Mark Twain Among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples by Kerry Driscoll

Author:Kerry Driscoll
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780520279421
Publisher: University of California Press

WILLIAM F. CODY COMES TO TOWN

The letter, which arrived at Quarry Farm on 8 September, reads,

Samuel L. Clemens, Esq.

Dear Sir,

I should be pleased to see you at one of the entertainments of the Wild West. When you come if you will find Mr. Richmond76 at the judge stand, he will see that you have a good place to view the exhibition.

Very truly,

Wm. F. Cody

“Buffalo Bill”

per R.77

This document, as well as three complimentary tickets for grandstand seating at the show,78 is preserved at the Mark Twain Papers in Berkeley, along with a small card on which the following words are scrawled in pencil: “Mr. Clemens [,] Mr. Cody had [sic] just gone to track—missed your card. Won’t you please call at the camp & see him and Wild West.”79 Although the note is undated and unsigned, a circular stamp on the card’s other side, identical to that printed on the admission ticket, bears the name of Cody’s general manager, John M. Burke, suggesting that he is its author. Moreover, since performances of the Wild West began each day at 4 p.m., the information that Mr. Cody “had just gone to [the] track”—a reference to the Elmira Driving Park, a local horse-racing facility, where the exhibition was held80—indicates that the message was probably written in the early to midafternoon. On the basis of this evidence it can be surmised that Clemens, in his eagerness to see the show, went into town early; stopped at the Rathbun House, the elegant downtown hotel where Cody was staying; and sent up his calling card, hoping to meet the western legend in person.

Burke’s note raises the possibility that Twain not only attended the Wild West but also spent some time beforehand soaking in the sights and sounds of the expansive encampment where Cody’s native performers lived. Depending on the physical layout of each venue, these quarters were sometimes situated near the arena’s entrance; as ticket holders strolled to their seats, they would pass through an “avenue of tepees” around which scenes of traditional Indian life unfolded, presenting them with “picturesque objects of interest until the exhibition opened.”81 Other contemporary news reports place the camp in the “back lot,” adjacent to or behind the venue, and indicate that patrons were encouraged to tour it after the show’s conclusion.82 Regardless of its precise location, the camp not only entertained Anglo-American spectators but also served an important purpose for the show Indians by replicating the comforting ambience of their lost ancestral homes. As historian Louis Warren explains, “Wherever Buffalo Bill’s Wild West made an appearance, a cluster of Sioux tipis soon rose on the horizon. Although most of the [Indian] performers were men, women and children also accompanied the show. . . . [the village] provided a comforting simulacrum of a real village for the performers, with meals cooking over camp fires and the familiar rhythms of Lakota language on every side” (fig. 16).83 Within this setting, Warren claims that the Indians also “found ample means of resisting spiritual

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