I returned back to the Plains for employment, but there was nothing to
do. The Indians, for a wonder, were quiet. There was little stirring in
the military posts. I could have continued to serve in one of them if I
had chosen, and the way was still open to study for a commission as an
officer. But army life without excitement was not interesting for me,
and when Ned Buntline offered me a chance to come East and try my
fortunes as an actor I accepted.
I accepted with misgivings, naturally. Hunting Indians across a stage
differed from following them across the Plains. I knew the wild western
Indian and his ways. I was totally unacquainted with the tame stage
Indian, and the thought of a great gaping audience looking at me across
the footlights made me shudder.
But when my old "pards," Wild Bill and Texas Jack, consented to try
their luck with me in the new enterprise I felt better. Together we
made the trip to New York, and played for a time in the hodgepodge
drama written for us by Ned Buntline himself.
Before any of us would consent to be roped and tied by Thespis we
insisted on a proviso that we be freed whenever duty called us to the
Plains.
The first season was fairly prosperous, and so was the second. The
third year I organized a "show" of my own, with real Indians in it--the
first, I believe, who ever performed on a stage.
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