August 20, 2025 • 22 mins
12 - Chapter 12. 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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter twelve of Annie Oakley, Woman at Arms by Courtney
Riley Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
read by Barry Eads, Chapter twelve. The Paris engagement became
a small counterpart of the one in England. In fact,
if possible, Miss Oakley received a greater amount of encomiums
(00:23):
than had been her lot at Earl's Court. Paris idolized her.
The shooting clubs followed her about with invitations to become
an honorary member, clubs, incidentally, which included the pick of
the Royalty of Europe. Sadi Carnault was then President of France.
Miss Oakley met him first in the arena, then at
(00:43):
the President's palace. Finally there came the time on parting,
when the President said, when you feel like changing your
nationality and profession, there is a commission awaiting you in
the French Army, which indeed was a more alluring prospect
than another position offered Miss Oakley during her Paris engagement,
or rather offered Buffalo Bill for her. Potent taints of
(01:07):
distant lands were not unusual at the Wild West Exhibition.
The Shah of Persia was one of the visitors the
Sultan of Turkey, and a third was Dinah salifor, King
of Senegal, who watched the exhibition of miss Oakley with
more than ordinary interest. Finally, he turned and talked voluably
to his advisers, and following the performance, the king sought
(01:30):
Buffalo Bill, how much do you want for her? He asked,
After a long dilation upon the wonders of the little missy,
Buffalo Bill pulled at his goatee. Want for her? He asked,
in non plussed manner, What do you mean to sell her?
I wish to take her back with me in my country,
he added, naively. My people are not safe in many
(01:53):
of the small villages. There are man eating tigers in
many districts, and even one of these animals can cause
much damage. But with a person of such wonderful skill
as she, it would be easy to organize parties. With
her as the chief huntress, the danger would be soon passed.
Would you consider one hundred thousand francs sufficient? The eyes
(02:14):
of Buffalo Bill glinted, but that was the only indication
of humor. He summoned and orderly tell Miss Oakley to
come here, he commanded, and the crack shot obeyed. Missy,
said Colonel Cody, I've got an awful good offer for
you here. He then introduced the King of Senegal, His
majesty would like to buy you for a hundred thousand
(02:35):
francs to go down to his country and shoot many
eating tigers. The fun of bating a king, even a
naive one, did not arise every day. But am I
for sale? Colonel miss Oakley asked, seriously, come to think
of it, I guess you ain't. The Buffalo Killer answered
it was a signal to the King of Senegal to
(02:56):
exert his best oratory. He raised his price, and then
as a finale, begged Buffalo Bill to release his slave. Slave.
Asked Cody, she isn't any slave. She's the one to
say whether she wants to go down there or not.
I haven't anything to do with it outside of her contract.
The king seemed worried. Not a slave, he asked, Nope,
(03:19):
not a slave. It was time for apologies, and the
King of Senegal made them. Following this, he tried his
argument upon Miss Oakley herself, and when that failed, when
I told him I did not wish to go, say
Miss Oakley's notes, he went down on one knee with
a sweeping grace that would have done credit to ye
knights of old England, and lifting my hand, raised my
(03:42):
finger tips to his lips. He departed with the air
of a soldier. The woman who as a girl had
shot off the mortgage on a backwood's home in Dark County, Ohio,
went in quite manner of fact fashion, back to her tent,
her medals, her souvenirs, and her visitors. Kings, queens and
other forms of royalty had become more of a staple
(04:04):
article than when she gave her first performance before the
Prince of Wales. The stay in Paris lasted until November.
Then came Marseilles with a small replica of the Paris
Engagement Lions, and after that one of the grimmest experiences
that ever befell an exhibition in a foreign land, it
was in Spain at Barcelona. Evidently, the fictioneers and songsters
(04:29):
who had thrilled over the town had denuded it of
its romantic gestures. By the time the Buffalo Bill Show arrived,
the town was dirty, poverty stricken. The Buffalo Bill Show
pitched its tents amidst a perfect congress of beggars who
screamed and fought and struggled like so many hyenas for
every scrap thrown from the mess tents. A survey of
(04:50):
the town, of the shops, and of the populace caused
a conference at which it was decided that should the
regular admission prices be charged, it it was more than
probable that no one would attend. Therefore the scale was
cut to perhaps the lowest admission at which the Buffalo
Bill Wild West ever exhibited. Then the gates of the
(05:11):
show opened. There seemed some hope of a growing attendance,
to judge from the first crowd which scattered the amphitheater.
But when the show was half over, a hurrying treasurer
sought Nate Salisbury with exciting news of the six hundred
dollars which had been taken in more than three hundred
of it was counterfeit. Guess we'd better make a complaint
(05:32):
to the Chief of Police about it, was the verdict.
