CHAPTER XXVIII.

AN ACTOR.

During the summer and fall of 1872, I received numerous letters from Ned Buntline, urging me to come East and go upon the stage to represent my own character.  “There’s money in it,” he wrote, “and you will prove a big card, as your character is a novelty on the stage.”

At times I almost determined to make the venture; but the recollection of that night when I stood on the stage of the Bowery Theatre and was unable to utter a word above a whisper, would cause me to stop and think and become irresolute.  I feared that I would be a total failure, and wrote Buntline to that effect.  But he insisted that I would soon get over all that embarrassment, and become accustomed to the stage, so that I would think no more of appearing before five thousand people than I would before half a dozen.  He proposed to organize a good company, and wished me to meet him in Chicago, where the opening performance would be given.

I remained undecided as to what I ought to do.  The officers at the fort as well as my family and friends to whom I had mentioned the matter, laughed at the idea of my ever becoming an actor.  That I, an old scout who had never seen more than twenty or thirty theatrical performances in my life, should think of going upon the stage, was ridiculous in the extreme—­so they all said.

A few days after my election to the legislature a happy event occurred in my family circle, in the birth of a daughter whom we named Ora; about the same time I received another letter from Buntline, in which he requested me to appear on the stage for a few months as an experiment; and he said that if I made a failure or did not like the business, I could easily return to my old life.

My two sisters who had been living with us had married,—­Nellie, to A. C. Jester, a cattle man, and May, to Ed. Bradford, a railroad engineer—­and consequently left us; and my wife had been wishing for a long time to visit her parents in St. Louis.  Taking these and other things into consideration I finally resolved to resign my seat in the legislature and try my luck behind the footlights.  I informed General Reynolds of my determination, telling him at the same time that at the end of the month, November, I would resign my position under him.  The General regretted to hear this, and advised me not to take the step, for I was leaving a comfortable little home, where I was sure of making a good living for my family; while, on the other hand, I was embarking upon a sea of uncertainty.  Having once made up my mind, however, nothing could change it.

While I was selling my horses and other effects, preparatory to leaving the fort, one of my brother scouts, Texas Jack, said that he would like to accompany me.  Now as Jack had also appeared as the hero in one of Ned Buntline’s stories, I thought that he would make as good a “star” as myself, and it was accordingly arranged that Jack should go with me.  On our way East we stopped in Omaha a day or two to visit General Augur and other officers, and also the gentlemen who were out on the Judge Dundy hunt.  Judge Dundy and his friends gave a dinner party in my honor at the leading restaurant and entertained me very handsomely during my stay in the city.