BUFFALO BILL’S WILD WEST SHOW

 

Of all the outdoor shows that toured the world half a century ago, none was more famous or a greater attraction than Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show - and no other show that visited Halifax could have found the weather such an enemy and a handicap! "It could not have been worse," said the" Guardian," reporting the events on Skircoat Moor of October 8, 1903.

 

Early in the morning, three special trains on the High Level Railway had brought to Pellon Station the unfamiliar cargo of people and horses making up the teams, and had disembarked them before most of the townsfolk were awake. To" the Moor" the cavalcade tramped and rode in the pouring rain, those American cowboys, Mexican rough-riders, Cossacks, Arabs and Indians, with their spirited animals, and on the sodden Moor they raised their camp. So many were there that the feeding of the encamped performers under such dreadful conditions won the admiration of the spectators.

 

The "Congress of Rough Riders of the World" as the show was also styled, triumphed over the elements, however, and drew large crowds to two performances in spite of the chilly discomfort of the perpetual rain that turned the ground into a quagmire.

 

Two powerful searchlights failed to brighten the scene owing to the heavy mist rising from the drenched ground, and the effect at the night performance was very weird, we are told, in the steely glitter of the electric lights. But the continual downpour did not rid the galloping steeds of their mettle nor the courageous riders of their pluck, and the full planned programme from the opening to the final review was carried through.

 

As the rough-riders dashed about the enclosure they yelled their pulse-stirring cries and lightened the gloom with bright flashes of colour. The lassoing of the cowboys was "like a fine art". There were the emigrant trains crossing the plains; the attack on the settlers' camp, and the dramatic repulse of the attackers by a posse of soldiers. The military gave exciting exhibitions, too, and novel life-saving apparatus was brought into play. The bivouacs and the camp fires gave a fascinating realism to the events, and the war dance of the Indians was pronounced the most exciting in its novelty.

 

This Wild West Show of Buffalo Bill's, with its contingents from the East, brought the rough life of the plains and the steppes and the deserts to Halifax with a vengeance that day, and the pitiless rain could not damp the admiration of the thousands of soaked spectators.

 

(This article appeared in the Halifax Courier and Guardian weekly in the late 1950’s and I am indebted to them for permission to reprint it)

 

John Sutcliffe