After the story was told. This was accordingly done with
but scant satisfaction. The Chief of Police was indeed sorry.
But the Buffalo Bill show was not the only one
to suffer from spurious coin. Only that day a storekeeper
had been arrested on the charge of counterfeiting the government's money,
(05:53):
and had made the surprising plea that, while it was
true that he had been coining his own cash, it
was so much better than the money which the government
was putting forth that he felt that he had committed
no crime. More, the judge had congratulated him upon his
artistry and allowed him to go free. Perhaps no American
aggregation of showpeople ever found itself in stranger circumstances. As
(06:17):
Annie Oakley told it years later. After this information had
been received, the boys of the show figured it out
that since counterfeiting seemed to be a sort of municipal pastime,
the game should have two sides to it. They therefore
sauntered into the midway, which might have been Main Street,
determined to return some of the tinware which had been
(06:38):
accumulated by the show in return for coffee, bran and
other necessities. It was impossible. The passing of counterfeit money
was an art. It seemed chiefly enjoyed by Barcelonians and
others who did not possess the education in deception necessary
to the finer points of the game were badly handicapped.
(06:59):
Every shopkeeper was armed and prepared for just such an emergency,
or rather for just such a certainty. In fact, it
seemed their constant occupation was a suspicious and exhaustive inquiry
into the origin, nature, and composition of the customer's coin.
Every counter possessed a marble slab over which the shopkeeper
(07:20):
bent to learn the desires of his customers. It was
not at all hard, even though we did not know
the language, to make known what we wanted, but to
pay for it was an entirely different matter. The first thing,
of course, was to pass over the coin, whereupon the
storekeeper would gaze at it as though it had offended
every ancestor of his family. Then, with a furious gesture,
(07:43):
he would throw it upon the marble slab in the
first of the tests as to its genuineness. That first
test often was enough, for the coin usually broke. Many
of the spurious pieces of money were made of nothing
but glass. Naturally they could not withstand the first on end.
But if they did, it then went through another system
(08:03):
of dropping and throwing, during which time it was determined
whether it contained lead, tin, or other base ingredients. If
the coin stood all these tests, it then was passed
on to the weyer, who compared the inscriptions and the
averted poise with a table of figures, which he kept
close at hand. Then, horror of horrors, if it passed inspection.
(08:25):
There you got change pockets full of change worth nothing
except to an iron foundry. One can imagine, with this
elaborate system of learning whether a dollar's worth of coin
was really a dollar's worth or entirely useless, what chance
a show would have to keep track of the good
and bad money. In fact, it meant close figuring to
(08:47):
feed the stock and raise enough real money to buy
food for the cook house. Nobody even dreamed of drawing
a salary until the show could get into a land
where there was real money, and where we could establish
communications with the United States by which to receive reminstances.
They were not safe. Here. The best New York draft
in the world might only result in bales of counterfeit money.
(09:11):
And this with Christmas in a foreign land approaching, to
say nothing of illness. That was the worst of the
winter of eighteen eighty nine to eighteen ninety in Spain,
when the Buffalo Bill Show marooned almost penniless, unable to
move all but faced extinction, Typhoid was rampant, and smallpox.
Three deaths were accredited to this disease in the working
(09:34):
Men's and Indians section of the show. While influenza and
typhoid ravaged every department, but the show went on. There
was nothing else to do. After noon following afternoon, the
performances were given, often only to gatherings of mendicants and loafers.
There were even times when an admission price equivalent to
(09:54):
ten cents American money could not draw the crowds. Many
did not even have that amount to spend on amusement.
By this time, Barcelona had been quarantined. That was about
the sole extent of the battle which Spain was waging
against its onslaught of disease. Seven more of the Indians died.
The show went on. Workingmen succumbed to the dread smallpox.
(10:18):
The gathering of Americans burned their clothing and effects, and
continued their afternoon performances. Then, two days before Christmas, Frank
Butler staggered into the damp room in which he and
Annie Oakley lived, gaunt eyed from fatigue and illness. Frank's
going to die, he said hollowly. He referred to Frank Richmond,
(10:38):
the orator of the show, which had been the one
to present Annie Oakley to the Prince of Wales and
Queen Victoria. I've left Johnny Baker with him. He'll call
me if things get worse at midnight. The summons came.
At three o'clock the next afternoon, a weary, fever stricken
contingent from the show stood in the long line before
(10:58):
the local cemetery, awaiting their turn to enter with the
body of a friend, which they desired to place in
a vault until arrangements could be made to transfer it
to America. So great were the casualties, so heavy the
burial burden of the scourge of smallpox, typhoid, and influenza,
that the Morning Friends waited from three o'clock in the
(11:19):
afternoon until nine o'clock at night before it was possible
to place the body of Frank Richmond in a vault.
