The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912Hegermann-Lindencrone, L. de (Lillie de)
History
The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912
Hegermann-Lindencrone, L. de (Lillie de)
Courts and courtiers; Europe -- Social life and customs
Johan hastened to follow the good advice and Buffalo Bill, and said
with diplomatic artifice, "On second thoughts, sir, I will not refuse
your invitation, as I am a little thirsty." On which the three
gentlemen went out together.
Johan came back refreshed and radiant. Never had he seen or talked to
such a delightful person. Buffalo Bill had offered him some of his own
favorite brand of whisky, which Johan found very good.
Johan asked B.B. later, being on more familiar terms, "Would you have
been offended if I had refused to drink with you?"
B.B. answered, "If I had not seen that you were a foreigner I should
not have liked it," meaning, I suppose, bloody murder and sudden death.
B.B. said the reason why he had chosen Johan out of the rest to drink
with was that Johan looked so like the Grand-Duke Alexis, for whom he
had been a guide on the prairies some years ago.
General Taylor, son of the former President, joined us at Cheyenne.
* * * * *
We have just passed thirty snow-sheds at Rock Creek, and have seen some
wolves and some antelopes roaming about. We looked for buffaloes, but
the only buffalo we saw was the mild Bill, who sat quietly reading a
magazine, looking at us with his soft-brown eyes.
We were very high up in the Rocky Mountains. All around us was snow,
and the view of the blue mountains, the tops of which were quite white,
looked beautiful in the distance. There were some Indians on horseback
drawn up in file as the train went by. They had all their war-paint on,
were covered with picturesque blankets, and their feather head-dresses
reached over their horses' backs; they had buckskin leggings covered
with beads, which made them look very picturesque. They looked stolidly
and indifferently at us while we stared at them admiringly from the car
windows. The prairie-dogs looked like squirrels "sitting up so cute,"
as Miss C. said, "dodging in and out of their holes."
At one of the stations a whole band of Indians climbed into the train
with guttural war-whoops and invaded the baggage-car. We thought we
were being "held up," but they behaved themselves very well. The
thought of Buffalo Bill, to say nothing of Mr. Holmes of Texas with his
pistols, reassured us; and the only difference that the presence of the
Indians made to us was that we avoided the baggage-car for our midday
meal.
At another station a quantity of loafers, mostly Indians, smelling
dreadfully of whisky, surrounded us and begged for money. Among them an
old Indian woman who looked like the witch of Endor (they said she was
over a hundred years old) stretched out a long, bony, orang-outang arm,
and when we gave her a few cents the old thing actually grinned with
joy. It was painful to see this creature with the accumulated look of
greed on her withered old brown face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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