Búfalo Bill conoció el Viejo Oeste, los nativos americanos, los cowboys, el pony express, y las largas filas de carretas que atravesaron las praderas norteamericanas; y fue él quien llevó todo esto a Europa, en una especie de circo, que impresionó a reyes y plebeyos. Más abajo ponemos unos párrafos de su autobiografía, que no deja de ser interesante.
En vocabulario encontramos dwell, slouch, lope, y chatel y mostramos una foto histórica: la de las carretas llevando productos agrícolas.
Caravana de carretas, Territorio de Oklahoma
Párrafos
Estoy a punto de tomar el camino de regreso a través
del Viejo Oeste.
El indio, domesticado, educado e inspirado por el
gusto por los oficinistas y las películas, es tan numeroso como siempre, pero
no tan pintoresco.
El búfalo se ha ido. También ha desaparecido la
diligencia cuyo avance solía interrumpir sus peregrinaciones. Atrás quedó el pony express, cuya maravillosa
eficiencia podía competir con el viento, pero no con los relámpagos que atravesaban
sobre los cables del telégrafo.
Pero el Viejo
Oeste antiguo, con sus fuertes personajes, sus duras batallas y sus
tremendos períodos de soledad, nunca podrá borrarse de mi mente. Espero que
tampoco pueda borrarse de la memoria del pueblo estadounidense, para quien
ahora se ha convertido en una posesión invaluable.
Paragraphs
It has been my privilege to spend my working years
on the frontier. I have known and served with commanders like Sherman, Sheridan, Miles, Custer and A.A. Carr—men who would be leaders in
any army in any age. I have known and helped to fight with many of the most
notable of the Indian warriors.
Frontiersmen good and bad, gunmen as well as
inspired prophets of the future, have been my camp companions. Thus, I know the
country of which I am about to write as few men now living have known it.
Recently, in the hope of giving permanent form to
the history of the Plains, I staged
many of the Indian battles for the
films. Through the courtesy of the War and Interior Departments I had the help
of the soldiers and the
Indians.
Now that this work has been done I am again in the
saddle and at your service for what I trust will be a pleasant and perhaps
instructive journey over the old trails. We shall omit the hazards and the
hardships, but often we shall leave the iron roads over which the Pullman rolls and, back in the
hills, see the painted Indians
winding up the draws, or watch the more savage Mormon
Danites swoop down on the wagon-train. In my later years I have
brought the West to the East—under a
tent. Now I hope to bring the people of the East and of the New West to the Old West, and possibly here and
there to supply new material for history.
I shall try to vary the journey, for frequent
changes of scenes are grateful to travelers. I shall show you some of the
humors as well as the excitements of the frontier. And our last halting-place
will be at sunrise—the sunrise of the New West, with its waving grain-fields,
fenced flocks and splendid cities, drawing upon the mountains for the water to
make it fertile, and upon the whole world for men to make it rich.
I was born on a farm near Leclair, Scott County, Iowa, February 26, 1846. My father, Isaac
Cody, had emigrated to what was then a frontier
State. He and his people, as well as my mother, had all dwelt in Ohio. I remember
that there were Indians all about us,
looking savage enough as they slouched about the village streets or loped along the roads on their ponies. But
they bore no hostility toward anything save work and soap and water.
We were comfortable and fairly prosperous on the
little farm. My mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Leacock, took an active
part in the life of the neighborhood. An education was scarce in those days.
Even school teachers did not always possess it. Mother's education was far
beyond the average, and the local school board used to require all applicants
for teachers' position to be examined by her before they were entrusted with the
tender intellects of the pioneer children.
But the love of adventure was in father's blood. The
railroad—the only one I had ever seen—extended as far as Port Byron, Illinois, just across the Mississippi.
When the discovery of gold in California
in 1849 set the whole country wild, this railroad began to bring the Argonauts, bound for the long
overland wagon journey across the Plains.
Naturally father caught the excitement. In 1850 he made a start, but it was
abandoned—why I never knew. But after that he was not content with Iowa. In 1853 our farm and most of our
goods and chattels
were converted into money. And in 1854 we all set out for Kansas,
which was soon to be opened for settlers as a Territory. (An Autobiography
of Buffalo Bill, traducción propia)
Vocabulario
Dwelt:
dwell: to live in a
place or in a particular way:
She dwelt in remote parts of Asia for many years.
Slouched:
slouch: to stand, sit,
or walk with the shoulders hanging forward and the head bent slightly over so
that you look tired and bored:
Straighten your back - try not to slouch.
Loped:
lope: to run taking long,
relaxed steps:
The lion loped across the grass.
Chattel: a personal possession:
He treated his wife as little more than a chattel.
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Fuentes
An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill
Búfalo Bill podría haber comprado esta casa y alojar a varios
personajes de su circo itinerante. Tiene 11 habitaciones, 5 baños y está a 2
cuadras de la plaza 9 de Julio:Casa en venta en Salta
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