Phoebe Ann Mosley grew up in a very poor farm family in Ohio
in the 1800s. I can only imagine that
she frequently had conversations with her mother that went something like this:
“Hi Mom what’s for dinner tonight?”
“I don’t know Phoebe. Have you shot
anything?”
From a very early age, Phoebe developed absolutely
extraordinary skills as a marksman, because, for her family, it was quite
literally a matter of shoot something or go hungry. Many years later, she crossed paths will
Buffalo Bill Coty and her future husband Frank Butler. She then achieved legendary status under the
stage name of Annie Oakley. While there
are many legends that have grown up around Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, as a
sharp shooter, Annie Oakley was the genuine article. One of her stunts was to shoot the ash off a
lit cigar at 20 paces, which she was able to do on a regular basis. One night
while touring Europe, Buffalo Bill asked for a volunteer from the audience to
hold the cigar. To the crowd’s absolute
horror, Kaiser Wilhelm, the emperor of Germany, came forward. I have no information as to whether Annie had
been drinking the night before, but I’m sure that everyone in the audience and
in the Wild West troop held their breath until Annie did indeed shoot the ash
off of Kaiser Bill’s lit cigar. About 20
years later, when America entered the First World War, Annie Oakley wrote
Kaiser Wilhelm to ask if he would care to repeat that stunt. She received no
reply.
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