XXIII 



I HAVE above referred to ''Buffalo Bill." There has 

 probably been no American in Europe since General 

 Grant who has become so universally known. Not to 

 know " B. B." argues yourself unknown. You see him 

 mentioned in print, or hear him spoken of on every street 

 corner as "JSoofalo" or "Beel" in every part of the earth 

 where men and women like amusement. He has familiar- 

 ized the Old World with America ; or, I should say, has 

 given the Old World a certain conception of America 

 which is ineffaceable. Whether it is to our advantage to 

 have the universe believe that our common sports are rid- 

 ing pitching ponies, or shooting glass balls from the sad- 

 dle, and that an American Vestibule Limited is, after all, 

 really nothing but a Concord stage-coach, liable to be at- 

 tacked by savages, is perhaps questionable. We all know 

 Colonel Cody, admire his manly qualities, and feel happy 

 at his financial success thoroughly well-earned by a cap- 

 ital "sho," than which Phineas T. himself never origi- 

 nated a better. But it gives people a queer idea of us some- 

 times, and lends color to the plausibility of the statement 

 I recently saw in Galignani's Messenger anent one of our 

 well-known publishers, that " he had been very carefully 

 brought up, and had even had the benefit of an university 

 education." And once I earned the suspicion if not the 

 positive dislike of a very charming woman, d laquelle je 

 contais flewrette, as we were riding through the Gap of 

 Dunloe by mildly denying her positive assertion that 



