August 20, 2025 • 18 mins
10 - Chapter 10. 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.
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.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of Annie Oakley, Woman at Arms by Courtney
Riley Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Barry Eads. Chapter ten. The request of the
Prince of Wales brought consternation and much argument to the
camp of the Buffalo Bill wild West. Go on, said
(00:21):
Nate Salisbury, you can beat him. Hold on there, Buffalo
Bill broke in. There's just the hitch. She shouldn't beat
the Grand Duke. That'd be terrible. Thus the argument went on,
Cody the showman, believing that one should do the proper
thing at all times, especially when a Grand Duke of
Russia believed himself a good shot. But Annie Oakley and
(00:43):
her husband had a different idea. If what we hear
of him is true, said miss Oakley, I won't have
to let him beat me. I'll have to do my
best shooting to even tie him. Shoot him off his feet,
said Nate Salisbury, while the bewhiskered. Major Burke, press agent
extraordinary all but wept to be so unkind to royalty.
(01:04):
The conference at last was over, and Frank Butler and
his wife went into the arena where the contest was
to be held. There they made use of a little
private information. The Grand Duke bore the reputation of being
one of the best shots in Russia, but from what
Annie Oakley and her husband had heard of him, he
got his best results on clay birds, which flew about
(01:26):
forty yards from the trap, a slower flight than Annie
Oakley prepared for him on that day of their private match.
We'll just make it a good test, she said, and
ordered the traps screwed down to sixty five yards. That'll
be something to shoot at. Promptly, at ten thirty o'clock,
according to Annie Oakley's recital, four carriages rolled into the
(01:47):
wild West Grounds. They contained Edward, the Prince of Wales, Alexandra,
the Princess of Wales, the Duke of Clarence, George now
King of England, the Grand Duke Michael of Russia and
his suite, the Princess Louise, the Princess Maud, and one
very important personage in the eyes of the Grand Duke Michael,
(02:07):
the Princess Victoria of England, daughter of the Prince of Wales.
Much had been printed regarding the Grand Duke and the
Princess Victoria. The English papers had not been at all
hesitant about, stating that Michael was in England upon a
special mission, that of uniting the two countries by persuading
a marriage in which the Princess Victoria and himself were
(02:29):
to be the principles. Some opposed the marriage, others were
in favor of it. The contest began, the winner to
be judged by the best score out of fifty targets,
while the royal party assembled in the boxes to watch
the battle, or what had been meant for one, because
after all, it wasn't. By the time the first ten
targets had been sprung, Annie Oakley had moved into the lead.
(02:53):
When thirty had been reached, the Grand Duke Michael was
fighting hard, but with a handicap which seemed impossible to overcome,
and when the end of the match arrived, it brought
a result by which Annie Oakley had missed only three
targets out of fifty, while the Grand Duke of Russia
had failed on fourteen. Then began a perfect torrent of
lampooning in those papers unfavorable to the Grand Duke's alleged mission.
(03:18):
Shooting had been Michael's hobby and one of his claims
to fame. Other, of course, than that of occupying the
position of importance which he held in Russia. He had
failed in a match of his own seeking, and the
fact gave to those conducting the campaign of publicity against
him a weapon by which to thrust and jibe and jeer,
as evidenced by the following from the Evening News and
(03:40):
Telephone of London shortly following the event, quote fame, but
not notoriety is silent about this noble scion of Russia,
who is said to have visited this country not alone
for the purpose of attending Her Majesty's jubilee, but to
find a wife from among the daughters of the Prince
of Wales. Whatever may be the faults of the Grand Duke,
(04:02):
and reports say that they are very many, he must
be credited with the great love of sport of all kinds,
and in his own country he is a great and
generous patron of everything connected with sport. Only a day
or two ago he asked to be allowed to enter
into competition with Miss Annie Oakley at the Wild West
Show at Earl's Court, which permission was at once accorded.
