The only thing that was horrid was their spitting on the
floor, but we tried not to see that. Otherwise not a soul was drunk
or rude or anything but courteous. And such interesting types! Massed
together one could judge of them, and the remarkable thing was there was
no smell, like there would have been in any other country where workmen
in their ordinary clothes were grouped together;--only tobacco smoke.
They were some of them playing very high, and it looked so quaint to see
a rough miner putting $500 on a single throw. We had a sheriff among
our party. There was to have been a raid of the state police on this
particular saloon, for some new rule which had been made, but the
sheriff quietly said the law might wait a night; as they were showing
round some English ladies! Now, don't you call that exquisite courtesy,
Mamma? And what a sensible sort of administration of law, knowing its
suitable time like that, the essence of tact and good taste, I call it;
but I can't say in every way what darlings all these Westerners are. Our
escort presented numbers of them to us, and without exception they had
beautiful manners, the quiet ease of perfect breeding. It is
upsetting all Octavia's theories, and she is coming round to Mrs.
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