1902 - Kids and the Wild West shows

Plenty of Thrill

                                                                 1902, Aug 22  The Great Bend Weekly Tribune 
          Buckskin Bill's Wild West Show cam to town... and gave all the small boys and some of the big ones virulent attacks of Wild West fever. The desire to go out on the plains and slay Indians and buffalo, although there are few Indians and no buffalo left to slay, was planted in the breasts of about a thousand youngsters who followed the parade through the streets, and if they could command the price, viewed the performance with awe during the afternoon.
          There was a good deal in both to stir up his awe. In the parade there were Indians and cowboys by the dozen, bucking broncos, cowboy bands, the old stage coach and prairie schooner, squaws and papooses and cavorting steers, and everything else which should be in a well-regulated Wild West show.
          The Indians were the real thing and did not come from Brooklyn. They were red and the color was guaranteed to be fast. There were several chiefs in the bunch... 
                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Around the turn of the century, it was quite common for kids to act out their interpretation of wild west shows, dime novels, plays, reenactments and books that they've read. Since the west was popular, and tales of fierce, wild Indians were even more popular, it was common for a kid to run off to lend a hand with all the Indian-killing. 


Here's a 1902 article detailing such an event:

INDIANS' LIVES 

BARELY SAVED

Slaughter Averted by Arrest of Charles Block

BOY WAS READY FOR WARPATH

With Older Lad had Planned Wild West Expedition

                                                                   1902, Dec 20  St Louis Post Dispatch

          Instead of being on the wild western plains, exterminating Indians and killing bear, deer and other big game, Charles Block, 12 years old, was ruminating this morning in a cell in the basement of the prosaic and dismal old Four Courts building, while Police Captain Reynold's minions have confiscated all of Charley's accouterments as contraband of war.
          Charley lives with his parents... and he is employed as an office boy by Edward S Plummer, a stamp dealer...

          He and a boy three years his senior, whose name, he says, is Walter Utcher, had planned a trip through the West, and it was Charley's part of the program to furnish the sinews of the war that was to be waged. Mr Plummer unconsciously aided the boys' plans by entrusting to Charley stamps to the Value of $50, which he converted into money and which in turn was used for the purchase of supplies for the trip.
          The two boys bought a large tent and an oil stove. Next a telescope valise was bought, and corduroy trousers, bunting revolvers and fishing tackle formed a part of the outfit. Two blankets were also laid in. Literature galore, with sensational titles and paper covers, was procured and carefully packed into the telescope.
          With their plans all made, the boys carried their equipment down  to the [LoVee ?], where all was loaded on the steamer... the lads were to embark for Cape Girardeau, where they were to begin an overland trip across the plains to the land of the Indian and bear.
          [The boys were missing and police called] .. Charley was found and taken to the Four Courts. The other boy was not arrested [he didn't take the money. Note: It would be nearly $1400 in todays dollars.] ....
          "I didn't exactly know where I was going," said the boy. "Walter he said he knew the way and all I knew was we were going to Cape Girardeau. Then he was going to lead the way to the hunting grounds. We were going to kill all kinds of game. We had the tent and everything that was needed. We both brought the stuff, but it was paid for with the money that I got from Mr. Plummer."
          "I never killed anything in my life, but Walter said that he was a good hunter and he knew where to go. We had a lot of good stories to read when it was raining and was too bad to hunt or kill Indians. We didn't have any Indian books, because I don't like to read that kind of stories as much as I do detective stories.
          "The *James Boy series are pretty good, and the Younger Boy stories are all right, too. But the best story I ever read in my whole life is "Old Kind Brady." He is a great detective and lives in New York. There is nothing that he couldn't do."

1902, Dec 20  St Louis Post Dispatch 

1902 Jesse James series

* James Boy series were ten cent published stories, published weekly, under the title "Jesse James, the Outlaw: A Narrative of the James Boys. by W. B. Lawson, published by Street and Smith at the beginning of the 1900's. They glorified the outlaw lifestyle, and Jesse James in particular.  Below is a newsstand from this time period showing the availability of these serials.

Other weekly dime novels available to kids in 1902.

Another article where kids were reenacting the violence they've seen/read:

A Little Tot Shot by a Companion Who Tried to 

Imitate Jesse James

                                                                             1902, Dec 24  The Indiana Gazette 
          Little John Reed, aged 10 years, of Horton, was shot and badly injured by one of his playmates named Guthrie Saturday morning. 
          The boys were playing Wild West, and in true Jesse James style the Guthrie lad told what he would do if he were a man from the west. He carried a 22 caliber Flobert rifle and, walking up to young Reed, shouted a note of warning and pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the Reed boy in the chin, knocked out a tooth in its course and lodged in the roof of his mouth.... (He will recover.) 

1902, Dec 24  The Indiana Gazette 

1902 Ad says "BOYS - If you want to go to the circus and wild west shows, get your mother to use SATISFACTION COFFEE and it will make her feel so happy you'll get your circus money easy, and then everybody will be happy." 

1902, July 27  Pittsburgh Daily Post 

1902, Aug 22  The Great Bend Weekly Tribune