(04:26):
But although the Grand Duke made a fairly good score,
it showed but poorly in comparison with that of his
fair competitor, and he retired from the contest abashed, but
firmly convinced of the superiority of American markswoman over Russia
amateur lady shots. As for the rest of the unfavorable lampoonists,
(04:47):
it was the most amazing and unexpected publicity I ever experienced,
said Annie Oakley in later years, as she jotted down
notes of her memories. The papers that were against his
courting exports addition, were pink with sarcastic accounts of this
dashing cavalier who was outdone at his own game by
a little girl from America, of this lachanvar who was
(05:10):
no match for short dresses, and whose warlike career faded
before the onset of the American kindergarten. Whether all this
had anything to do with what followed, I, of course
can only guess. But about that time the engagement was
broken off, and the opposition papers announced that Annie Oakley
of the Magic Gun had won two matches at once
(05:30):
from the Grand Duke, the shooting trophy and the hand
of the Princess, for the glory of her sex and
the whole world of princesses from the Isle of Man
to America. As for the Prince of Wales, the loss
of that match by the Grand Duke of Russia apparently
caused but little disfavor. Certainly he showed none toward the
wild West, nor toward Miss Oakley. In fact, the Prince
(05:53):
popular idol of England that he was sportsman and outdoor enthusiasts,
formed the greatest ally which the Buffalo Bill Show possessed.
There came the time when he would drop around unexpectedly
and without his suite, drawn by the magnet of his friendship.
For Cody, from Miss Oakley and the entire show for
that matter, he knew the cowboys, He visited the stables
(06:16):
and learned about bucking broncos from the men who rode them.
He talked to the Indians with a special preference for
red shirt, and in an unofficial way, became a sort
of royal patron for the entire exhibition. As for Cody,
he and the Prince of Wales became excellent companions. Sandringham
Castle became a fairly familiar sight to a man who, once,
(06:37):
as he expressed it, would have been tickled pink. If
the Mayor of Leavenworth, Kansas, had deigned to shake hands
with him. There even came the time when Buffalo Bill
further cemented the bonds between England and America by teaching
his Royal Highness that most American game draw poker, later
leading to complications for the Prince. As for Annie Oakley,
(06:59):
she received as much favor for her The Prince opened
the gates of Wimbledon, of the London Gun Club and
other sporting clubs where the average member was of the nobility,
and visiting princes were not at all unusual. There, she
was given the opportunity for her first shot at the
speedy Blue Rocks, wild pigeons netted on the day of
(07:19):
a shoot and released that afternoon that captivity might not
interfere with their speed, which was little less than that
of lightning. Her first shots at these birds resulted in failure.
Her American gun, heavily studded with gold and bearing her
image engraved upon it was very pretty and easy to handle,
but it wasn't swift enough for those Blue Rocks. Whereupon
(07:42):
the best gun maker of England turned to for her,
soon to present her with a pair of five pound
twenty cage guns, which she liked for this work far
better than a heavier bore, and with which she soon
began to make surprising totals. Then it was that the
Prince of Wales added to her popularity by the presentation
of a medal accompanied by the statement quote I know
(08:05):
no one more deserving of it end quote. That was
the final wedge the doors of England society opened for her.
The offerings of flowers changed to articles, more intrinsic books,
dainty handkerchiefs, hand made lace gloves, fans and other trinkets
of esteem. There even came the time when the Prince
and Princess of Wales exchanged autographed photographs with the girl
(08:29):
who once had hunted the fields and dales of Dark County, Ohio,
that she might raise the money to pay off the
mortgage on a poverty stricken farm. Annie Oakley had become
a sought after person. Unlike other members of the Wild
West Company who could but speak the vernacular, Annie Oakley
possessed the poise and the education gleamed from those years
(08:51):
of hard study and school which had extended for years
after her marriage, to adapt herself to these new surroundings
in a manner which relieved the usual and embarrassment, which
oft times accompanies the entertainment of one lifted from the
usual sphere. As for Annie Oakley's mistake upon her first
presentation to royalty, it is this writer's opinion that she
(09:12):
could have done differently if she chose, and that her
version of it was the correct one. Annie Oakley was
of a type unusual to her generation, in reality, a
deeply religious woman. She had done that thing which in
those days was supposed to condemn a girl to the
nethermost depths of hades, that of marrying an actor. Then,
(09:33):
to make matters worse, she had herself become an actress.
