b'exposition (probably not true). Unperturbed, CodySalsbury became ill, but he too was in poor health, and Salsbury found a very suitable encampment rightand while he did much to improve the organization next to the fair grounds and quite near the rail yard.and transportation logistics (as aforementioned) Those city fathers must have rued the day they refusedof the show, he did not have the same working Cody, for on the very first day he opened he attractedrelationship with Cody that Salsbury had, nor was he over 18,000 people, more than a tenth of the 130,000able to do much to curb the personal excesses of the who attended the World\'s Fair. When the citizensshowman, which with Salsbury out of the picture had of Chicago learned that the NEW Buffalo Bill Showonce more risen to the surface. Furthermore, upon had set up shop right next door to the fairgrounds,his arrival, the Wild West show "became much more the numbers in attendance climbed high up into theof a circus and much less a Wild West show" (Sell & millions during the show\'s April-October 1893 six- Weybridge, p. 218).month run. It didn\'t hurt when Cody announced he would offer free transportation, free admittance, andThe second crack, the second major accident that free ice cream to any of Chicago\'s poor children whohaunted the Wild West show and hastened the were able to attend on the specific dateand 15,000departure of Annie Oakley occurred shortly after extremely happy children were able to do sothemidnight on October 28, 1901, when a freight train Denver Library Digital Collectionssame time those same stingy city fathers refused tocollided with the second section of the show train as even consider free admission for those same destituteit traveled north from Charlotte, North Carolina to children (Sell & Weybridge, p. 199). Chicago wasDanville, Virginia, where it was scheduled to perform a rousing success, the new performers winningits last show of the season. Over 110 horses including acceptance and the hearts of the rough crowds of theBill\'s mounts Old Pap and Old Eagle, plus scores of Windy City, and in the minds of many the show hadother animals were killed in the impact. The loss of eclipsed the World\'s Fair. the animals was terrible enough, the news that Annie Oakley and Frank Butler had been grievously injured, But the Wild West show had reached its peak, andAnnie even more so, as it took months for her to even sadly, due to a series of events and deaths, plusGordon Lillie, also known aswalk again, her hair turned gray. She would depart from external and internal problems within the show andPawnee Bill the show for good, which, with the subsequent death outside of it with the ongoing tension between Codyof Nate Salsbury just a year later, on Christmas Eve and his wife at home, it would be a series of collapsing1902, and James Bailey shortly thereafter put the Wild dominoes for both Cody and the Wild West show inSalsbury had been captured by the Confederates andWest show into a spin from which it never recovered. the ensuing next two decades. shipped to Andersonville, where like so many others(There would be a third accident in 1911 near Lowell, he just barely survived. His ailments caught up withMassachusetts but miraculously all of the people and THE STORY OF ISHAM him about the same time the Chicago Expositionanimalsa menagerie that now included elephants The first crack in the seemingly solid wall of the Wildshows were going full-blast, and although he did stayand camels as well as buffalo, horse, and elk would all West shows was the physical collapse of Nate Salsbury.on, it was in a greatly diminished capacity until hesurvive and Cody was even able to put on a show right As a young Union soldier during the Civil War,died in 1902. James Bailey did come on board whenthere in the open field beside the derailed train).continued on page 20Upcoming Auctions, July 31September 11WesternTradingPost.comWestern Americana,Vintage Turquoise Jewelry403 N. Florence St. | Casa Grande, AZ 85122 | (520) 426-7702Western Trading Post TV Now on Great American WesternsArizonaRealCountry.com July 2021 19'