But Mr.
Moffat's example wrought an immediate miracle, so that, long before the
fateful hour arrived, every registered bachelor was laboring
industriously to make good the proud boast of their enthusiastic
president, that this was going to be "the swellest affair ever pulled
off west of the Missouri."
The large space above the Occidental was secured for the occasion, the
obstructing subdivisions knocked away, an entrance constructed with an
outside stairway leading up from a vacant lot, and the passage
connecting the saloon boarded up. Incidentally, Mr. Moffat took
occasion to announce that if "any snoozer got drunk and came up them
stairs" he would be thrown bodily out of a window. Mr. McNeil, who was
observing the preliminary proceedings with deep interest from a pile of
lumber opposite, sarcastically intimated that under such circumstances
the attendance of club members would be necessarily limited. Mr.
Moffat's reply it is manifestly impossible to quote literally. Mrs.
Guffy was employed to provide the requisite refreshments in the
palatial dining-hall of the hotel, while Buck Mason, the vigilant town
marshal, popularly supposed to know intimately the face of every
"rounder" in the Territory, agreed to collect the cards of invitation
at the door, and bar out obnoxious visitors.
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