Edith's beautiful eyes sparkled, feeling that Henry today was an unparalleled handsome man. Combined with his formidable skills, first-class musical talent, and extraordinary ideas, he exuded an indescribable charm.
At 7:05 AM, Henry, Richard, and their group arrived at the Denver train station, beside the train bound for Chicago.
This train originated from San Francisco and had a Pullman sleeper car attached to its rear in Denver.
This Pullman sleeper car was 70 feet long, with two compartments at each end, eight berths, a spacious washroom with water supplied by an overhead tank, and six-wheel bogies.
One characteristic of Pullman sleeper cars was that their attendants were all Black men aged 25-40.
The Pullman Company hired former Black slaves as attendants because they were trained to serve white people.
All attendants were uniformly called "George" by passengers—just like slaves in the past, Pullman attendants were called by their master's name.
Pullman did this not to provide a way out for freed slaves, but because hiring Black workers was cheaper.
Attendants provided comprehensive, on-call services to upper-class white passengers, including cleaning, carrying luggage, making beds, laundry, ironing, shoe shining, and dining, striving to give white passengers a luxurious and refined service experience.
Therefore, apart from some personal items, most of the luggage was enthusiastically carried by these "George" attendants onto the train's sleeper car luggage compartment.
Henry and Richard each gave them a 1-cent coin as a tip.
At the same time, Henry noticed that Linda was personally carrying a 17-inch suitcase, so he stepped forward, held Becky in his arms, and freed her hands.
Upon entering the car, Henry found that the interior was decorated in an elegant and luxurious Victorian style, featuring beautiful red velvet, cherry wood seats, thick rubber pads, and silk lampshades.
The decor included black walnut inlays, framed mirrors between the windows, French long-pile upholstery, polished brass fixtures, good beds and bedding, and thick pile carpets on the floor.
Each compartment had a foldable upper berth that could be folded up to the ceiling during the day, with a raised ventilating roof and windows above for ventilation.
During the day, the partitions between the compartments were open, allowing passengers in the same car to socialize freely.
Henry felt that he had never ridden such a luxurious and comfortable train even before his transmigration.
Richard this time purchased a double compartment and four connected berths at the far right end of the car.
After a brief exchange with Linda, he and Madeline stayed in the double compartment, followed by Edith's berth, then Linda and Becky, Andre, then Henry, and finally Pete and Mary.
Soon, guests also began to board the double compartment and four berths at the other end.
—
More than an hour later, in an open-air performance venue in Omaha, a large city in Nebraska, nearly six hundred miles from Denver.
The towering promotional posters bore astonishingly sensational slogans—"The First Female Gunslinger of the West Special Shooting Performance."
Forty-eight young men and women almost filled the audience seats. Among them, four young noblewomen were clearly the center of the circle, with ten young men surrounding them, and the other thirty-four were guards and servants.
"Chris, is this Annie's marksmanship really that amazing?" asked a Dutch noblewoman, who was clearly the core of the group.
"Consuelo, trust me, you won't be disappointed," another English noblewoman affirmed.
Soon, the shooting performance began. A short, slender white girl, about 5 feet (approximately 1.52 meters) tall, held a lever-action rifle with both hands extended, while a young man who looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old stood in front of the audience, introducing himself.
"Welcome everyone to Annie, the First Female Gunslinger of the West's shooting performance. I am Frank, Annie's husband and her performance assistant. The performance begins now."
After speaking, Frank walked to a spot 12 yards (about 11 meters) from Annie, both of them parallel to the audience.
Frank held a deck of playing cards, then with a flick of his right hand, three playing cards flew high into the air.
"Bang, bang, bang," the girl shot continuously.
Frank continuously tossed out 3 playing cards with his right hand, and the gunshots continued without pause.
Fifteen seconds later, the shooting stopped.
Frank invited a spectator from the audience to come and inspect the playing cards.
"Paul, you go," Consuelo instructed.
A male servant immediately walked into the performance area, picked up all 15 playing cards, and then returned to the noblewomen, displaying them one by one—all the playing cards had a jagged bullet hole in their center.
The four noblewomen in the arena all exclaimed in admiration.
The second performance began. Frank stood 90 feet (about 27 meters) from Annie and continuously tossed out 3 ten-cent coins.
"Bang, bang, bang!" After three gunshots, all three coins were struck and flew away in mid-air.
"Wow." The fourteen young men and women of high society all exclaimed in admiration, utterly amazed.
For the third performance, an apple was placed on top of a wooden pillar about 1.5 meters high. Annie stood 12 yards away with her back to the apple, then took out a small silver mirror with her left hand. Based on the reflection in the mirror, she held a Smith & Wesson Model 3 revolver in her right hand and pulled the trigger over her left shoulder.
"Bang!" The apple 12 yards away exploded.
"Wow, amazing." All the audience applauded enthusiastically.
For the fourth performance, Frank lit a cigarette and held it in his mouth. Annie shot from about 15 yards away from him.
"Bang!" The tip of the cigarette was shot off.
"Bang!" The part of the cigarette near Frank's mouth was precisely hit, and the entire cigarette flew out of Frank's mouth.
"Great! Fantastic! Well done!" The audience erupted in loud cheers and thunderous applause.
Such marksmanship was indeed incredible—one wrong move and it could turn into a widow-making shot.
All performances concluded, and the four noblewomen excitedly approached Annie.
As women, they felt proud of Annie's amazing marksmanship.
It should be known that in this era, the sport of shooting was almost entirely monopolized by men.
America is a country that highly advocates for individual struggle, adheres to individualism, and values the survival of the fittest.
This promotion of individual struggle values makes American society particularly realistic, completely becoming a jungle society where the strong prey on the weak and everyone vies for power.
Powerful personal combat ability was also highly esteemed.
Gunslingers throughout America, especially in the West, were almost local celebrities, somewhat like pop stars in a previous timeline.
Many robbers were considered chivalrous because they were originally skilled gunslingers.
This was an era that pursued firearm power.
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