I’ve come across a mountain of great society columns in old Washington Posts titled “In Hotel Lobbies.” This is going to make for some great material, so I’m kicking off a new category with the same title.
On December 21st, 1903 Colonel William F. Cody was in Washington, staying at the recently opened New Willard at 15th and Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
Col. W. F. Cody, or, as he is more widely known, Buffalo Bill, stood in the lobby of the New Willard last evening chatting with his warm personal friend, Senator Warren, of Wyoming, which State Col. Cody has for a long while claimed as home.
The great plainsman and scout is no longer a young man, but in his erect carriage, clear eye, and unwrinkled face there are no signs of physical decay. He would be still an ugly customer for a hostile redskin, for his aim is yet true, and the foe that got within range of his Winchester would have no more chance than the bison which dropped at the crack of his rifle in bygone days. But Col. Cody is not thinking of combats or bloody deeds in the afternoon of his life. He is as intent on victories as of yore, but only of the civic kind.
-ad 197-“I am the busiest man in the United States,” said he to a reporter of The Post. “I am not satisfied unless I am intensely occupied, and am sorry the days are too short for me to accomplish all I want. I spent ten happy months in England with my exhibition, and got on excellent terms with Britain’s ruler. This pin I wear with the E and VII cut in it came from his hands. My best wishes go with him and with the English people, who are the truest and best friends of the United States.”
“I am proud of my work of development in Wyoming, and of the town named in my honor, thirty-five miles this side of the eastern entrance to the Yellowstone Park. The irrigation of 100,000 more acres in the Big Horn basin is my special project, and its accomplishment at no distant day is certain. Here is one of the best parts of the Union, that only needs to presence of water to make it superlatively productive.”