To increase the depths of her disgrace, she had joined
a circus, and following this had gone to the bottom
of the pit by becoming the only white woman with
a traveling exhibition of cowboys and other exponents of the
wild and wooly West. She had done this with her
eyes open, knowing the supposed consequences from a standpoint of
(09:56):
her social status. Yet she had possessed the courage to do,
content in her own mind that her own conscience was
the thing to which answers must be made. After all,
and if that remained clear what else mattered. It was
undoubtedly this viewpoint which caused her to shatter tradition and
reach for the hand of a princess instead of a prince.
(10:18):
For in the society accounts of staid English newspapers, the
comment columns and the spaces allotted the lampoonists who thrived
in those days, there was no further evidence of a
faux pas. Indeed, there were plenty of opportunities had any
Oakley been of the uninitiated. Her life now had become
almost a constant round. Once her activities of the arena
(10:40):
were over, of shooting, events at the gun clubs and
social affairs, a strange intermingling which London, however, seemed to
enjoy thoroughly, she found herself being copied. Her name had
become synonymous with outdoor sportsmanship for women. Modists attended the
performances of the Buffalo Bill wild West that they might
make notes on the writing habits which she had devised,
(11:04):
with no thought of anything save convenience and the trimness
of their appearance during a performance. That society of London
might have sensible writing garments like hers. Then money began
its flood toward her in amounts which she never had
even visioned. The title of London's femininity had decided that,
above all things, it must learn to shoot. Annie Oakley
(11:26):
made her price of five dollars a pupil per day,
and a class was speedily organized, the shooting grounds being
that of Miss Oakley's gun maker, which he proffered for
the lessons that caused more interest. Soon, a fete upon
a private estate of a member of London society was
not really a success without the appearance of Annie Oakley
(11:46):
for a private exhibition of her skill as a markswoman.
A fee was never mentioned, but it arrived inevitably the
next day, the usual sum being two hundred fifty dollars.
Annie Oakley soon found herself earning far more more than
a thousand dollars a week, a tremendous sum if one
considered that this was forty years ago, all for doing
(12:06):
the things she had learned while bagging quailed that a
roof might remain above the heads of the numerous and
thoroughly unfortunate family of Jake Mosey, to use a popular
slang term, the king. Business was exceptionally good in the
year eighteen eighty seven, perhaps better than it has been
at any time since. It was Queen Victoria's jubilee year,
(12:28):
and London was the mecca of the world's royalty. With
the intense interest of the Prince and Princess of Wales
and other lesser lights in the Buffalo Bill show, it
was inevitable that the Queen should finally become interested. However,
since the death of Prince Albert, her husband some thirty
years before, Victoria had been somewhat loathed to make public appearances,
(12:50):
that she would attend a performance of the Wild West
did not even enter the minds of londoner's. It was therefore,
with the air of looking upon a Yankee hoax that
London awakened one morning to the announcement that Queen Victoria
had commanded a private performance of the Wild West for
five o'clock that afternoon, And if London was surprised, the
(13:11):
outfit of the Honorable William Frederick Cody was frenzied a
day of wild preparation that when Buffalo Bill's Wild West
erected a dais and a special box draped in crimson velvet,
the performers scrambled for their best costumes and the assemblage
of Acarro's buckenhaus Riders, shooters, buffalo killers, and other exponents
(13:32):
of the wild and wooly West, made ready for the
cramming of a whole performance into an hour. For Queen
Victoria had stated that she could remain no longer. Five
o'clock arrived, and with it the stolid, portly little woman
who gave to the world the term Victorian, accompanied by
the inevitable courtage of princes and princesses. Alone, phlegmatic, she
(13:54):
sat in her box. The rest of the entourage draped
about the arena in spaces prepared for them, A serious,
quiet little woman waiting to be surprised for an hour.