Frank Butler was ill now, and Annie Oakley, yet so
strong was the showman instinct that, in spite of the
counterfeit money and ragged beggars of an audience, shortly afternoon,
I tried to raise my head from my pillow, but
(11:41):
fell back. After four or five attempts, I succeeded. A
costume lay on the trunk near the bed. I reached
it by grasping the trunk covering and pulling it all
over near me. An hour and a half were spent
in partly dressing. Then I decided to try standing, but
I kept hold of the bed. As I did so,
I careened about the room toward an open window, and
(12:04):
finally made it, but fainted as I grasped the low sill. However,
I took my place in the arena that afternoon. In
spite of all, it was determined that there must be
a Christmas turkey. Frank Butler and Johnny Baker, both ill
but determined, started forth in search of one. At the
first shop, Baker inquired in Spanish, have you a turkey? Yes?
(12:27):
Came the reply, which part? Will you have a leg,
a wing, or a liver? It was an indication of
the poverty of the city. Conditions had become so terrible
that whole fowls were not being sold. Happy indeed was
he who could buy even a piece of one. The
Americans made it known that they wanted a whole bird.
When they at last procured it, they were forced to
(12:49):
fight their way through a mass of more than two
hundred beggars to reach their hotel. But there was turkey
for that Christmas Day. Arrangements were at last made for
an escape from Spain. It was little else. It was
not hard to enlist the aid of officers and to
evade the various regulations thrown about the city. On January twentieth,
(13:11):
eighteen ninety, a shattered Wild West company set sail from
Barcelona upon a miserable tub of a boat so badly
ballasted that the pilot at first refused to take her
outside the harbor. But this was a matter of taking
one risk that a greater one might be avoided. The
company persisted in its desire to leave, and with one
(13:31):
terrific storm rolling before it and another following, the overburdened
craft finally made its way to Naples and to a
new beginning for the Wild West. Even the alley like greasy,
garbage strewn streets of Naples, the thousands of beggars the
filth were heavenly compared with Barcelona. Italy formed a lucrative
(13:52):
territory for the Buffalo Bill Wild West. Soon the losses
of Barcelona had been recouped by the proceeds of the
engagement in Naples, in Rome, in Artistic Florence, Pisa, Milan
and Verona, where performances were given in the ancient Stone Arena,
which had existed for centuries. After that, the border was
(14:12):
crossed into Bavaria, and Annie Oakley learned how it felt
to save the life of a king rather a prince.
Regent for Luispaald of Bavaria ruled in the stead of
the mad King Otto, confined for years in his palace
of Furston, Reed, guarded by picked soldiers, and surrounded by
a wall so high that the public could not even
(14:33):
gain a glimpse of the grounds. One morning, shortly after
the opening at Munich, the regent's messenger arrived at the showgrounds,
inquired for Fraeulein Oakley and delivered the message, if convenient,
his Majesty requests the honor of an audience with Fraeulein
Oakley at ten thirty this morning. Naturally, the request was granted.
(14:55):
At ten thirty o'clock a carriage drove into the show grounds.
There was no hostile, no retinue, no suite. Prince Luitpold
had gained his hold upon the Bavarian people shortly after
the deposing of the Mad Monarch, by the announcement that
he would accept no extra emoluments from the Bavarian treasury
for his new position, and that he was only a
(15:17):
ruler in lieu of one who was incapacitated to rule
for himself. Only his coachman and footmen accompanied him to
the wild West grounds, and he approached the tent of
Annie Oakley for a chat while cowpunchers lolled in the background.
Indians grunted at the sight of democratic royalty. Performers passed
to and fro to their rehearsals, and the wild West
(15:40):
proceeded without much more excitement than would be caused by
the visit of the mayor of an American city. The
judge from Annie Oakley's notes, one becomes accustomed quite easily
to royalty, or did thirty five years ago, when there
was more of it than exists now. The Prince Regent
was interested in shooting. He examined the guns which Annie
(16:01):
Oakley used in the ring. He looked at her medals
and trophies one in various parts of the world during
competitive meats at shooting clubs. Then after the usual questions
which are asked of an unusual person, the Prince Regent
came to the object of his visit. I would like
very much, he said, to have a souvenir of your work.
Do you suppose that if I should throw a coin
(16:23):
into the air, you could hit it with a pistol?
