09 - Chapter 9. Annie Oakley, Woman at Arms by Courtney Ryley Cooper.

09 - Chapter 9. Annie Oakley, Woman at Arms by Courtney Ryley Cooper.  
Annie Oakley was without a doubt the greatest markswomen who ever lived. She was christened Phoebe Ann Mosey but was called Annie from childhood. Oakley was the stage name that she assumed when she first started to perform with Frank Butler. From obscure and impoverished beginnings, she made herself into the best known woman of her time, propelled by an indomitable spirit and an uncanny shooting ability. We learn of her enduring marriage to Frank Butler and their first meeting — a shooting match in which the seemingly delicate young girl defeated the professional marksman; her association with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show and its triumphal tour through Europe and America; the train crash that nearly took her life and her years as an actress and teacher. Yet with all her many successes she preserved her warmth, dedication and integrity. Her story remains to this day one of the grandest to have come out of the Old West.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter nine of Annie Oakley Woman at Arms by Courtney
Riley Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Barry Eads, Chapter nine. The old Madison Square
Garden had formed a great field of endeavor for Messrs
Cody and Salisbury, and there the show often had played

(00:22):
to attendances as high as thirty thousand persons in a
single day. The New York papers had been filled with
the achievements of the organization. New stunts had been added.
Annie Oakley had essayed Wild West Riding of the type
known as trick riding, but with a side saddle instead
of the safer astride saddle which is used to day,

(00:43):
and the show had practically doubled in size and performance
since its wandering days. It was therefore not unusual that
when a group of American capitalists decided to venture their
money upon an exhibition of American products in England, that
they should seek the aid of the two Western showmen
to furnish the amusement. The exhibition labored under the top

(01:05):
heavy title of an Exhibition of the Arts, Industries, manufactures,
products and Resources of the United States, which happily was
shortened by common usage to the American Exhibition. It was
to continue for some two months in England, and the
Buffalo Bill Show, if it would take the journey, would

(01:26):
be entitled to a percentage of the entire gate receipts.
It was a rather fortunate idea on the part of
the promoters. From the yellowed clippings, which remain as testimony
to the exhibition of arts, industries and other things, one
gains the opinion that the British isles could have existed
wonderfully well without a glimpse at any of them, but

(01:47):
England did care about the wild West, and thereby hang
many tales. Preparations now were made for making the show
even greater, the addition of more crack shots, the augmenting
of the Indian contingent until it included more than one
hundred representatives of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Kiawa, Pawnee, and Agialala tribes.

(02:08):
While among the chieftains was Red Shirt, a redoubtable warrior
on his own home grounds and second only in power
to Sitting Bull himself. There were more cowboys and the
first cowboy band, Mexican Wild Riders, Buffalo Texas, Steers, Burroughs, Broncos,
racing horses, elk bears, and numerous other attractions in numbers

(02:30):
sufficient that when the problem of transportation arose, the promoters
found that it could be solved only by the chartering
of an entire steamer. Thus, on March thirty first, eighteen
eighty seven, while the Cowboy Band played the Girl I
Left Behind Me a rather appropriate number if the adulation
given the modern rodeo hand at a New York exhibition

(02:52):
forms any criteria for other exhibits of the past. The
good Ship State of Nebraska set sail for England with
everything from tents to Indians, who, according to the tradition
of their tribes, would proceed at once to melt away
to skin and bones, and then depart solace into a
new world where there could be no happy hunting grounds

(03:13):
because of the water. The tradition increased to a certainty
about the time the ship began to roll. Even Redshirt,
whose main reputation had been gained by walking into the
camp of a rival who strove to steal his chieftainship
and thoroughly killing that Indian insurrectionist before the eyes of
his wife, admitted that there was a good deal to

(03:34):
the superstition, and that he felt reasonably sure he was
about to die. Never perhaps had there been a more
disconsolate band of Indians As for Annie Oakley. She had
speedily made the acquaintance of the captain and been given
the right to the bridge. It was here she stood
one day. One who reviews the history of Annie Oakley
would expect nothing else when the smash of a storm

(03:57):
rolled down upon the ship, lashing it in the crash
of waves and the roll of billow until Miss Oakley
decided that perhaps she had better go below, but she
was halted even as she started. The descent was too dangerous.
Then came the news the buffalo Bill wild West was
adrift and helpless upon a ship with an injured propeller,

(04:18):
and every hour bringing more damage to the boat. For
forty eight hours, the state of Nebraska drifted helpless in
the trough of the sea, while below Indians feared to die,
and likewise feared they wouldn't. The hard riding, hard shooting
buffalo Bill wobbled weakly about, sick, as he expressed it,
as a cow critter with hollowhorn horses jammed against each

