ARRIVAL OF THE WILD WEST SHOW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8361, 15 September 1890, Page 5

ARRIVAL OF THE WILD WEST SHOW.

The mail steamer Zealandia, which arrived from San Francisco on Saturday, brought down to Auckland the members of the long-expected Wild West Show which the enterprise of Messrs. Wirth Brothers is introducing to Australasia. Though the hour of the steamer's arrival was a very inconvenient one, Messrs. Wirth Brothers and their business manager, Mr. Alexander, were on the wharf ready to receive their friends, who came down under the guidance of Mr. Harry Wirth, ho having specially gone to America to engage the Indians and cowboys who constitute the groat feature of the exhibition. No time was lost in getting all safely ashore, where provision for their convenient housing had been already made. All were in good health and spirits; and though arrangements for settling the Indians in tents—a mode of life they much prefer to house-dwelling—have not yet been completed they were temporarily disposed in good quarters. The Indians are in charge of Capt. Jack Sutton, whose fame as a scout in the Wild West, is equalled by his success as a controller and organiser of " show " parties of redskins. Captain Sutton, who always appears in the picturesque costume of a cowboy, is a native of Texas, and served under the " Stars and Stripes " during seven campaigns during the troublous times with the South in the "seventies." Another prominent character amongst the cowboys is Charlie Meadows, a young ranchero from Arizona, where he possesses an ample property. He is acknowledged to be the smartest " roper" in the West, and has in many competitions proved his right to the title. The Indians are from three different tribes : the Sioux, noted as the bravest yet most treacherous of native American races ; the Caughnagua, a Canadian nation of great excellence as voyageurs, and from whom General Gordon took a contingent for work on the Nile; and the Yumas, from Arizona, a race of grand physique and wonderful enduring powers as runners. By the Zealandia Messrs. Percy Ryan and his wife, Lulu, and W. Akarman and his wife, Pearl—a quartette of American variety artists and comedians of repute— arrived in Auckland, and will contribute the concerts which are to form no unimportant feature of Messrs. Wirth Bros', aggregation of wonders.