Annie Oakley said in good Ohio American that she guessed
she could. Together they passed along the line of horse tents,
dressing tents where cowgirls were hanging out their washing Indian teepees,
and into the arena. At one side, several cowboys were
attempting to tame the spirits of a newly imported bucking horse,
(16:45):
which answered when it chose to the endearing term of dynamite.
Two of them, with teeth bared, chewed amiably on the
outlaw's ears, a device for cooling the spirits of equine
outlaws now barred and rode by an attic of the
Humane Society. Another held a gunny sack tightly over the
animal's eyes, while a fourth went gingerly about the business
(17:09):
of easing a saddle upon the quivering back and tightening
the cinch. All this while the Prince Regent tossed the
coin into the air. Annie Oakley plugged it with a
shot from the revolver, and the ruler of Bavaria pocketed
the souvenir with many thanks. Just then Annie Oakley glanced
toward the sprattled Dynamite, bunching its muscles as a cowboy
(17:29):
swung to the saddle. We're in danger here, she said.
The Prince Regent followed her glance and shrugged his shoulders.
Bucking horses were new to him, like the Parisians. He
thought that they were just trained to act that way.
I don't believe he will hurt us, said the Prince Regent,
and an instant later changed his mind. Before either the
(17:50):
Prince or Miss Oakley could retreat, Dynamite, the bit between
his teeth and his head down, carrying his rider helpless
and rolling upon his back, had streaked across the urna
and was within a few plunging feet of the monarch.
A lightning move and Miss Oakley leaped, lunging with all
her strength against Luitpold and throwing him from his feet
(18:10):
and a short distance to one side. Dynamite came down
from a bucking leap four feet bunched where the monarch
had been only an instant before, while Annie Oakley, still
jerking and tugging at the ruler, pulled him to safety
as the wild horse brushed his shoulder and went bucking
across the arena. You were right, laughed the prince, as
(18:30):
hurrying flunkeys rushed forward to brush him off. There was danger,
wasn't There After that the matter was apparently dismissed. Luispold
talked again of Miss Oakley's shooting and of the wild West,
as he partook of a camp breakfast, and then his
visit done, entered his carriage once more for his palace.
But the next day there arrived in evidence that he
(18:52):
had not dismissed the incident. It was a token for
miss Oakley in gratitude for having saved the life of
the ruler of Bavaria, a diamond bracelet, valued heavily in
the thousands and bearing the crown and monogram of Luitpold.
Vienna followed Munich with more royalty and a meeting with
the Emperor of Austria in his palace. Regarding that meeting, incidentally,
(19:17):
Annie Oakley, in her notes, put into a few words
her whole opinion of the august persons whom she had
met during her exhibition days, and the attitude of mind
which she held toward them. There are those, of course,
who even today believe that the term royalty carries with
it some mysterious power of an anointment by God. That
(19:37):
feeling was much stronger thirty or forty years ago, before
the thronements, assassinations, abdications, wars, and the influx of democracy
into Europe had wiped out many of the traditions so
carefully fostered by lines of hereditary rulers. Then a duke
amounted to a great deal in the world. A prince
(19:57):
was a sensation, and a king, if one could meet
a king, was something to talk about for the rest
of one's life. Annie Oakley carried a peculiar bump of
common sense. She saw in them persons not favored by deity,
as many persons actually imagined at the time, but humans
heightened by power. As for the glamor of it quote,
(20:19):
I really felt sorry when I looked into the face
of the Emperor of Austria. My husband and I were
being shown through the palace one morning, and the Emperor
sat at a table stacked high with mail for his perusal,
but somehow he asked that I be shown into his
august presence. He arose with a smile and greeted me
with a real handshake, but his face looked both tired
(20:41):
and troubled. I then and there decided that being just
plain little Annie Oakley, with ten minutes work once or
twice a day, was good enough for me. For I had,
or at least I thought I had, my freedom end quote.
Dresden followed Vienna with the favors of the Duchess of
Holstein and her daughter Princess Fedora, with a shoot on
(21:03):
the King's game preserve and the usual attentions of royalty. Magdeburg,
Branschwig and Leipzig followed Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt on Maine, Stuttgart,
then Strasburg, where the show halted for the winter. The
day before closing, Frank Butler and his wife stepped into
(21:24):
their tent to find Colonel Cody sitting there at Miss
Oakley's table. He rose abruptly and left. Then they noticed
that Miss Oakley's autograph book lay open and signed, as
it was by practically every ruler of Europe. Bore a
freshly written inscription, which, to Annie Oakley, meant more than
all the rest. It read, to the loveliest and truest
(21:48):
little woman, both in heart and aim, in all the world,
sworn to by and before myself. W. F. Cody, Buffalo,
Bill Strasburg, eighteen nine, end of Chapter twelve.