(04:40):
other in the holds. Buffalo strove to stampede, wild eyed
cowpunchers wished for the broad prairie once more, and the
buffalo bill wild West faced extinction. Ten of those forty
eight hours, Annioakley noted, I spent wrapped in a seafaring
oil skin, with head protected by a southwester straps securely

(05:00):
on the captain's deck. Just why I was allowed there
I never knew, but I learned the power of the
mighty waves. It was a glorious sight our boat being
dashed from side to side. I felt that one foot
further and we would be turned bottom side up. For
forty eight hours, the old grizzled Scotch captain never left
the deck. Double watches were placed on every post. Before

(05:24):
I left the bridge, the word came up already, meaning
that the necessary repairs to the propeller had been made,
and the boat executed a dangerous turn and headed toward England.
We had drifted two hundred and forty six miles out
of our course. Not a passenger except my husband and
myself knew the true danger. We all had been in.

(05:45):
Foggy England was double welcomed. After that, two weeks of
rehearsals and the show opened at what was known as
Earl's Court, purporting to give what the programs called America's
National Entertainment, and the protracted engagement which saved the life
of the American Exhibition was on a year or so ago.
This rider had opportunity to gage just how literally London

(06:09):
took that subtitle of America's National entertainment. A rare thing
had happened a sunshiny day in London, and I strolled
past Piccadilly Circus, up a narrow lane of a street,
then off at another angle, finally to find myself in
what might have been called a square had it not
been so multi angular. Across one of the slanting streets,

(06:31):
I saw a boarding stable, and before it something which
caused me from the west to look closer. Then I
started forward hurriedly. The first glance had been correct. The
exhibit was a collection of some hundred rope in saddles,
such as the kind one sees upon the ranches of Colorado,
Wyoming and Montana. Rather amazing that such things should find

(06:53):
a resting place within ten minutes walk of Piccadilly and
the strand, yet they were the true saddles. Here was
one bearing the stamp of a saddle maker in Fort Worth, Texas.
Another came from Pueblo, Colorado. Still others from Miles City, Montana,
Salt Lake City, and other towns of the West. Amazed,

(07:13):
I sought the cockney owner and made inquiries. Oh, Buffalo
Bill E started it, he said. Eke him over ere
with his show, and the swells took him up. You know,
then they must ride like the Americans. Well, it rather
started a fad, do you call it? We've added trade
in the bloody things ever since Buffalo Bill invaded England

(07:37):
forty years ago. That a fad started by him should exist,
even in a small sense that length of time is
evidence enough of the furor which his show created. Yet,
the invasion of America's national entertainment found England at first
decidedly cagey, regarding both the exposition and the amusement enterprise

(07:57):
which had been brought along to furnish the diverse. There was,
to a large extent a certain amount of anti Yankee feeling,
together with a total lack of understanding what all this
shouting of savages and bluster of cowboys was about. True,
the arrival awakened interest, and the speed with which the
show worked as it arrived in London, traveled some twelve

(08:20):
miles to the grounds, set up tents, equipment, reorganized. After
the long journey across the sea, the landing at Gravesend,
and the travel by train into London, put up the
cook tents, leveled the ground, stayed out the arena, and
put the show into shape for the beginning of rehearsals
the next day, all in less than ten hours. Copious

(08:41):
articles were printed in the various papers about Yankee ingenuity
and American speed, but when the performance came there was
at times at least a noticeable animosity in many quarters.
A part of this was due to a natural antipathy.
Still more was caused by the fact that the show,
at such greatly augmented since its last appearance in America,

(09:04):
was top heavy and poorly generaled, the acts not yet
having been put in their proper sphere. But a great
part of it was caused by the fact that the
English did not understand Indians were to them far away things. Cowboys,
to the literal English mind, would not ride on really
wild horses of their own accord. Certainly, they must be

(09:25):
trained to these things, and very tame when not working
in the ring, and so it went. But there was
one act that they did grasp, and that was the
work of Annie Oakley. If one is to judge by
the aged clippings describing the beginnings of Buffalo Bill's sojourn
in London, one inevitably comes to the conclusion that the

(09:46):
little Western from Dark County, Ohio played an exceptionally heavy
role in maintaining the wave of popularity which became the
lot of Cody and Salisbury. It was a relief when
Annie Oakley appeared, said one of the most powerful critics.
Somehow the vast audience expected to see something, and they
were not disappointed, for she shattered the flying missiles with

