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Annie Oakley burst into the Wild West Show’s arena in Louisville, Kentucky, atop a brown and white pony. She waved and blew kisses at the excited audience as she spurred her ride around a straw barrier at a high lope. The cowboy just ahead of her paced her to a slower ride and began tossing balls into the air. She raised her rifle to her shoulders. The balls burst as fast as he could throw them.
Putting her gun away for the moment, she quickly dismounted and raced over to a table at the far end of the grounds. Another cowboy juggling glass balls was waiting for her. Annie jumped over the gun table, scooped up a weapon just as the cowboy tossed up four balls. Two balls disappeared. She picked up another gun. The other two balls blew apart. The timid women in the audience who screamed with fright at the initial sound of the noisy firearms broke into round and round of applause.
Annie bowed to the delighted crowd and searched the table for the prop she used in her most famous stunt, The Mirror Trick. Using a knife blade for a mirror, Annie then pointed her gun over her shoulder. Frank Butler, Annie’s husband, stood off in the distance behind her holding up an ace of spades. After sighting the card in the knife blade, she squeezed the trigger. The gun barked. A hole appeared where the spade had been in the center of the card.
The crowd burst into cheers. Annie smiled, swung aboard her horse, and hurried out of the arena. As she rode past Buffalo Bill Cody, he shouted, “Sharp shooting, Missy!”
The Sioux Indian chief Sitting Bull greeted the 5-foot-tall performer backstage. Impressed with her skill and aim, the warrior proudly called her Little Sure Shot. Sitting Bull believed Annie Oakley to be possessed by the Good Spirit. “No one can hurt her,” he told friends. “Only one who was super naturally blessed could be such a dead shot.”