A frenzied excitement heightened gathering of showpeople moved before her,
followed by the inevitable presentations among them. She sat in
(14:15):
the Queen's box alone, while her suite encircled her in
other boxes. This from the notes of Annie Oakley. She
acknowledged my bow, and after my shooting, she half arose
from her chair, giving a queer little nod of her
head and an incoming wave of her hand, which indicated
she wished to hold an audience with me. I stopped
(14:35):
near and she asked where and when I was born,
at what age? I took to shooting and several other questions,
and finally finished by saying, you are a very, very
clever little girl. To be called clever by Queen Victoria
meant that she had paid you her highest compliment, and
with an I thank you, your majesty, I bowed myself out.
(14:57):
Evidently Queen Victoria liked her first hurried visit to the
wild West. Within a short time, London had another enthralling
bit of gossip. Queen Victoria was going back, and this
time with an entourage which resembled the attendance of a coronation,
and for a special performance in which she would not
miss an item of the program. This time, their performance
(15:18):
was for eleven o'clock in the morning, and the gathering
of personages comprised the King of Denmark, the King and
Queen of Belgium, the King of Saxony, the King of Greece,
the Crown Prince of Austria, the Prince and Princess of
Saxe Meiningen, the Crown Prince and Princess of Germany, with
their eldest son, who later was to play such an
(15:38):
important part in the history of the world, the Crown
Prince of Sweden and Norway, the Princess Victoria of Prussia,
the Duke of Sparta, the Man Vanquished by Annie Oakley,
Grand Duke Michael of Russia, Prince George of Greece, Prince
Louise of Baden, and the Prince and Princess of Wales,
to say nothing of the usual host of lords and lays.
(16:01):
It was an interesting entertainment for the Queen, if the
accounts are to be believed. It was more interesting, however,
for the Prince of Wales. In later years, Buffalo Bill
was wont to talk of that special performance, and the
fact that before it was over, the Prince of Wales,
together with four of the royal visitors from other lands,
made a request to ride in the old Deadwood stagecoach.
(16:23):
Then it was that Colonel Cody's poker lessons came into play.
Colonel Cody was wont to quote the Prince of Wales.
You never held four kings like this before I've held
four kings, was Buffalo Bill's reply. But four kings and
the Prince of Wales make a royal flush, and that
is unprecedented. The hair trigger laugh, which was characteristic of
(16:44):
the Prince broke forth, bringing curiosity on the part of
the other fourth fifts of the hand. After that it
ceased to be a joke. One does not find it
so easy to explain in several languages a bit of
American slang drawn from an American card game. It has
been stated that in the personnel of that thoroughly royal
(17:04):
visit were the Crown Prince of Germany and an eldest son.
One thing seemed to interest them more than all else.
It was the shooting of Annie Oakley. Before the visit
had ended, an arrangement had been made whereby the Ohio
Crackshot would make a special visit to Germany following the
engagement of the Buffalo Bill Show in England, and there
(17:25):
gave a private exhibition upon the Charlottenburg Racetrack at Berlin.
In Annie Oakley's notes, there are some evidences that she
was far too busy in giving her performance to make
many observations concerning the royal personages who watched her. Little
traits of character that one will notice in the distinguished
persons one meets anecdotes unusual occurrences. These are, to a
(17:48):
certain extent absent but it was not because the young
woman was lacking in discernment before this writer. Is an
old clipping from the New York World of Sunday, January eighth,
eighteen eighty eight. A reporter had interviewed Annie Oakley upon
her return to America. How did Prince Bismarck impress you?
(18:08):
The interview runs, He looks like a great shaggy mastiff.
He complimented me briefly in English upon my shooting. But
you ought to have heard Prince William, the young man
who will succeed the Kaiser should the crown Prince die.
His eyes fairly dance with delight at my shooting, and
he examined my rifle as a child would a new toy.