(10:09):
precision and dramatic effect. Thus ran many of the reviews,
while the rest of them, in the main complimentary, indicated
that the failure of the Buffalo Bill Wild West would
please at least a few. To wit quote went Buffalo
Billing at the American Exhibition, one could hardly mistake the
nationality of the majority of the audience. The enormous headgear

(10:32):
warned by the women, would betray them as Yankees anywhere
an overgrown circus seems an awkward remark to make of
the entertainment our American cousins are providing us with. But
despite the fact that being Jubilee year, and that naturally
we are loving every nation and everybody, and also despite
Cannon Farar's prayer, Buffalo Bill's exhibition is neither more nor

(10:55):
less than a hippodrome on an enormous scale of it
we have seen before, either at Convent Garden or at Olympia.
How different from a later review when public sentiment had,
as if by a miracle, undergone a wonderful change, and
the Buffalo Bill Show was the most talked of thing

(11:17):
in London. For here is a vastly variant viewpoint quote
saving for Buffalo Bill's show, The American Exhibition is a
ghastly failure. It is all very well to say that
it is not complete yet neither was the Colonial and
Indian Exhibition last year at the Outset. But what a

(11:37):
difference from the present ill sorted congarees of uninteresting trifles.
From the fair trade point of view, it is satisfactory
to find that this introduction of American products free of
duty into our country is not likely in any way
to damage our home markets. The products are in homely
phrase not good enough. Far different must be our report

(11:59):
of Buffalo Bill, who is a grand success. On Monday,
the audience which crowded the vast Amphitheater with its twenty
thousand seats, was thoroughly representative. Glancing at the boxes, we
noticed one in the possession of Lady Randolph Churchill and party.
A regular Savoy box contained Misterrs Gilbert and Sullivan and

(12:21):
de oily Cart, while mister Charles Wyndham and his following
occupied another. Missrs Toole and Thorn occupied another, And on
all sides familiar faces were visible. Mister Augustus Harris, mister
Oscar Wilde, Miss Marie Lyndon, Miss Emily Thorn, mister Huey Drummond,

(12:42):
Colonel Hughes Hallett, and innumerable others. These were all important
names in London in eighteen eighty seven, the year of
Queen Victoria's jubilee, And it had been these names, and
others of greater and lesser degree, which had sent a
tidal wave of popular ularity surging in the direction of
Colonel William Frederick Cody and his show, of which Annie

(13:05):
Oakley formed an important part. The first adherents had been
largely American Yankees attending an exhibition from their home country.
Then gradually that strata known as society had become interested
in the portrayals of Indian massacres, cowboy amusements, Western shooting events,
and what not. The fancy soon had become a fad,

(13:28):
And while the lesser trailed in the wake of the great,
and the dollars tinkled into the till of the firm
of Cody and Salisbury. Those who would have gladly seen
the Yankee buffalo bill fail ignominiously yapped and chattered without avail.
But they continued nevertheless, in a manner best indicated by
the following remarks from a London comment column of eighteen

(13:50):
eighty seven. The buffalo bill fearer is becoming ridiculous. Colonel
Cody is no doubt an eminent man in his way,
and for boss in a show, even the great Barnum
in his best days could not surpass him. But are
these credentials sufficient to justify an outburst of fashionable fetish worship.

(14:11):
London society should remember the shame which fell upon it
for its adoration of that black miscreant seed o' wayo.
On the whole I cannot but consider it a mistake
for Lord Beresford to have given the Yankee showman a
mount on the box seat of his drag at the
Coaching Club meet. No bless oblige there is a want

(14:31):
of congruity in the companionship of an illustrious officer who
fills an important position in the government with a gentleman
chiefly famed as an adroit scalper of red Indians. I
do not blame Buffalo Bill. My censure is confined to
the fashionable throng who pay their devotion at such a shrine.

(14:53):
From that may be seen the thoroughly hearty welcome which
a great part of the rank and file of England
was willing to extend to the man who, in this
country is not looked upon as much as an adroit
scalper of Indians as a builder of the tremendous West
and its civilization. And when Buffalo Bill was mentioned in
this tempo, the same went for all the rest of

(15:14):
the show in greater or lesser degree. But strange to say,
it only increased the popularity of the performers. At this time,
Annie Oakley was receiving literally tons of flowers from those
who had admired her work in the arena, and who
had met her following the performances. It became a part
of her daily duties when four times a day the

(15:35):
heavy laden parcel post came in to sort out the
gifts of the upper strata of London, then send them
on their way, anew that they might perform a more
humane duty in London hospitals than that of withering upon
an exhibition grounds Society. London Society was demonstrating that perhaps
the snobbery accredited it existed more in the classes which

