{"product_id":"2940013902060","title":"The Aventures of Buffalo Bill","description":"With the death of William Frederick Cody, at Denver on January 10, 1917,\u003cbr\u003ethere passed away the last of that intrepid band of pathfinders who gave\u003cbr\u003etheir lives to the taming of the West, a gallant company of brave men\u003cbr\u003esteadfastly pushing back the frontier year by year and mile by mile, and\u003cbr\u003eceasing from their labors only when the young and vigorous life of the\u003cbr\u003ePacific States had been linked up for all time with the older civilization\u003cbr\u003eof the Atlantic seaboard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fame of Colonel Cody, or Buffalo Bill as he was popularly called,\u003cbr\u003erecalls that of Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Kit Carson, but he cannot\u003cbr\u003ebe said to rank with those earlier heroes in point of actual national\u003cbr\u003eservice. He played no large part in the upbuilding of our Continental\u003cbr\u003eEmpire. Yet he was made of the same stern stuff, and, on his more\u003cbr\u003ecircumscribed stage, he was a gallant and picturesque figure, a true\u003cbr\u003esuperman of the brave old days. When, in 1883, Cody gave up his roving\u003cbr\u003elife and organized the Wild West show it meant that the Wild West itself\u003cbr\u003ewas gone for good and all. Together with Boone, Crockett, and Carson his\u003cbr\u003elife rounds out the century of continental occupation, counting from the\u003cbr\u003eyear Boone crossed the mountains into Kentucky to the final completion of\u003cbr\u003ethe Union Pacific Railway. Boone was born in Pennsylvania and died in\u003cbr\u003eMissouri; Crockett was born west of the Alleghanies, in Tennessee, and\u003cbr\u003edied in Texas; Carson and Cody were born west of the Mississippi, and died\u003cbr\u003ein Colorado.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps the most picturesque period in Buffalo Bill's life was his service\u003cbr\u003eas a rider in the service of the famous Pony Express just before the Civil\u003cbr\u003eWar. This was perhaps the most perilous job that a man could undertake,\u003cbr\u003eand young Cody was barely fifteen years old. Yet he had had previous\u003cbr\u003eexperience in Indian fighting and at the age of eleven he had killed his\u003cbr\u003efirst Indian. Shortly afterward the Civil War began and Cody enlisted in\u003cbr\u003ethe Union Army, serving as a scout. When the fighting was over he\u003cbr\u003ereturned to the Far West. The transcontinental railways were in process of\u003cbr\u003econstruction, a romantic episode in American history fittingly depicted in\u003cbr\u003ethe glowing pages of Zane Grey's _The U. P. Trail_. The builders of the\u003cbr\u003eKansas Pacific Railroad wanted buffalo meat to feed their laborers and\u003cbr\u003eCody undertook the contract. In eighteen months (1867-68) he killed 4,280\u003cbr\u003ebuffaloes, and thereby earned his title of Buffalo Bill.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070509695216,"sku":"2940013902060","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013902060_p0.jpg?v=1763596854","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013902060","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}