Chapter twelve of Annie Oakley, Woman at Arms by Courtney
Riley Cooper. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
read by Barry Eads, Chapter twelve. The Paris engagement became
a small counterpart of the one in England. In fact,
if possible, Miss Oakley received a greater amount of encomiums
(00:23):
than had been her lot at Earl's Court. Paris idolized her.
The shooting clubs followed her about with invitations to become
an honorary member, clubs, incidentally, which included the pick of
the Royalty of Europe. Sadi Carnault was then President of France.
Miss Oakley met him first in the arena, then at
(00:43):
the President's palace. Finally there came the time on parting,
when the President said, when you feel like changing your
nationality and profession, there is a commission awaiting you in
the French Army, which indeed was a more alluring prospect
than another position offered Miss Oakley during her Paris engagement,
or rather offered Buffalo Bill for her. Potent taints of
(01:07):
distant lands were not unusual at the Wild West Exhibition.
The Shah of Persia was one of the visitors the
Sultan of Turkey, and a third was Dinah salifor, King
of Senegal, who watched the exhibition of miss Oakley with
more than ordinary interest. Finally, he turned and talked voluably
to his advisers, and following the performance, the king sought
(01:30):
Buffalo Bill, how much do you want for her? He asked,
After a long dilation upon the wonders of the little missy,
Buffalo Bill pulled at his goatee. Want for her? He asked,
in non plussed manner, What do you mean to sell her?
I wish to take her back with me in my country,
he added, naively. My people are not safe in many
(01:53):
of the small villages. There are man eating tigers in
many districts, and even one of these animals can cause
much damage. But with a person of such wonderful skill
as she, it would be easy to organize parties. With
her as the chief huntress, the danger would be soon passed.
Would you consider one hundred thousand francs sufficient? The eyes
(02:14):
of Buffalo Bill glinted, but that was the only indication
of humor. He summoned and orderly tell Miss Oakley to
come here, he commanded, and the crack shot obeyed. Missy,
said Colonel Cody, I've got an awful good offer for
you here. He then introduced the King of Senegal, His
majesty would like to buy you for a hundred thousand
(02:35):
francs to go down to his country and shoot many
eating tigers. The fun of bating a king, even a
naive one, did not arise every day. But am I
for sale? Colonel miss Oakley asked, seriously, come to think
of it, I guess you ain't. The Buffalo Killer answered
it was a signal to the King of Senegal to
(02:56):
exert his best oratory. He raised his price, and then
as a finale, begged Buffalo Bill to release his slave. Slave.
Asked Cody, she isn't any slave. She's the one to
say whether she wants to go down there or not.
I haven't anything to do with it outside of her contract.
The king seemed worried. Not a slave, he asked, Nope,
(03:19):
not a slave. It was time for apologies, and the
King of Senegal made them. Following this, he tried his
argument upon Miss Oakley herself, and when that failed, when
I told him I did not wish to go, say
Miss Oakley's notes, he went down on one knee with
a sweeping grace that would have done credit to ye
knights of old England, and lifting my hand, raised my
(03:42):
finger tips to his lips. He departed with the air
of a soldier. The woman who as a girl had
shot off the mortgage on a backwood's home in Dark County, Ohio,
went in quite manner of fact fashion, back to her tent,
her medals, her souvenirs, and her visitors. Kings, queens and
other forms of royalty had become more of a staple
(04:04):
article than when she gave her first performance before the
Prince of Wales. The stay in Paris lasted until November.
Then came Marseilles with a small replica of the Paris
Engagement Lions, and after that one of the grimmest experiences
that ever befell an exhibition in a foreign land, it
was in Spain at Barcelona. Evidently, the fictioneers and songsters
(04:29):
who had thrilled over the town had denuded it of
its romantic gestures. By the time the Buffalo Bill Show arrived,
the town was dirty, poverty stricken. The Buffalo Bill Show
pitched its tents amidst a perfect congress of beggars who
screamed and fought and struggled like so many hyenas for
every scrap thrown from the mess tents. A survey of
(04:50):
the town, of the shops, and of the populace caused
a conference at which it was decided that should the
regular admission prices be charged, it it was more than
probable that no one would attend. Therefore the scale was
cut to perhaps the lowest admission at which the Buffalo
Bill Wild West ever exhibited. Then the gates of the
(05:11):
show opened. There seemed some hope of a growing attendance,
to judge from the first crowd which scattered the amphitheater.
But when the show was half over, a hurrying treasurer
sought Nate Salisbury with exciting news of the six hundred
dollars which had been taken in more than three hundred
of it was counterfeit. Guess we'd better make a complaint
(05:32):
to the Chief of Police about it, was the verdict.
