Zitat des Tages von Buffalo Bill:
The Free State men, myself among them, took it for granted that Missouri was a slave state.
My debut upon the world's stage occurred on February 26, 1845, in the State of Iowa.
Wild Bill was a strange character. In person he was about six feet and one inch in height. He was a Plains-man in every sense of the word.
I thought I was benefiting the Indians as well as the government, by taking them all over the United States, and giving them a correct idea of the customs, life, etc., of the pale faces, so that when they returned to their people they could make known all they had seen.
Washington newspaper men know everything.
The audience, upon learning that the real Buffalo Bill was present, gave several cheers between the acts.
My mother's sympathies were strongly with the Union. She knew that war was bound to come, but so confident was she in the strength of the Federal Government that she devoutly believed that the struggle could not last longer than six months at the utmost.
My restless, roaming spirit would not allow me to remain at home very long.
The Indians kept increasing in numbers until it was estimated that we were fighting from 800 to 1,000 of them.
I had many enemies among the Sioux; I would be running considerable risk in meeting them.
The McCarthy boys, at the proper moment, gave orders to fire upon the advancing enemy.
I had the best buffalo horse that ever made a track.
I felt only as a man can feel who is roaming over the prairies of the far West, well armed, and mounted on a fleet and gallant steed.
On reaching the place where the Indians had surprised us, we found the bodies of the three men whom they had killed and scalped, and literally cut into pieces.
Major North has had for years complete power over these Indians and can do more with them than any man living.
My brother was a great favorite with everybody, and his death cast a gloom upon the whole neighborhood.
General Custer was a close observer and student of personal character.
Quick as lightning Wild Bill pulled his revolver. The stranger fell dead, shot through the brain.
Indians were frequently off their reservations.
Having secured my Indian actors, I started for Baltimore, where I organized my combination, and which was the largest troupe I had yet had on the road.
Nothing of course was ever done to Bill for the killing of Tutt.
But the West of the old times, with its strong characters, its stern battles and its tremendous stretches of loneliness, can never be blotted from my mind.
But the love of adventure was in father's blood.
We had avoided discovery by the Sioux scouts, and we were confident of giving them a complete surprise.
The Confederates had suspected Wild Bill of being a spy for two or three days, and had watched him closely.
Excitement was plentiful during my two years' service as a Pony Express rider.
Major North and myself went out in advance of the command several miles and killed a number of buffaloes.
Stations were built at intervals averaging fifteen miles apart. A rider's route covered three stations, with an exchange of horses at each, so that he was expected at the beginning to cover close to forty-five miles - a good ride when one must average fifteen miles an hour.
With the help of a friend I got father into a wagon, when the crowd had gone. I held his head in my lap during the ride home. I believed he was mortally wounded. He had been stabbed down through the kidneys, leaving an ugly wound.
Some days I would go without any fire at all, and eat raw frozen meat and melt snow in my mouth for water.
It was because of my great interest in the West, and my belief that its development would be assisted by the interest I could awaken in others, that I decided to bring the West to the East through the medium of the Wild West Show.
It was my effort, in depicting the West, to depict it as it was.
As a good horse is not very apt to jump over a bank, if left to guide himself, I let mine pick his own way.
My great forte in killing buffaloes was to get them circling by riding my horse at the head of the herd and shooting their leaders. Thus the brutes behind were crowded to the left, so that they were soon going round and round.
I was persuaded now that I was destined to lead a life on the Plains.
My first plan of escape having failed, I now determined upon another.