Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 53

The Menace of the Wild West Shows 51 a wild massacre of Indians killing Indians. The second scenario, "The Prairie," opened with Buffalo Bill charging on a herd of wild buffaloes, followed by peaceful settlers bedding down for the night in the open prairie. This scene was disrupted by a raging prairie fire, which sent animals, settlers and nearby Indians scattering in a wildly dramatic flight. The third epoch exhibited a cattle ranch where the cowboys, happily content lassoing steers and riding wild mustangs, were attacked suddenly and senselessly by a band of savage Indians. The massacre of the cowboys was abbreviated only by the arrival of another band of cowboys, who proceeded to decimate the barbaric Indians. The fourth, and originally the final, scene showed a mining camp, the Pony Express and the Deadwood Stagecoach under assault by bandits and Indians. At the end of the scene, the mining camp itself was totally destroyed by a cyclone, which threw bodies into the air and flattened the encampment. Later on in the season, another scene was added to the show, which was to be the climactic finale of the Wild West for many years to come. "Custer's Last Stand" was portrayed, showing General Custer hopelessly outnumbered and under attack by hordes of marauding Indians. As his men fell around him, Custer valiantly remained seated on his horse in the center, until finally he is defeated by the multitudes of Indians. After his defeat, Buffalo Bill arrived on the scene, and the words "TOO LATE" appeared projected above him. Whether the message was consciously appreciated or not, "The Drama of Civilization" made a clear statement that there were two major blockades standing in the way of progress. The Indian and nature were linked together as the only malevolent forces capable of stopping or destroying the white man's attempts to conquer the frontier. No other obstacles intruded on the happy rowdiness of the cowboys or the peacefulness of the emigrants. In simplistic terms, the white man, who represented all that was "good" in civilization, was pitted against the wild and barbaric elements that symbolized those "dark" factors that must be vanquished before civilization can be complete. Both on a physical and spiritual level, these incomprehensible and uncontrollable "evil forces" must be defeated or overcome in order to insure the survival of mankind. In the Mackaye drama, the settling of the frontier achieved archetypal dimensions, and subduing the savage opposing forces became a moral obligation if the safety of the nation and its future generations were to be insured.