d responded with the
"Star-Spangled Banner." The company fell into line for a parade around
the grounds, Colonel Cody following on his chestnut horse, Duke. After
him came the officials and invited guests in carriages; then came the
Cossacks, the Cubans, the German cavalry, the United States cavalry, the
Mexicans, and representatives of twenty-five countries.

As the parade neared its end, my brother turned to his friends and
suggested that as they had been detained long past the dinner-hour in
doing him honor, he would like to compensate them by giving an informal
spread. This invitation was promptly accepted, and the company adjourned
to a cafe, where a tempting luncheon was spread before them. Never
before had such a party of pioneers met around a banquet-table, and
many were the reminiscences of early days brought out. Mr. Majors,
the originator of the Pony Express line, was there. The two Creighton
brothers, who put through the first telegraph line, and took the
occupation of the express riders from them, had seats of honor. A. D.
Jones was introduced as the man who carried the first postoffice of
Omaha around in his hat, and who still wore the hat. Numbers of other
pioneers were there, and each contributed his share of racy anecdotes
and pleasant reminiscences.

CHAPTER XXXI. -- THE LAST OF THE GREAT SCOUTS.

THE story of frontier days is a tale that is told. The "Wild West"
has vanished like mist in the sun before the touch of the two great
magicians of the nineteenth century--steam and electricity.

The route of the old historic Santa Fe trail is nearly followed by the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was completed in 1880.
The silence of the prairie was once broken by the wild war-whoop of the
Indian as he struggled to maintain his supremacy over some adjoining
tribe; the muffled roar caused by the heavy hoof-beats of thousands
of buffaloes was almost the only other sound that broke the stillness.
To-day the shriek of the engine, the clang of the bell, and the clatter
of the car-wheels form a ceaseless accompaniment to the cheerful hum of
busy life which everywhere pervades the wilderness of thirty years ago.
Almost the only memorials of the struggles and privations of the hardy
trappers and explorers, whose daring courage made the achievements of
the present possible, are the historic landmarks which bear the names of
some of these brave men. But these are very few in number. Pike's Peak
l