Oriental Politeness — 'Your Arrival Drives Away Somber Night'

1888

Some curious notes on the etiquette of the East are published in a recent issue of the Gazette de France. For instance a Turkish Effendi, when speaking to another about himself, always says: "your servant," "your valet," or "your slave;" and to the other he says "your high" or "your eminent personality." Instead of saying "I saw you at the theater the other night," he would always say: "At the theater the other night I saw the dust of your shoes;" after all, a rather doubtful sort of compliment.

But here is the Turkish form of an invitation to dinner: "My Generous Master, My Respected Lord: This evening if it pleases Allah, when the great king of the army of stars, the sun of worlds, approaching the kingdom of shades, shall put his foot into the stirrup of speed, you are invited to enlighten us with the luminous rays of your face, which rivals the sun. Your arrival, like the zephyr of spring, will drive away from us the somber night of solitude and isolation."



Personal and Literary

1888

—A granddaughter of Charles Dickens is now a type-writer, and copies MSS. for a living.

—Rev. Dr. Bartol says of the late A. Bronson Alcott: "Were it possible, he was courteous to excess. He would have been polite to Satan."

—Of the literary men who died during 1887, the ages of one hundred and twenty are recorded in the Literary World. Taking them as a basis the average age of literary men is found to be seventy years.

—The youngest woman in the newspaper business heard from up to date is Miss Agnes McMellan, the local editor of the Seward Democrat of Nebraska. She is but fifteen years old, and an excellent news gatherer.

—D. W. C. Throop, editor of the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) Free Press, was writing a few days ago an article on the lesson of Tom Potter's death from overwork. Suddenly he paused, put his hand to his heart, and fell to the floor a corpse.

—"Buffalo Bill" is to try his luck as an author. He will write a book which treats of the reclamation from the Indians of the vast domain which lies west of the Alleghenies. The volume will recount the exploits of many famous frontiersmen.

Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Exhibition Tomorrow

Syracuse, New York, 1902

THE WILD WEST

Buffalo Bill's Show to Appear To-morrow.

END OF EXHIBITION IN SIGHT

It Pictures a Period Which Is Fast Passing Away and Soon None Will Be Alive to Participate in It — Many Realistic Scenes Are Displayed — Exhibition Will Give Two Performances Beside a Street Parade in the Morning.

The Wild West will be here to-morrow. The American, German and English cavalry, the cowboys, Indians, vaqueros and gauchos, the Cossacks, Arabs, Bedouins and other wild horsemen, the Roosevelt Rough Riders, Cuban insurgents and the Baden-Powell South African troopers will give their stirring exhibition. For over twenty years this assemblage of savage and civilized horsemen have wandered throughout the United States and over the continent of Europe.

But the end is near, for fate is overtaking both the red and white man, entirely changing conditions. In a few years the painted war Indian will belong to the past and with him will disappear the rider of the plains, the cowboy herder. Then there will be no Wild West, for its present charm and value lie in its integrity and faithful adherence to historical accuracy.

Colonel Cody found fame and fortune by reproducing types of Western characters as they really existed in the olden days. He now looks forward to the day when the exhibition must cease to exist for lack of material.

General "Tecumseh" Sherman witnessed a performance of the Wild West before it had been brought to its present perfection and at the close said to Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill):

"Billy, for my children and grandchildren, who can never see these things as we saw them, I thank you."

How the Indians Worked.

Among the numerous, almost painfully realistic scenes illustrative of pioneer life on the Western border is one showing the manner of approach and attack by the stealthy and cunning red savages upon a settler's cabin. As here enacted, a band of pioneers, men who ride fast and shoot straight, come to the rescue in good time and leave a satisfying sufficiency of Indians effectively reformed from their evil ways. But Western men who lived on the frontier in the days when such incidents were common, recall bitterly and sadly, too many occasions when the rescuers did not come in time.

The "breeches-buoy" operated by the Atlantic coastguard life-savers has been the means of saving over a hundred lives from vessels wrecked on the Eastern coast in the terrific gales of last winter. A crew of experienced life-savers — on furlough from Government service — show in the arena of the Wild West how communication with a wreck is established and the breeches-buoy worked. It is an exhibit of thrilling interest.

Other popular features of this famous exhibition, such as the big battle scenes, he wonderful lassoing of the Mexicans, the daring riding of the bucking bronchos by the cowboys, cavalry and artillery drills by United States soldiers, Indian war dances and the wonderful shooting of Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill) and Johnny Baker, will be seen at Kirk Park at two performances to-morrow. The mounted parade, which will pass through the principal streets in the morning, will give the spectators a good idea of the magnitude and interesting character of the exhibition.

—The Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York, June 29, 1902, page 10.

Who Coined the Term "Rough Rider"?

1903

WHO COINED "ROUGH RIDER?"

Probability That It Was the Celebrated Authoress, "Ouida."

"While I was reading the other night," said a scholarly Washingtonian to a Post reporter, "I was brought face to face with another instance of the probable truth of the old saying that there is nothing new in the world. Every one is familiar with the term 'rough rider.' It is a phrase which was contributed in no slight degree to the popularity of the president. It is something to conjure by, and it gives a direct answer to the question, 'What's a name?' You can't tell me that the volunteer cavalry would have been watched with as much interest if they had been known only by their official designation.

"If my memory serves me correctly, Col. W. F. Cody, known as 'Buffalo Bill,' is credited with originating the term 'Rough Rider.' He knows the value of a name as well as any one, and at the time his word was not disputed. It may have been original with him, but he certainly was not the first to use it. As I said, the other night I Was reading: I am not ashamed to say that I was reading Ouida. I had picked up a copy of 'Idalia,' and had been reading some of her extravagant tributes to the hero, Erceldonne, when I caught the phrase 'rough rider.' That startled me, but I might have forgotten all about it if it had not been repeated a few pages later on. She had used it in all the significance it acquired during the Spanish-American war.

"As I do not know of its use prior to its appearance in 'Idalia,' which was published at least thirty years ago, I suppose we had better give Ouida the credit for originating the name that has aided in making one man president of the United States."

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 5, 1903, page 6.