After the story was told. This was accordingly done with
but scant satisfaction. The Chief of Police was indeed sorry.
But the Buffalo Bill show was not the only one
to suffer from spurious coin. Only that day a storekeeper
had been arrested on the charge of counterfeiting the government's money,
(05:53):
and had made the surprising plea that, while it was
true that he had been coining his own cash, it
was so much better than the money which the government
was putting forth that he felt that he had committed
no crime. More, the judge had congratulated him upon his
artistry and allowed him to go free. Perhaps no American
aggregation of showpeople ever found itself in stranger circumstances. As
(06:17):
Annie Oakley told it years later. After this information had
been received, the boys of the show figured it out
that since counterfeiting seemed to be a sort of municipal pastime,
the game should have two sides to it. They therefore
sauntered into the midway, which might have been Main Street,
determined to return some of the tinware which had been
(06:38):
accumulated by the show in return for coffee, bran and
other necessities. It was impossible. The passing of counterfeit money
was an art. It seemed chiefly enjoyed by Barcelonians and
others who did not possess the education in deception necessary
to the finer points of the game were badly handicapped.
(06:59):
Every shopkeeper was armed and prepared for just such an emergency,
or rather for just such a certainty. In fact, it
seemed their constant occupation was a suspicious and exhaustive inquiry
into the origin, nature, and composition of the customer's coin.
Every counter possessed a marble slab over which the shopkeeper
(07:20):
bent to learn the desires of his customers. It was
not at all hard, even though we did not know
the language, to make known what we wanted, but to
pay for it was an entirely different matter. The first thing,
of course, was to pass over the coin, whereupon the
storekeeper would gaze at it as though it had offended
every ancestor of his family. Then, with a furious gesture,
(07:43):
he would throw it upon the marble slab in the
first of the tests as to its genuineness. That first
test often was enough, for the coin usually broke. Many
of the spurious pieces of money were made of nothing
but glass. Naturally they could not withstand the first on end.
But if they did, it then went through another system
(08:03):
of dropping and throwing, during which time it was determined
whether it contained lead, tin, or other base ingredients. If
the coin stood all these tests, it then was passed
on to the weyer, who compared the inscriptions and the
averted poise with a table of figures, which he kept
close at hand. Then, horror of horrors, if it passed inspection.
(08:25):
There you got change pockets full of change worth nothing
except to an iron foundry. One can imagine, with this
elaborate system of learning whether a dollar's worth of coin
was really a dollar's worth or entirely useless, what chance
a show would have to keep track of the good
and bad money. In fact, it meant close figuring to
(08:47):
feed the stock and raise enough real money to buy
food for the cook house. Nobody even dreamed of drawing
a salary until the show could get into a land
where there was real money, and where we could establish
communications with the United States by which to receive reminstances.
They were not safe. Here. The best New York draft
in the world might only result in bales of counterfeit money.
(09:11):
And this with Christmas in a foreign land approaching, to
say nothing of illness. That was the worst of the
winter of eighteen eighty nine to eighteen ninety in Spain,
when the Buffalo Bill Show marooned almost penniless, unable to
move all but faced extinction, Typhoid was rampant, and smallpox.
Three deaths were accredited to this disease in the working
(09:34):
Men's and Indians section of the show. While influenza and
typhoid ravaged every department, but the show went on. There
was nothing else to do. After noon following afternoon, the
performances were given, often only to gatherings of mendicants and loafers.
There were even times when an admission price equivalent to
(09:54):
ten cents American money could not draw the crowds. Many
did not even have that amount to spend on amusement.
By this time, Barcelona had been quarantined. That was about
the sole extent of the battle which Spain was waging
against its onslaught of disease. Seven more of the Indians died.
The show went on. Workingmen succumbed to the dread smallpox.
(10:18):
The gathering of Americans burned their clothing and effects, and
continued their afternoon performances. Then, two days before Christmas, Frank
Butler staggered into the damp room in which he and
Annie Oakley lived, gaunt eyed from fatigue and illness. Frank's
going to die, he said hollowly. He referred to Frank Richmond,
(10:38):
the orator of the show, which had been the one
to present Annie Oakley to the Prince of Wales and
Queen Victoria. I've left Johnny Baker with him. He'll call
me if things get worse at midnight. The summons came.
At three o'clock the next afternoon, a weary, fever stricken
contingent from the show stood in the long line before
(10:58):
the local cemetery, awaiting their turn to enter with the
body of a friend, which they desired to place in
a vault until arrangements could be made to transfer it
to America. So great were the casualties, so heavy the
burial burden of the scourge of smallpox, typhoid, and influenza,
that the Morning Friends waited from three o'clock in the
(11:19):
afternoon until nine o'clock at night before it was possible
to place the body of Frank Richmond in a vault.