One of his hands is crippled at the wrist, the
(18:31):
hand turning inwards and being stiffened in that position. Yet
you should have seen him examine that gun. I am
sure he would be glad to go to war more
than a quarter of a century past. But at last
Annie Oakley's prediction came true. End of chapter ten
Chapter ten of Annie Oakley, Woman at Arms by Courtney
Riley Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Barry Eads. Chapter ten. The request of the
Prince of Wales brought consternation and much argument to the
camp of the Buffalo Bill wild West. Go on, said
(00:21):
Nate Salisbury, you can beat him. Hold on there, Buffalo
Bill broke in. There's just the hitch. She shouldn't beat
the Grand Duke. That'd be terrible. Thus the argument went on,
Cody the showman, believing that one should do the proper
thing at all times, especially when a Grand Duke of
Russia believed himself a good shot. But Annie Oakley and
(00:43):
her husband had a different idea. If what we hear
of him is true, said miss Oakley, I won't have
to let him beat me. I'll have to do my
best shooting to even tie him. Shoot him off his feet,
said Nate Salisbury, while the bewhiskered. Major Burke, press agent
extraordinary all but wept to be so unkind to royalty.
(01:04):
The conference at last was over, and Frank Butler and
his wife went into the arena where the contest was
to be held. There they made use of a little
private information. The Grand Duke bore the reputation of being
one of the best shots in Russia, but from what
Annie Oakley and her husband had heard of him, he
got his best results on clay birds, which flew about
(01:26):
forty yards from the trap, a slower flight than Annie
Oakley prepared for him on that day of their private match.
We'll just make it a good test, she said, and
ordered the traps screwed down to sixty five yards. That'll
be something to shoot at. Promptly, at ten thirty o'clock,
according to Annie Oakley's recital, four carriages rolled into the
(01:47):
wild West Grounds. They contained Edward, the Prince of Wales, Alexandra,
the Princess of Wales, the Duke of Clarence, George now
King of England, the Grand Duke Michael of Russia and
his suite, the Princess Louise, the Princess Maud, and one
very important personage in the eyes of the Grand Duke Michael,
(02:07):
the Princess Victoria of England, daughter of the Prince of Wales.
Much had been printed regarding the Grand Duke and the
Princess Victoria. The English papers had not been at all
hesitant about, stating that Michael was in England upon a
special mission, that of uniting the two countries by persuading
a marriage in which the Princess Victoria and himself were
(02:29):
to be the principles. Some opposed the marriage, others were
in favor of it. The contest began, the winner to
be judged by the best score out of fifty targets,
while the royal party assembled in the boxes to watch
the battle, or what had been meant for one, because
after all, it wasn't. By the time the first ten
targets had been sprung, Annie Oakley had moved into the lead.
(02:53):
When thirty had been reached, the Grand Duke Michael was
fighting hard, but with a handicap which seemed impossible to overcome,
and when the end of the match arrived, it brought
a result by which Annie Oakley had missed only three
targets out of fifty, while the Grand Duke of Russia
had failed on fourteen. Then began a perfect torrent of
lampooning in those papers unfavorable to the Grand Duke's alleged mission.
(03:18):
Shooting had been Michael's hobby and one of his claims
to fame. Other, of course, than that of occupying the
position of importance which he held in Russia. He had
failed in a match of his own seeking, and the
fact gave to those conducting the campaign of publicity against
him a weapon by which to thrust and jibe and jeer,
as evidenced by the following from the Evening News and
(03:40):
Telephone of London shortly following the event, quote fame, but
not notoriety is silent about this noble scion of Russia,
who is said to have visited this country not alone
for the purpose of attending Her Majesty's jubilee, but to
find a wife from among the daughters of the Prince
of Wales. Whatever may be the faults of the Grand Duke,
(04:02):
and reports say that they are very many, he must
be credited with the great love of sport of all kinds,
and in his own country he is a great and
generous patron of everything connected with sport. Only a day
or two ago he asked to be allowed to enter
into competition with Miss Annie Oakley at the Wild West
Show at Earl's Court, which permission was at once accorded.
