During the introduction of the performers of the exhibition a remarkable incident occurred which is worthy of being specially recorded. As usual in the entertainment the American flag, carried by a graceful, well-mounted horseman, was introduced, with the statement that it was “an emblem of peace and friendship to all the world.” As the standard-bearer, who on this occasion was Col. William F. Cody himself, waved the proud emblem above his head, her majesty rose from her seat and bowed deeply and impressively toward the banner. The whole court party rose, the ladies bowed, the generals present saluted, and the English noblemen took off their hats. Then there arose from the company such a genuine, heart-stirring American yell as seemed to shake the sky. It was a great event. For the first time in history since the Declaration of Independence a sovereign of Great Britain had saluted the star-spangled banner—and that banner was carried by Buffalo Bill. It was an outward and visible sign of the extinction of that mutual prejudice, sometimes almost amounting to race hatred, that had severed the two nations from the times of Washington and George III. to the present day. The hatchet was buried at last, and the Wild West had been at the funeral.
The queen not only abandoned her original intention of remaining to see only the first acts, but saw the whole thing through, and wound up with a “command” that Buffalo Bill should be presented to her, and her compliments were deliberate and unmeasured. Mr. Nate Salsbury and Chief Red Shirt, the latter gorgeous in his war-paint and splendid feather trappings, were also presented. The chief’s proud bearing seemed to take with the royal party immensely, and when he quietly declared that “he had come a long way to see her majesty, and felt glad,” and strolled abruptly away, the queen smiled appreciatively, as one who would say, “I know a real duke when I see him.” After inspecting the papooses the queen’s visit came to an end, with a last “command,” expressed through Sir Henry Ponsonby, that a record of all she had seen should be sent on to Windsor.
While receiving generous attention from the most prominent English people, Colonel Cody was by no means neglected by his own countrymen, many of whom were frequent visitors to the Wild West Show, and added by their presence and influence much to the popularity of both the show and Colonel Cody himself. Hon. James G. Blaine, accompanied by his family, spent several hours in Colonel Cody’s tent, and was a frequent visitor to the show. So also were Hon. Joseph Pulitzer, Chauncey M. Depew, Lawrence Jerome, Murat Halstead, General Hawley, Simon Cameron, and many other distinguished Americans.
When the Hon. James G. Blaine visited the Wild West in London, accompanied by his wife and daughters, his carriage was driven through the royal gate to the grounds, and he was received by the English people as though he had been one of the royal highnesses.