Frank Butler was ill now, and Annie Oakley, yet so
strong was the showman instinct that, in spite of the
counterfeit money and ragged beggars of an audience, shortly afternoon,
I tried to raise my head from my pillow, but
(11:41):
fell back. After four or five attempts, I succeeded. A
costume lay on the trunk near the bed. I reached
it by grasping the trunk covering and pulling it all
over near me. An hour and a half were spent
in partly dressing. Then I decided to try standing, but
I kept hold of the bed. As I did so,
I careened about the room toward an open window, and
(12:04):
finally made it, but fainted as I grasped the low sill. However,
I took my place in the arena that afternoon. In
spite of all, it was determined that there must be
a Christmas turkey. Frank Butler and Johnny Baker, both ill
but determined, started forth in search of one. At the
first shop, Baker inquired in Spanish, have you a turkey? Yes?
(12:27):
Came the reply, which part? Will you have a leg,
a wing, or a liver? It was an indication of
the poverty of the city. Conditions had become so terrible
that whole fowls were not being sold. Happy indeed was
he who could buy even a piece of one. The
Americans made it known that they wanted a whole bird.
When they at last procured it, they were forced to
(12:49):
fight their way through a mass of more than two
hundred beggars to reach their hotel. But there was turkey
for that Christmas Day. Arrangements were at last made for
an escape from Spain. It was little else. It was
not hard to enlist the aid of officers and to
evade the various regulations thrown about the city. On January twentieth,
(13:11):
eighteen ninety, a shattered Wild West company set sail from
Barcelona upon a miserable tub of a boat so badly
ballasted that the pilot at first refused to take her
outside the harbor. But this was a matter of taking
one risk that a greater one might be avoided. The
company persisted in its desire to leave, and with one
(13:31):
terrific storm rolling before it and another following, the overburdened
craft finally made its way to Naples and to a
new beginning for the Wild West. Even the alley like greasy,
garbage strewn streets of Naples, the thousands of beggars the
filth were heavenly compared with Barcelona. Italy formed a lucrative
(13:52):
territory for the Buffalo Bill Wild West. Soon the losses
of Barcelona had been recouped by the proceeds of the
engagement in Naples, in Rome, in Artistic Florence, Pisa, Milan
and Verona, where performances were given in the ancient Stone Arena,
which had existed for centuries. After that, the border was
(14:12):
crossed into Bavaria, and Annie Oakley learned how it felt
to save the life of a king rather a prince.
Regent for Luispaald of Bavaria ruled in the stead of
the mad King Otto, confined for years in his palace
of Furston, Reed, guarded by picked soldiers, and surrounded by
a wall so high that the public could not even
(14:33):
gain a glimpse of the grounds. One morning, shortly after
the opening at Munich, the regent's messenger arrived at the showgrounds,
inquired for Fraeulein Oakley and delivered the message, if convenient,
his Majesty requests the honor of an audience with Fraeulein
Oakley at ten thirty this morning. Naturally, the request was granted.
(14:55):
At ten thirty o'clock a carriage drove into the show grounds.
There was no hostile, no retinue, no suite. Prince Luitpold
had gained his hold upon the Bavarian people shortly after
the deposing of the Mad Monarch, by the announcement that
he would accept no extra emoluments from the Bavarian treasury
for his new position, and that he was only a
(15:17):
ruler in lieu of one who was incapacitated to rule
for himself. Only his coachman and footmen accompanied him to
the wild West grounds, and he approached the tent of
Annie Oakley for a chat while cowpunchers lolled in the background.
Indians grunted at the sight of democratic royalty. Performers passed
to and fro to their rehearsals, and the wild West
(15:40):
proceeded without much more excitement than would be caused by
the visit of the mayor of an American city. The
judge from Annie Oakley's notes, one becomes accustomed quite easily
to royalty, or did thirty five years ago, when there
was more of it than exists now. The Prince Regent
was interested in shooting. He examined the guns which Annie
(16:01):
Oakley used in the ring. He looked at her medals
and trophies one in various parts of the world during
competitive meats at shooting clubs. Then after the usual questions
which are asked of an unusual person, the Prince Regent
came to the object of his visit. I would like
very much, he said, to have a souvenir of your work.
Do you suppose that if I should throw a coin
(16:23):
into the air, you could hit it with a pistol?