(04:26):
But although the Grand Duke made a fairly good score,
it showed but poorly in comparison with that of his
fair competitor, and he retired from the contest abashed, but
firmly convinced of the superiority of American markswoman over Russia
amateur lady shots. As for the rest of the unfavorable lampoonists,
(04:47):
it was the most amazing and unexpected publicity I ever experienced,
said Annie Oakley in later years, as she jotted down
notes of her memories. The papers that were against his
courting exports addition, were pink with sarcastic accounts of this
dashing cavalier who was outdone at his own game by
a little girl from America, of this lachanvar who was
(05:10):
no match for short dresses, and whose warlike career faded
before the onset of the American kindergarten. Whether all this
had anything to do with what followed, I, of course
can only guess. But about that time the engagement was
broken off, and the opposition papers announced that Annie Oakley
of the Magic Gun had won two matches at once
(05:30):
from the Grand Duke, the shooting trophy and the hand
of the Princess, for the glory of her sex and
the whole world of princesses from the Isle of Man
to America. As for the Prince of Wales, the loss
of that match by the Grand Duke of Russia apparently
caused but little disfavor. Certainly he showed none toward the
wild West, nor toward Miss Oakley. In fact, the Prince
(05:53):
popular idol of England that he was sportsman and outdoor enthusiasts,
formed the greatest ally which the Buffalo Bill Show possessed.
There came the time when he would drop around unexpectedly
and without his suite, drawn by the magnet of his friendship.
For Cody, from Miss Oakley and the entire show for
that matter, he knew the cowboys, He visited the stables
(06:16):
and learned about bucking broncos from the men who rode them.
He talked to the Indians with a special preference for
red shirt, and in an unofficial way, became a sort
of royal patron for the entire exhibition. As for Cody,
he and the Prince of Wales became excellent companions. Sandringham
Castle became a fairly familiar sight to a man who, once,
(06:37):
as he expressed it, would have been tickled pink. If
the Mayor of Leavenworth, Kansas, had deigned to shake hands
with him. There even came the time when Buffalo Bill
further cemented the bonds between England and America by teaching
his Royal Highness that most American game draw poker, later
leading to complications for the Prince. As for Annie Oakley,
(06:59):
she received as much favor for her The Prince opened
the gates of Wimbledon, of the London Gun Club and
other sporting clubs where the average member was of the nobility,
and visiting princes were not at all unusual. There, she
was given the opportunity for her first shot at the
speedy Blue Rocks, wild pigeons netted on the day of
(07:19):
a shoot and released that afternoon that captivity might not
interfere with their speed, which was little less than that
of lightning. Her first shots at these birds resulted in failure.
Her American gun, heavily studded with gold and bearing her
image engraved upon it was very pretty and easy to handle,
but it wasn't swift enough for those Blue Rocks. Whereupon
(07:42):
the best gun maker of England turned to for her,
soon to present her with a pair of five pound
twenty cage guns, which she liked for this work far
better than a heavier bore, and with which she soon
began to make surprising totals. Then it was that the
Prince of Wales added to her popularity by the presentation
of a medal accompanied by the statement quote I know
(08:05):
no one more deserving of it end quote. That was
the final wedge the doors of England society opened for her.
The offerings of flowers changed to articles, more intrinsic books,
dainty handkerchiefs, hand made lace gloves, fans and other trinkets
of esteem. There even came the time when the Prince
and Princess of Wales exchanged autographed photographs with the girl
(08:29):
who once had hunted the fields and dales of Dark County, Ohio,
that she might raise the money to pay off the
mortgage on a poverty stricken farm. Annie Oakley had become
a sought after person. Unlike other members of the Wild
West Company who could but speak the vernacular, Annie Oakley
possessed the poise and the education gleamed from those years
(08:51):
of hard study and school which had extended for years
after her marriage, to adapt herself to these new surroundings
in a manner which relieved the usual and embarrassment, which
oft times accompanies the entertainment of one lifted from the
usual sphere. As for Annie Oakley's mistake upon her first
presentation to royalty, it is this writer's opinion that she
(09:12):
could have done differently if she chose, and that her
version of it was the correct one. Annie Oakley was
of a type unusual to her generation, in reality, a
deeply religious woman. She had done that thing which in
those days was supposed to condemn a girl to the
nethermost depths of hades, that of marrying an actor. Then,
(09:33):
to make matters worse, she had herself become an actress.
