HOW BUFFALO BILL MADE HIS FORTUNE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1664, 20 January 1904, Page 14

HOW BUFFALO BILL MADE HIS FORTUNE

(Frederick Moore in “Pearson’s Magazine.”)

Cody was chief of scout® with the army corps which was assigned to the protection of tho workmen constructing the first trans-continental railway. But there was not much pay in scouting, and he ■now had a family depending upon liim. It was a great question with the Kam<sas Pacific constructors how to feed the army of workmen. They were surfeited with salt pork, and that commodity was worth almost its weight in silver when it got out to the most advanced camp. There were 1200 men cutting the way to the west, as many more building the roadbeds, and still another thousand laying the rails. The track® .spun out in a day as far as a horse could travel. Construction trains congested the way, and from the end of -the tracks to* the camps in advance the line of ox waggons was almost endless. And the buffaloes were a nuisance. At times they travelled in such denselypacked herds that no human power could swerve them from their course. Often they chose to cross the railway, and for hours held up the work trains. Cody put in liis spare time slaughtering buffalos©, disposing of their meat to the men in the camps, and sending their hides to the east. The commissariat department suddenly realised that fresh meat of “the best quality was right at hand, and to be had for less: money than salt pork. The commissariat contractor sent for Cody and asked him at what price he would! undertake to supply the entire force—from one end of the line to ti.e other—with buffalo meat. The two men bargained for a while, and then agreed upon a ©alary of <£loo a month. This was the best salary that wa® being paid on the work, but the commissariat man calculated that Cody would have to hire a force of hunter® and butchers. Actually, he enlisted the services of one man alittle redi-heiad-ed SCof© butcher known by no other name than “‘Scotty.’’- As regular as tho sun is m the east ai herd of buffaloes appeared m the south, and crossed the plains to the north. The Indians had a superstition that they never returned, that they were swallowed up in the cold- country by ike Great Father. So it seemed They bred in the warm climates and died in the cold. , , ~ ,; In Kansas alone, between the years c*i >7O and To, 9,500,000 of these anumus wore slaughtered. Buffalo robes now worth hundreds of dollars, sold in these days for lies© than half a sovereign apiece. Tho crime of exterminating the American bi&on i© a ©in of omission ion tbe part of the Congress of the United States. Now, when there are but a few hundred of the animals left, the Government is seeking to protect the species by legislation, and Buffalo Bill, by the way, bas been appointed custodian) of the last of the lordly beasts. Of course, when Cody fed tho railway builders no one on earth believed it was possible to mow the buffalo down to the bolder® of extinction in less than twenty years. The first time he started after buffalo for the Kansas Pacific, Cody shouted to tho waggon boss as he passed on his fleet *pony: “Send a couple of teams after me!”

“Come back and! tell ina you’ve shut the buffaloes and then I’ll send the waggons,” was the reply of the man in charge of them.

'The herd! was not a large one, about forty or fifty head. Cody and “S'cotty” got to the off-side of the leaders and travelled with them, gradually pushing them round until they headed! straigat for the mess tent.. . Then tin© little Scotsman fell back and came up on the other side, and the two men kept the herd travelling in a direct line up to the very snot where they were needed. There, swinging them round like cowboys do stampeded cattle, until they travelled after each other in a circle, Cody picked

out twenty in about a® many shots, and! started the. other© off in the direction from which ho had brought them. One of the men who had witnessed this, suggested “furaishin’ grub and inakin’ it transport itself." Cody fed the builders of the first railway to the Pacific for a year and a half, and in that time supplied the commissariat with 4280 buffaloes—about eight a, day including Sundays. Winter or summer the supply waa never short. Naturally the name of Buffalo Bill fastened, itself uipon the young man. The buffaloes themselves would seldom give battle, but on the other hand the stupid creature© had no respect for life. Once Cody and “Scotty” were seated at the foot of a long hill quietly consuming their midday meal, when over the crest caniie a stampede that extended in-each direction as far as the eye could see. Cody and his man grabbed their guns and jumped on to their horses For an hour they rode at a full gallop; first to the oast and then to the west, but no end of the Una cam© in view. “Scotty’s” horse was fast, but short-winded. It grew weak, stumbled, and fell exhausted. Brigham, Cody’s horse, was worn out too, and there was no knowing when, the chase by the maddened animals would! end.

There was but-a moment for thought. Cody jumped from his horse, and the two men drew up behind the fallen animal. With their rifles and pistol® they picked off half a dozen of the buffaloes directly in front of them. These formed! a harrier and successfully split the herd. Brigham had followed hi© master, and stood like a statue until the drove passed. The hunter and the butcher rode back to camp, both on Brigham’s back.