I
tell you these Westerners are a thing apart for courtesy and respect to
women--a lesson to all the world; and the food was not at all awful, and
we had the best of champagne! while the tent was lit by electric light,
and had a board floor and benches for seats. We were so gay at dinner,
and while we were finishing, news came, I do not know how, that the
desperado, Curly Grainger, and his comrades, were in the camp. The man
next me told me, and I never thought to tell Nelson, who was at my other
side, which was foolish, as events proved.
After it, when they had made some speeches to bid us all welcome, we
went out to see the sights--principally a private gambling saloon where
they were playing extremely high, about seven men intent on poker, some
with green shades over their eyes of talc, which gave the strangest
livid glow on their faces, and made them look like dead men. After each
round a felt-slippered bar-tender would slip in and give them all drinks
in small glasses--rum and milk and different things--and I am sure one
of the desperadoes was playing, his villainous face was in such contrast
to the others.
Their revolvers were all up on a shelf, because, as the proprietor told
us, "They so often got to shootin' one another when they played as high
as that," he found it "more conducive to a peaceable evenin' if their
guns were handed out before they began!" How such things must add to the
excitement of a game, Mamma!
The lowest stake was one thousand dollars and some had twenty-five
thousand dollars in front of them.
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