Poole and Donnelly. Thence my route took me to all the principal cities
in the Eastern, Western and Middle States, and I everywhere met with
crowded houses. I then went to the Pacific Coast, against the advice of
friends who gave it as their opinion that my style of plays would not
take very well in California. I opened for an engagement of two weeks at
the Bush Street Theatre, in San Francisco, at a season when the
theatrical business was dull, and Ben DeBar and the Lingards were
playing there to empty seats. I expected to play to a slim audience on
the opening night, but instead of that I had a fourteen hundred dollar
house. Such was my success that I continued my engagement for five
weeks, and the theatre was crowded at every performance. Upon leaving
San Francisco I made a circuit of the interior towns and closed the
season at Virginia City, Nevada.

On my way East, I met my family at Denver, where they were visiting my
sisters Nellie and May who were then residing there.

Some time previously I had made arrangements to go into the cattle
business in company with my old friend, Major Frank North, and while I
was in California he had built our ranches on the South Fork of the
Dismal river, sixty-five miles north of North Platte, in Nebraska.
Proceeding to Ogalalla, the headquarters of the Texas cattle drovers, I
found Major North there awaiting me, and together we bought, branded and
drove to our ranches, our first installment of cattle. This occupied us
during the remainder of the summer.

Leaving the cattle in charge of Major North, I visited Red Cloud Agency
early in the fall, and secured some Sioux Indians to accompany me on my
theatrical tour of 1877-78. Taking my family and the Indians with me, I
went directly to Rochester. There I left my oldest daughter, Arta, at a
young ladies' seminary, while my wife and youngest child traveled with me
during the season.

I opened at the Bowery Theatre, New York, September 3d, 1877, with a new
Border Drama entitled, "May Cody, or Lost and Won," from the pen of Major
A.S. Burt, of the United States army. It was founded on the incidents of
the "Mountain Meadow Massacre," and life among the Mormons. It was the
best drama I had yet produced, and proved a grand success both
financially and artistically. The season of 1877-78 proved to be the most
profitable one I had ever had.

In February, 1878, my wife became tired of traveling, and proceeded to
North Platte, Nebraska, w