Buckner, Simon

BOLIVAR, an American politician and Confederate general, born in Kentucky in 1824. After graduating at West Point in 1844, became commanding officer of the guard of his native State, and embraced the Southern cause at the first outbreak of the war. He succeeded Gen. Floyd in the command of the garrison of Fort Do nelson, which place surrendered to Gen. Grant on Feb. 16, 1862. In the following year he commanded a corps at the battle of Chick am aug a; elected Governor of Kentucky in 1887; was defeated candidate for Vice President of U. S. on National Democratic "hard money" ticket in 1896. From Cultures made in March, Buckwheat. ( Agric.) See CEREALS. 1897. Budaon (boo- da'un ), a town of British India, N. W. Provinces, cap. of a dist. of the same name, in N. Lat. 28° 2', E. Lon. 79° 11'. Pop . 35,372. The district, a fertile tract bordering on the delta of the Ganges, con tains an area of 2,005 sq. m., and po e es a population of 1,019,161. Budapest, or Hungarian Millenial, Exposition. A grand display of the resources of Hungary, made in 1896, in honor of the establishment of that kingdom 1,000 years ago, or in 896 A. D. It was deemed a fitting opportunity to make a millenial exhibition significant of the growth of that country in civilization and material resources since its settlement by the half-savage Huns of ten centuries ago. B. , the handsome double city which constitutes the capital of the kingdom, was selected as the place of the display, which occupied the most beautiful park in that city, a space of 129 acres being devoted to the 169 buildings which were erected for the purpose at a cost of about $4,000,000. The exposition was formally opened on May 2, by the Emperor Francis Joseph, as King of Hungary, and continued open until Oct. 31, during which period it was largely visited by Hungarians and foreigners. The grounds were made handsome by the aid of natural and artificial lakes and streams, cro ed by ornamental bridges, while the 1,000 years of Hungarian national life was divided into 8 epochs, to each of which was a igned a building of appropriate architecture, while its contents illustrated the arts, industries and history of the period in question. The section illustrating modern Hungary showed clearly the great advance made by that country. In addition each of the 19 nationalities which make up the composite population of Hungary had a village showing its customs and daily home life. Throughout the exposition there was an elaborate series of fetes, festivals and historical pageants, and the people of the country seemed to have given themselves up to a period of unchecked enjoyment. Not the least of the revelations to strangers was the city itself. Buda, on the right, and Pest, on the left bank of the Danube, were separate cities until 1873, since which they have formed a single municipality, with a population in 1890 of 506,061. Several handsome bridges connect the double city, which is now one of the handsomest and cleanest capitals in Europe, while its progre ive spirit is manifest in the fact that it was the first of cities to introduce the underground trolley system of street car propulsion. A leading event of the exposition was the opening of the new Parliament House, which had cost $6,400,000. Still more important was the completion of the new water-way through the celebrated Iron Gates of the Danube, the opening of which to international navigation was made the occasion for a most impre ive series of ceremonies. Buffalo, Continued from SECTION L. The story of the virtual extinction of the American Bison, familiarly known as the B. , is one of such interest as to call for some special mention. In 1870 the western plains of the U. S.were roamed over by millions of B. , which even then were being exterminated at the rate of half a million a year. The paltry sum of $1.00 for each robe was sufficient inducement for the slaughter of you sands of the animals, whose carca es were left to bleach on the plains. Up to this time the wild animals were killed by the old Indian method of "running," a method which had in it sufficient spice of danger to make it sportsmanlike. The B. horses were trained to run alongside of a big bull, and the killing IMG:content-0877.jpg:[graphic] IMG:content-0878.jpg:[blocks in formation] CAPITOL, 2874 ft. SUN, 70 ft. of the animal was often attended with exciting and dangerous incidents. The method that succeeded was simply ma acre. The completion of the Union and Southern Pacific and other roads acro the plains gave rise to a great demand for buffalo robes, and a small army of "pot-hunters." set themselves to supply the demand. Armed with a long range repeating rifle, one of this slaughtering band would conceal himself at a point several hundred yards distant from a herd, and deliberately shoot down the leader. Instead of flying the frightened animals would gather around their fallen chief, and die in succe ion before the rapid discharges of the deadly rifle. If a second bull showed signs of leadership he became the next target for the hunter's rifle. Scores of animals would be killed before the remainder of the herd would take to flight. One hunter stated that he had killed 63 animals in le than an hour, and Col. Dodge once counted 113 dead buffaloes, all slain by one man in forty-five minutes. The Union Pacific Railroad cut the great herd in the plains into two, the southern herd numbering, in 1871, over 4,000,000 animals, and the northern herd, smaller in size and more restricted in territory. With the completion of the At chis on, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad there was a wild rush of buffalo hunters to the plains, you sands of eastern sportsmen joining the throng, and the slaughter of the southern herd went on at an unprecedented rate. In 1873 one railroad carried from the plains 250,000 robes. Two years later the southern herd had almost ceased to exist, there being left only a few you sands of the recent millions. The northern herd survived longer, because not so easily reached, it being too expensive to get the robes to market. But in 1882, after the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, a rush to this region began. Robes had advanced in price to $3.00, and the chance of making money seemed good. It was not long before the B. grounds were surrounded by a cordon of hunter's camps, through which it was impo ible for the animals to escape. Under those circumstances the herd disappeared during the year 1883, with the exception of some 5,000 that succeeded in cro ing in to British territory. A small section the herd, about 10,000 in number, located between the Black Hills and Bismarck, had been reduced to 1.200 in 1883. In that month Sitting Bull's Indians arrived at Standing Rock agency, and made a rush for this small remnant of the herd. In two days not an animal of them remained alive. That ended the slaughter; there were no more to kill. Hunters pa ed into Canada, expecting to find great numbers there, but scarcely any were to be found. Within the brief period of twelve years reckle and irresponsible hunters had slaughtered many millions of the largest and most valuable of North American animals. -Domestic herds. Fortunately for science the extermination has not been quite complete. Several small groups exist in zoological sive experiments in cro ing them with the polled Angus stock of cattle. The cro breeds are magnificent animals with closer and finer fur than that of the B. , and with very palatable meat. And they have the advantage of retaining the instincts of their wild progenitors, which have taught them how to face the fearful storms of the West, so destructive to ordinary cattle. These include the instinct to bunch together in a wedge and face the wind and snow, and after the storm to paw through the snow and uncover their favorite gra beneath.