One of Buffalo Bill's many stories!!

The Lovable Rogue
by Philip Rand
An amusing accident made Bill Cody the
Greatest Showman Produced in America

On the afternoon of May 12, 1869 a squatly built man, with puffy fat on his body, deep dark circles under his eyes and his breast covered with medals strode up to a wagon at Fort McPherson, Nebraska. Under this wagon a man was sleeping off a drunk, snoring happily and loudly. The be-meddled man reached down and yanked him to his feet. “Who are you?” he demanded of the drunk. The drunk was better than six feet and with a strikingly handsome face. He was young, not much more than thirty. He blinked his eyes, trying to collect his thoughts. “Hell,” he finally answered, “I'm Bill Cody. Who are you and what do you want?”“My name is Ned Buntline” the man with the medals answered, looking Cody up and down much as a horse buyer does an animal. “You'll do,” he added. “General North tells me your other name is Buffalo Bill.” “That's what some people call me,”
Cody answered, still puzzled. “You want to hire a guide”?
“No,” Buntline countered “I have a lot better use for you”On that afternoon was born the amusing and absurd legend of Buffalo Bill, as a great scout and great Indian fighter. It has come cascading down through history, increasing in in absurdity with each retelling. Ned Buntline's choice of Bill Cody was something of an accident. Buntline had gone to Fort McPherson to persuade General North for permission to use him as a hero in a Dime Novel. The General wasn't interested suggested if Buntline wanted a hero, he might go out to the wagon where Cody was sleeping off a drunk and he would find one.

Buntline was not a man to be particular about his heroes as long as he had free reign in picturing the hero as performing marvelous and impossible feats of bravery and daring.

His Dime Novel with Buffalo Bill as the hero had all this and more. No scout who rode the plains had such daring, such unerring aim, or killed as many Indians. No human ever went through as many barrages of bullets, suffered as many wounds, had so many scars on his body. Buffalo bill is probably the only man who was scalped many times and yet retained a wonderful head of flowing hair

The facts about Bill Cody prior to the time Ned Buntline picked him out from under the wagon are these: he was born in Nebraska of loving parents, he had three sisters who adored him, but who were never fooled by the stories written about him. His younger sister summed it up when she said. "Bill was the sweetest and the most terrible liar I ever knew. He was so good that he had us believing alot of things written about him. "The one person best qualified to tell about the scars on this body was his charming and beautiful wife. She said "The only scar Bill ever had was on his forehead where he fell down drunk." Jack Crawford, poet and newspaper man and who knew Bill Cody better than anybody she in his early days, wrote, "He never got a scratch, never killed an Indian. "Cody himself, in later years commented humorously, "What terrible things they wrote about me. ;)

He did ride the Pony Express, and being a good horseman, did set records for speed, but none of this involved any danger. Around Ellsworth and Hays where supposed to have hunted Buffalo you can still hear old timers claim that Cody got his nick name, "Buffalo Bill' because he was such a poor shot and killed so few buffalo.

As a youth Cody was tall and handsome, the heart throb of many girls. He was likeable, friendly, generous to a fault, addicted to whiskey. Even as a youth his drunks were famous.

When he was 20, he fell in love with the beautiful Lois Frederici,  a St. Louis beauty. They were married, and to the credit of Cody, his love for his charming wife never wavered, even if at time the marriage did go through some rocky seas.

He had a flourishing business, that of a Hotel Owner, his acquaintances from far and wide journeyed to Leavenworth to patronize their old friend. The big hitch was that none of them bothered to pay room and board so within 6 months the hotel went broke. He took his young wife to Fort McPherson in Nebraska. Here she made the living for the two by taking in sewing. Cody raced horses, lost large sums, sometimes guided cavalry units . He did, on occasion make big money as a guide for Eastern dudes and European nobility.

It was at McPherson that he had his one and only encounter with the Indians. Blood didn't flow freely this encounter. Cody's prize horse was Powder Face and the Indians stole Powder Face as well as General Sheridan's favorite steed. Infuriated a the loss of his pony, Cody, with a few soldiers, gave chase. When the Indians saw they might be overtaken they abandoned the stolen horses and disappeared.

General Sheridan was so delighted to get his horse back that he recommended Cody for the Medal of Honor, which at that time was given free. For years during his career as a showman, this Medal of Honor was played up by Cody's publicity men. In 1917 the war department, checking on Cody's medal as well as many others, struck Cody's name from the list of immortal heros Buffalo Bill's career can be divided two arts the fictionalized version of Ned Buntline and Cody's fame as a great showman. It is ironical that Ned Buntline the man who picked Cody obscurity and made him one of our great heroes of the Old West should inadvertently be the cause of him starting his amazing career as an actor and showman.

I will add more later after some more research and link him to our family and their rodeo experiences.

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a Midi played by Bruce Deboer
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