He did not reenact battles or play a villain in dramatized confrontations.

He appeared in the show’s opening procession and made himself available for photographs and, reportedly, for the payment of autographs to audience members who sought them.

The reasons for his participation are not entirely clear from the historical record.

He reportedly used the money he received, and the additional money from autograph payments, to give to the poor children he encountered in the cities the show visited — an account that fits with descriptions of his character from those who knew him, but which is difficult to verify in its specifics.

He may have been interested in seeing the larger American society in which his community was increasingly embedded.