Chapter I: Front Matter

“_BUFFALO BILL_”

FROM PRAIRIE TO PALACE

_COMPILED BY JOHN.M.BURKE_

_WITH THE AUTHORITY OF_

_GEN’L W.F. CODY (BUFFALO BILL)_

RIALTO SERIES. No. 13. June, ’93. Monthly. Subscription, $8.00.
Entered as second-class at the Post Office, Chicago
]

“BUFFALO BILL”

FROM PRAIRIE TO PALACE.

W. F. Cody
“Buffalo Bill”
]

“BUFFALO BILL”

From Prairie to Palace

AN AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF THE WILD WEST

_With Sketches, Stories of Adventure, and Anecdotes of
“Buffalo Bill,” the Hero of the Plains_

COMPILED BY
JOHN M. BURKE (“ARIZONA JOHN”)

WITH THE AUTHORITY OF
GENERAL W. F. CODY (“BUFFALO BILL”)

CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
RAND, MCNALLY & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
1893

Copyright, 1893, by Rand, McNally & Co.

NOTE.

The compiler of this book desires to give credit to General Dodge’s “Thirty Years Among the Indians,” and to the Historical Publishing Company, for a few of the facts and incidents given in these pages.

JOHN M. BURKE.

DEDICATION

TO

THOSE PIONEERS OF PROGRESS

WHO HAVE LED THE ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION INTO SAVAGE
LANDS, DEFYING DANGER, SUFFERING EVERY HARDSHIP,
OVERCOMING ALL OBSTACLES, OFFERING LIFE
AS A SACRIFICE WHEN CALLED UPON,

THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK.

JOHN M. BURKE

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

Compiler’s Preface, 11

I. Introductory, 13

II. The Scout, 20

III. What Is a Cowboy? 36

IV. The Riders of the World, 44

V. Indian Home Life, 59

VI. Expert Shooting, 71

VII. A Most Famous Ride, 77

VIII. Letters of Commendation from Prominent Military Men, 85

IX. Buffalo Bill’s Boyhood, 99

X. Bill Kills His First Indian, 104

XI. The Boy Miner, 110

XII. Story of the Pony Express, 113

XIII. A Ride for Life, 123

XIV. Held up by Road Agents, 127

XV. A Year of Adventures, 132

XVI. A Soldier of the Civil War, 140

XVII. A Champion Buffalo Hunter, 145

XVIII. Scout, Guide, and Indian Fighter, 151

XIX. Buffalo Bill’s Pards of the Plains, 159

XX. Border Poetry, 181

XXI. From Prairie to Palace, 189

XXII. The Wild West at Sea, 197

XXIII. A Royal Welcome, 207

XXIV. A Visit from Queen Victoria, 219

XXV. The Home Trail, 227

XXVI. Swinging around Europe, 232

XXVII. The Last Indian War, 252

XXVIII. Back to Europe, 260

Appendix, 269

An Episode Since the Return from Europe, 273

COMPILER’S PREFACE.

An association of some thirty years with the subject of these pages, a familiarity with his history gained by opportune meetings and conversations with comrades now living, and those since dead--who were witnesses of the events that assisted to make the individual prominent--makes me feel it a public duty to accede to the publisher’s request to compile a short, sharp, and veracious account of the unique history of this picturesque character.

Born at a time, and reared in an atmosphere, the most romantic and adventurous known in the history of our American frontier, when the tidal wave of human progress, sweeping westward, was making history faster than the historians could record it--it was his fate to be in the field, and his fortune to grasp the opportunities to meet the situation’s requirements, and, in the beaten path of what seemed ordinary daily duty, to rise, by reason of his sterling qualities, his daring, and his courage, to the distinction of a leader.

So quickly was the history of the central West recorded, as to make the Great American Desert of our childhood seem almost a geographical mirage, a tale of the romancer. It would seem to be a fairy story were it not for the fact of its settlement, and the evidences of its now almost ancient civilization.

The busy, hustling citizen of to-day scarcely has time to think, and does not realize that the youths of the time of Benton, Beal, Fremont, Bridger, and Carson are the relicts of the perfected history and work that they inaugurated.

One of the most picturesque characters that evoluted from the peculiar circumstances of the times is “Buffalo Bill,” Gen. W. F. Cody, N. G. S. N. The romance, the fiction, woven around his personality is dispelled in the white light of stern and veritable facts, just as the golden rays of the morning sun drive the mist from the mountain-tops.

The compiler of the accompanying pages has attempted to present to the reader, in a terse, compact compendium of facts, the story of a career that, if given in a detailed biography, would absorb volumes, believing that owing to his prominence at home and abroad the public desire some authentic knowledge of the notable events in his career. In fact, here are presented a few plain truths, unadorned, for the benefit of those too occupied to have heretofore learned the story and triumphs of the frontier lad of nine years, from the wild Western scenes of Kansas and Nebraska, from the prairies of the Platte to the parlors of the East and the palaces of Europe.

“BUFFALO BILL”

FROM PRAIRIE TO PALACE.