Annie Oakley said in good Ohio American that she guessed
she could. Together they passed along the line of horse tents,
dressing tents where cowgirls were hanging out their washing Indian teepees,
and into the arena. At one side, several cowboys were
attempting to tame the spirits of a newly imported bucking horse,
(16:45):
which answered when it chose to the endearing term of dynamite.
Two of them, with teeth bared, chewed amiably on the
outlaw's ears, a device for cooling the spirits of equine
outlaws now barred and rode by an attic of the
Humane Society. Another held a gunny sack tightly over the
animal's eyes, while a fourth went gingerly about the business
(17:09):
of easing a saddle upon the quivering back and tightening
the cinch. All this while the Prince Regent tossed the
coin into the air. Annie Oakley plugged it with a
shot from the revolver, and the ruler of Bavaria pocketed
the souvenir with many thanks. Just then Annie Oakley glanced
toward the sprattled Dynamite, bunching its muscles as a cowboy
(17:29):
swung to the saddle. We're in danger here, she said.
The Prince Regent followed her glance and shrugged his shoulders.
Bucking horses were new to him, like the Parisians. He
thought that they were just trained to act that way.
I don't believe he will hurt us, said the Prince Regent,
and an instant later changed his mind. Before either the
(17:50):
Prince or Miss Oakley could retreat, Dynamite, the bit between
his teeth and his head down, carrying his rider helpless
and rolling upon his back, had streaked across the urna
and was within a few plunging feet of the monarch.
A lightning move and Miss Oakley leaped, lunging with all
her strength against Luitpold and throwing him from his feet
(18:10):
and a short distance to one side. Dynamite came down
from a bucking leap four feet bunched where the monarch
had been only an instant before, while Annie Oakley, still
jerking and tugging at the ruler, pulled him to safety
as the wild horse brushed his shoulder and went bucking
across the arena. You were right, laughed the prince, as
(18:30):
hurrying flunkeys rushed forward to brush him off. There was danger,
wasn't There After that the matter was apparently dismissed. Luispold
talked again of Miss Oakley's shooting and of the wild West,
as he partook of a camp breakfast, and then his
visit done, entered his carriage once more for his palace.
But the next day there arrived in evidence that he
(18:52):
had not dismissed the incident. It was a token for
miss Oakley in gratitude for having saved the life of
the ruler of Bavaria, a diamond bracelet, valued heavily in
the thousands and bearing the crown and monogram of Luitpold.
Vienna followed Munich with more royalty and a meeting with
the Emperor of Austria in his palace. Regarding that meeting, incidentally,
(19:17):
Annie Oakley, in her notes, put into a few words
her whole opinion of the august persons whom she had
met during her exhibition days, and the attitude of mind
which she held toward them. There are those, of course,
who even today believe that the term royalty carries with
it some mysterious power of an anointment by God. That
(19:37):
feeling was much stronger thirty or forty years ago, before
the thronements, assassinations, abdications, wars, and the influx of democracy
into Europe had wiped out many of the traditions so
carefully fostered by lines of hereditary rulers. Then a duke
amounted to a great deal in the world. A prince
(19:57):
was a sensation, and a king, if one could meet
a king, was something to talk about for the rest
of one's life. Annie Oakley carried a peculiar bump of
common sense. She saw in them persons not favored by deity,
as many persons actually imagined at the time, but humans
heightened by power. As for the glamor of it quote,
(20:19):
I really felt sorry when I looked into the face
of the Emperor of Austria. My husband and I were
being shown through the palace one morning, and the Emperor
sat at a table stacked high with mail for his perusal,
but somehow he asked that I be shown into his
august presence. He arose with a smile and greeted me
with a real handshake, but his face looked both tired
(20:41):
and troubled. I then and there decided that being just
plain little Annie Oakley, with ten minutes work once or
twice a day, was good enough for me. For I had,
or at least I thought I had, my freedom end quote.
Dresden followed Vienna with the favors of the Duchess of
Holstein and her daughter Princess Fedora, with a shoot on
(21:03):
the King's game preserve and the usual attentions of royalty. Magdeburg,
Branschwig and Leipzig followed Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt on Maine, Stuttgart,
then Strasburg, where the show halted for the winter. The
day before closing, Frank Butler and his wife stepped into
(21:24):
their tent to find Colonel Cody sitting there at Miss
Oakley's table. He rose abruptly and left. Then they noticed
that Miss Oakley's autograph book lay open and signed, as
it was by practically every ruler of Europe. Bore a
freshly written inscription, which, to Annie Oakley, meant more than
all the rest. It read, to the loveliest and truest
(21:48):
little woman, both in heart and aim, in all the world,
sworn to by and before myself. W. F. Cody, Buffalo,
Bill Strasburg, eighteen nine, end of Chapter twelve.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.