To increase the depths of her disgrace, she had joined
a circus, and following this had gone to the bottom
of the pit by becoming the only white woman with
a traveling exhibition of cowboys and other exponents of the
wild and wooly West. She had done this with her
eyes open, knowing the supposed consequences from a standpoint of
(09:56):
her social status. Yet she had possessed the courage to do,
content in her own mind that her own conscience was
the thing to which answers must be made. After all,
and if that remained clear what else mattered. It was
undoubtedly this viewpoint which caused her to shatter tradition and
reach for the hand of a princess instead of a prince.
(10:18):
For in the society accounts of staid English newspapers, the
comment columns and the spaces allotted the lampoonists who thrived
in those days, there was no further evidence of a
faux pas. Indeed, there were plenty of opportunities had any
Oakley been of the uninitiated. Her life now had become
almost a constant round. Once her activities of the arena
(10:40):
were over, of shooting, events at the gun clubs and
social affairs, a strange intermingling which London, however, seemed to
enjoy thoroughly, she found herself being copied. Her name had
become synonymous with outdoor sportsmanship for women. Modists attended the
performances of the Buffalo Bill wild West that they might
make notes on the writing habits which she had devised,
(11:04):
with no thought of anything save convenience and the trimness
of their appearance during a performance. That society of London
might have sensible writing garments like hers. Then money began
its flood toward her in amounts which she never had
even visioned. The title of London's femininity had decided that,
above all things, it must learn to shoot. Annie Oakley
(11:26):
made her price of five dollars a pupil per day,
and a class was speedily organized, the shooting grounds being
that of Miss Oakley's gun maker, which he proffered for
the lessons that caused more interest. Soon, a fete upon
a private estate of a member of London society was
not really a success without the appearance of Annie Oakley
(11:46):
for a private exhibition of her skill as a markswoman.
A fee was never mentioned, but it arrived inevitably the
next day, the usual sum being two hundred fifty dollars.
Annie Oakley soon found herself earning far more more than
a thousand dollars a week, a tremendous sum if one
considered that this was forty years ago, all for doing
(12:06):
the things she had learned while bagging quailed that a
roof might remain above the heads of the numerous and
thoroughly unfortunate family of Jake Mosey, to use a popular
slang term, the king. Business was exceptionally good in the
year eighteen eighty seven, perhaps better than it has been
at any time since. It was Queen Victoria's jubilee year,
(12:28):
and London was the mecca of the world's royalty. With
the intense interest of the Prince and Princess of Wales
and other lesser lights in the Buffalo Bill show, it
was inevitable that the Queen should finally become interested. However,
since the death of Prince Albert, her husband some thirty
years before, Victoria had been somewhat loathed to make public appearances,
(12:50):
that she would attend a performance of the Wild West
did not even enter the minds of londoner's. It was therefore,
with the air of looking upon a Yankee hoax that
London awakened one morning to the announcement that Queen Victoria
had commanded a private performance of the Wild West for
five o'clock that afternoon, And if London was surprised, the
(13:11):
outfit of the Honorable William Frederick Cody was frenzied a
day of wild preparation that when Buffalo Bill's Wild West
erected a dais and a special box draped in crimson velvet,
the performers scrambled for their best costumes and the assemblage
of Acarro's buckenhaus Riders, shooters, buffalo killers, and other exponents
(13:32):
of the wild and wooly West, made ready for the
cramming of a whole performance into an hour. For Queen
Victoria had stated that she could remain no longer. Five
o'clock arrived, and with it the stolid, portly little woman
who gave to the world the term Victorian, accompanied by
the inevitable courtage of princes and princesses. Alone, phlegmatic, she
(13:54):
sat in her box. The rest of the entourage draped
about the arena in spaces prepared for them, A serious,
quiet little woman waiting to be surprised for an hour.
