Fakers were everywhere
industriously hawking their useless wares and entertaining the
loitering crowds, while the roar of voices was continuous. Cowboys
from the wide plains, miners from the hidden gulches, ragged, hopeful
prospectors from the more distant mountains, teamsters, and half-naked
Indians, commingled in the restless throng, passing and repassing from
door to door, careless in dress, rough in manner, boisterous in
language. Here and there amid this heterogeneous population of toilers
and adventurers, would appear those attired in the more conventional
garb of the East,--capitalists hunting new investments, or chance
travellers seeking to discover a new thrill amid this strange life of
the frontier. Everywhere, brazen and noisy, flitted women, bold of
eye, painted of cheek, gaudy of raiment, making mock of their sacred
womanhood. Riot reigned unchecked, while the quiet, sleepy town of the
afternoon blossomed under the flickering lights into a saturnalia of
unlicensed pleasure, wherein the wages of sin were death.
Hampton scarcely noted this marvellous change; to him it was no
uncommon spectacle.
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