An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill (Colonel W. F. Cody)Buffalo Bill
History
An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill (Colonel W. F. Cody)
Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill, 1846-1917; Entertainers -- United States -- Biography; Pioneers -- West (U.S.) -- Biography; West (U.S.) -- Biography
At eleven o'clock the next morning he thrust me into a Pullman car,
which was in charge of Mr. Angel, an official of the Pullman Car
Company, and was taking a private party to the East.
Two of my millionaire hunting companions, J.B. Heckscher and Colonel
Schuyler Crosby, met me at the station and drove me to the Union Club.
That night I was told to put on my evening clothes and accompany them
to a theater. Heckscher was very much disturbed when he saw the Chicago
clawhammer that had been purchased for me.
"It will do for tonight," he said, "but tomorrow I'll send you to my
tailor and have him make you some clothes fit for a gentleman to wear."
We saw Edwin Booth in a Shakespearean play. I was told that all my
wealthy hunting friends would join me at breakfast the next morning. I
was up at seven o'clock and waiting for them. The hours dragged slowly
by and no guests arrived. I was nearly famished, but did not dare eat
until the company should be assembled. About eleven o'clock, when I was
practically starved, Mr. Heckscher turned up. I asked him what time
they usually had breakfast in New York and he said about half-past
twelve or any time therafter up to three.
At one, the gentlemen all made their appearance and were somewhat
astonished at the amount of breakfast I stowed away, until they were
told that I had been fasting since seven o'clock that morning.
During my visit to New York, I was taken by Mr. James Gordon Bennett to
Niblo's Garden, where I saw "The Black Crook." We witnessed the
performance from a private box and my breath was fairly taken away when
the curtain went up on the fifth act. Needless to say, that was the
first time I had ever witnessed a musical show and I thought it the
most wonderful spectacle I had ever gazed upon.
The remainder of my visit in New York was spent in a series of dinners
and theater parties. I was entertained in the house of each gentleman
who had been with me on the hunt. I had the time of my life.
After I had had about all the high life I could stand for the time
being I set out for Westchester, Pa., to find the only relative I knew
in the East. My mother was born in Germantown. Her sister had married
one Henry R. Guss, of Westchester.
I found on reaching Westchester that my relative was one of its most
important citizens, having the Civil War title of general. I found his
home with no trouble, and he was very delighted to see me. An old lady,
who was a member of his household, he introduced to me as my
grandmother. His first wife, my Aunt Eliza, was dead, and he had
married a second time. He also introduced me to his son, Captain George
Guss, who had been in the army with him during the Civil War.
It was not until we had talked of old family connections for an hour or
more that they discovered that I was Buffalo Bill; then they simply
flooded me with questions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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