A frenzied excitement heightened gathering of showpeople moved before her,
followed by the inevitable presentations among them. She sat in
(14:15):
the Queen's box alone, while her suite encircled her in
other boxes. This from the notes of Annie Oakley. She
acknowledged my bow, and after my shooting, she half arose
from her chair, giving a queer little nod of her
head and an incoming wave of her hand, which indicated
she wished to hold an audience with me. I stopped
(14:35):
near and she asked where and when I was born,
at what age? I took to shooting and several other questions,
and finally finished by saying, you are a very, very
clever little girl. To be called clever by Queen Victoria
meant that she had paid you her highest compliment, and
with an I thank you, your majesty, I bowed myself out.
(14:57):
Evidently Queen Victoria liked her first hurried visit to the
wild West. Within a short time, London had another enthralling
bit of gossip. Queen Victoria was going back, and this
time with an entourage which resembled the attendance of a coronation,
and for a special performance in which she would not
miss an item of the program. This time, their performance
(15:18):
was for eleven o'clock in the morning, and the gathering
of personages comprised the King of Denmark, the King and
Queen of Belgium, the King of Saxony, the King of Greece,
the Crown Prince of Austria, the Prince and Princess of
Saxe Meiningen, the Crown Prince and Princess of Germany, with
their eldest son, who later was to play such an
(15:38):
important part in the history of the world, the Crown
Prince of Sweden and Norway, the Princess Victoria of Prussia,
the Duke of Sparta, the Man Vanquished by Annie Oakley,
Grand Duke Michael of Russia, Prince George of Greece, Prince
Louise of Baden, and the Prince and Princess of Wales,
to say nothing of the usual host of lords and lays.
(16:01):
It was an interesting entertainment for the Queen, if the
accounts are to be believed. It was more interesting, however,
for the Prince of Wales. In later years, Buffalo Bill
was wont to talk of that special performance, and the
fact that before it was over, the Prince of Wales,
together with four of the royal visitors from other lands,
made a request to ride in the old Deadwood stagecoach.
(16:23):
Then it was that Colonel Cody's poker lessons came into play.
Colonel Cody was wont to quote the Prince of Wales.
You never held four kings like this before I've held
four kings, was Buffalo Bill's reply. But four kings and
the Prince of Wales make a royal flush, and that
is unprecedented. The hair trigger laugh, which was characteristic of
(16:44):
the Prince broke forth, bringing curiosity on the part of
the other fourth fifts of the hand. After that it
ceased to be a joke. One does not find it
so easy to explain in several languages a bit of
American slang drawn from an American card game. It has
been stated that in the personnel of that thoroughly royal
(17:04):
visit were the Crown Prince of Germany and an eldest son.
One thing seemed to interest them more than all else.
It was the shooting of Annie Oakley. Before the visit
had ended, an arrangement had been made whereby the Ohio
Crackshot would make a special visit to Germany following the
engagement of the Buffalo Bill Show in England, and there
(17:25):
gave a private exhibition upon the Charlottenburg Racetrack at Berlin.
In Annie Oakley's notes, there are some evidences that she
was far too busy in giving her performance to make
many observations concerning the royal personages who watched her. Little
traits of character that one will notice in the distinguished
persons one meets anecdotes unusual occurrences. These are, to a
(17:48):
certain extent absent but it was not because the young
woman was lacking in discernment before this writer. Is an
old clipping from the New York World of Sunday, January eighth,
eighteen eighty eight. A reporter had interviewed Annie Oakley upon
her return to America. How did Prince Bismarck impress you?
(18:08):
The interview runs, He looks like a great shaggy mastiff.
He complimented me briefly in English upon my shooting. But
you ought to have heard Prince William, the young man
who will succeed the Kaiser should the crown Prince die.
His eyes fairly dance with delight at my shooting, and
he examined my rifle as a child would a new toy.
One of his hands is crippled at the wrist, the
(18:31):
hand turning inwards and being stiffened in that position. Yet
you should have seen him examine that gun. I am
sure he would be glad to go to war more
than a quarter of a century past. But at last
Annie Oakley's prediction came true. End of chapter ten
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