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Tht NEW BERN
VOLUME 11
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1968
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NUMBb^. 31
Tarheels, In this modern age
of miracles, can get saddle
sores right in their own living
room from a wide choice of tele
vision westerns.
That's nothing to crow about.
Sixty years ago naUves were
privileged to see in the flesh
the first of all westerns, and Its
famed originator, Buffalo Bill.
WllUam Frederick Cody was
his real name, but long before
he dreamed of visiting North
Carolina with a tent show that
only Included hundreds of cow
boys, scouts and Indians but the
Incomparable Annie Oakley, he
had been dubbed Buffalo Bill for
keeps.
For 20 years before his death
in 1917, he toured America and
Europe, reaping a fortune. Like
that more recent showman,
Michael Todd, Cody spent his
money as fast as he made It, or
faster.
Fortunately for him, he did
buy considerable acreage in
Wyoming and Nebraska, and
founded the town of Cody at the
eastern entrance of Yellowstone
Park. His tomb is a vault that
was dynamited out of solid rock
on the top of Lookout Mountain,
near Denver.
Some of the western stars
on television today probably
wouldn't know a steer if they met
him face to face, but the per
formers brpuiAt to the State
by Buffalo Bill were part and
parcel of a great American era.
Cody was the last of a Une
of noted scouts that included
Daniel Boone, Davey Crock- ^
ett and a venturesome gent
known only as “Wild Bill."
Born in Iowa, Buffalo Bill had
done an awful lot of living be
fore he finally arrived as a craf
ty, middle-aged entertainer.
Newspapers were few and far
between, but folks hereabouts
were already well informed of
his glamorous career. What
they didn't know, Cody's press
agent filled in with hectic ad
vance ballyboo that had every
body in a tizzy weeks before the
big performance.
Unlike most cases of exploi
tation, Buffalo Bill was Just as
amazing as the billboards pro-
clamed him to be. Amazing not
only for his feats of the past, but
as the star gf his own show.
Orphaned at die age of 11 when
his father was-stabbed to death,
he became the original hot-rod
teenager as a rider for the Pony
Express. No one along the 1,-
950 miles from St. Joseph,Mo.,
to Sacramento, Calif., whs
as daring on board a nag.
Before long the plains and In
dian habits were an ppen book
to him. He scouted for the
Yankees In the War Between
The States, fought later against
the Sioux and Cheyennes, and
killed Chief Yellow Hand of the
Cheyennes in man to man com
bat.
How did he get the name of
Buffalo Bill? That was strictly
business. He signed a contract
to furnldi fresh buffalo meat
for laborers who were putting
down the track of the Kansas-
Pacific railroad. His claim that
he killed 4,800 buffaloes in a
single year, and 69 in a single
day, was never denied.
Yes, Cody was the real thing,
and those who crowded his big
tent for a look at him were well
aware of the fact. Not content
with Just a look, theyboughthls
(Continued on Page 8)
IN LATE OCTOBER—^Far across the sea, the famed
clock tower in our mother city, Bern, Switzerland,
welcomes the warming touch of a bright morning sun.
Much larger and more reliable than our own tempera
mental timepiece at City Hall here, the clock in the
Swiss Capital not only keeps natives and visitors in
formed, out entertains them at the noon hour with an
assortment of mechanical figures that step forth to
put on their own special show. Swiss watches are
known around the world for the exactness and effi
ciency of their inner workings, but bigger creations
are no less carefully designed, llianks to _ _ .
ture. New Bern’s clock tower is' similarly blessed
udth the morning sun, when dawn breaks over the
Neuse a block away. And though the bears on our
tower don’t move like Bern’s, they wear a grin, rain
or shine, or is it a grimace?