(15:59):
strove to ape it than in its own ranks. More
and more the vitriolic pens of lampoonists and columnists of
the day commented upon the furor. But even as the
jibes were printed, the Solemn Society columns of the same
papers bore an increasingly long list of notables who had
attended the performances of the Adroit Scalper, Little sure Shot

(16:21):
and the rest of the American aggregation. But there was
one portal at which the scribes were forced to halt.
That was the door of royalty. The Prince of Wales
later King Edward of England, loved the outdoors its sports
and its activities, even before the Wild West buildings were finished,
while the track was incomplete, and while arrangements were still

(16:44):
in a somewhat chaotic state, he had sent a communication
from Marlborough House that had resulted in a special performance
for the Prince and Princess and their party, consisting of
their three daughters, the Princesses Louise, Victoria and Maud, the
Marquis of Lorne and Princess Louise his wife, the Duke
of Cambridge, the Comptesse to Paris, the Crown Prince of Denmark,

(17:08):
and numerous lords and ladies in waiting. It was this
visit which had given to society its real impetus, and
it was to be followed by more examples of royal
support that would end forever the common run of objection
to the invasion of the Yankee Show, and do much
to wipe out what was but poorly veiled American antipathy

(17:29):
of a most heightened character. No one has ever given
either Buffalo Bill or Annie Oakley the political dignity of
being ambassadors to foreign lands. Yet when one reads the
press comments of English papers at the beginning of the
Buffalo Bill Show in London, and follows those same papers
through to the time when the wild West departed. One

(17:50):
may easily see that something more than an exhibition of
Western Antics was given at Earl's Court. A communion was
established between England and America, which wiped out many false
ideas and resulted in a general feeling of friendship that
has grown steadily to this day. And unofficially, of course,
there was even more of a diplomatic character to one

(18:12):
incident in which Annie Oakley played far more of a
leading part than she knew. In spite of the unfinished
condition of affairs, Buffalo Bill had determined that the show
should be given for the Prince and Princess on the
day specified the royal party arrived, the grand entree was made,
other various events run through, and at last Annie Oakley

(18:33):
came forth to shoot. The act made an instantaneous hit
with the Royal Party, with the result that a request
went forth that the young lady of the Unerring Aim
be presented to the Prince and Princess. She went forward,
But the story is best told in the naive notes
of Annie Oakley herself. As the last gun I had

(18:54):
used lay on the table, still smoking, with the heat.
The Prince of Wales, who with Alexandria occupied the lower
center box, asked if I might be presented our orator,
Frank Richmond, who stood at a corner of their box,
gave a slight inclination of his head as I bowed
to them. I went into the box. What a fine

(19:15):
looking college bred man, our Frank Richmond was. His presentation
speech was your Royal Highnesses, I have the honor to
present Annie Oakley. I had heard a great deal about
how women tried to flirt with the Prince while the
gentle Princess held her peace, and now it all ran
before me. An English born lady would not have dared

(19:36):
to have done as I did. They must speak to
royalty according to the station of the royal personages. The
Prince's hand came over the low front of the box
as they all rose to their feet. I ignored it
and quickly proffered my hand to his princess. She did
not offer the tips of her fingers, expecting me to
kneel and kiss them, but took my hand gently in

(19:57):
her own, saying what a wonderful girl. Nor was his
Highness displeased at what I had dared to do, for
he too shook my hand warmly when I turned from
the princess to him, and after I had bowed far
enough to turn my back, he made this remark loud
enough for the whole assembly to hear. What a pity
there are not more women in the world like that

(20:20):
little one end But evidently Annie Oakley didn't explain all
this at the time to Colonel William Frederick Cody, for
in his memoirs there is a widely different version of
the affair. Quote Our lady shot expert, on being presented
at the finish, committed the little mistake of offering to
shake hands with the princess, For be it known, feminine

(20:42):
royalty offers the hand back uppermost, which the person presented
is expected to lift with fingertips and salute with the lips. However,
the princess was quick to perceive, and she solved the
situation by taking the proffered hand, somewhat shaded with gunpowder,
and shaking it heartily, which displays, after all, that everything

(21:03):
lies in the viewpoint. But be that as it may,
Prince Edward was evidently far from displeased. It was not
long afterward that early one morning, a message arrived in camp.
It read quote, Colonel William Frederick Cody, Dear Sir, will
the little girl Annie Oakley, who shoots so cleverly in
your show, object to shooting a friendly match with the

(21:26):
Grand Duke Michael of Russia. We will arrive at Earl's
Court at ten thirty this morning Edward end quote. There
was nothing to do but except the future King of
England had commanded Little Sureshot to an international match. Nor
did either of them know that the command might also
lead to the breaking of one end of Chapter nine