searched, and in nine cases out of ten he is found with a loaded weapon in his pistolpocket. In this way the law works in the temperance cause, but only indirectly for the protection of life. The city editor of the evening journal in Kansas City is at the present moment serving a period of twenty-five years in the penitentiary for having shot his man. The incident has been the making of the newspaper, but it is awkward for the city editor. It is probable that he might have served his journal and preserved his liberty but for the accidental position in which the man stood when he was shot. The bullet entered his back, which prevented the prisoner from pleading that he had acted in self-defence.

There is a story told in Denver which illustrates the readiness with which this plea, generally irresistible with a Western jury, is urged when a man gets into difficulties. Three citizens of Denver were drinking in a little room off the bar. One of them suddenly fell dead from heart disease. The other two, conscious of a shady record, and certain that they would be accused of killing him, went into the bar, ordered some cigars, which they knew were kept in another part of the house, and whilst the barman was away, they carried the dead man in, put him on a chair, with

his head between his hands, as if he were sleeping off drink.

"He'll pay for the cigars," they said to the barman, and walked out.

The bartender waited a reasonable time, and then, going up to the supposed sleeper, shook him roughly and demanded payment. To his horror the man rolled off the chair, and then he saw he was dead. At this moment two fresh customers entered, and the barman recognizing his peril as the other two had done, said with an oath—

"I did it in self-defence."

That is a Denver story for which I do not vouch, though I do personally vouch for the literal truth of the story about the kneeling clergyman and his protector.

With one more story, also true, for it is written in the prosaic record of the policecourt, I will conclude this budget of episodes in Western life. At Blue Rock Springs, Kentucky, three brothers named Rogers met to complete some formalities in the matter of their father's will. They were all men well to do in the world. Samuel was the president of a bank, William was a lawyer, and Thomas a farmer. As the business proceeded, Samuel, according to his own account, "thinking his brothers were about to draw their weapons," whipped

out his revolver, shot Thomas in the head and William in the stomach. William died at four o'clock on the next morning, Thomas lay for weeks at the gate of death, and brother Samuel, when I left the district, was in gaol. He had already put in his plea.

It was that he acted in self-defence.

VOL. I.

CHAPTER V.

IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

To persons who have heard of Denver as the head-quarters of a mixed population of miners and cowboys, the city itself is an agreeable surprise. Its most striking feature is its extreme respectability. Its streets being laid out in broad boulevards, flanked on either side by rows of trees, it is to some extent reminiscent of Wiesbaden or Baden-Baden. But these towns are associated with gambling, dancing, and other frivolities, and it is impossible to connect Denver with anything of the kind. Perhaps Leamington comes nearer to likeness with Denver than most towns, and it is not easy to overrate the respectability of Leamington. It is quite true that only three nights before our arrival a gentleman walking home through these broad and pleasant streets was, as the newspapers have it, "held up "that is to say, he was knocked down. Strange

to say, at this critical moment a policeman happened to come in sight, whereupon the footpad fled. The policeman fortuitously had a loaded revolver in his pocket. This he drew and blazed away through five blocks, hitting nobody, not even the man who had been "held up." This, however, is a mere breaking out of the old Adam, and cannot be held seriously to vary the general tone of respectability that pervades the place.

There is nothing lacking to complete the handsomeness and desirability of Denver. The roads are broad and well made-terribly dusty when the wind blows, but that is not every day. The houses are substantially built and tastefully designed. From one of the mountain ranges that circle Denver with a band of purple and gold is quarried a rare and beautiful building stone, tinted with veins of pink on ground of grey. There is too much reason to fear that if New York had this stone it would, at considerable expense, have it worked so as to present a smooth surface to make it worthy of a place by "the brown stone fronts." Denver leaves the mark of the honest chisel upon its stonework, which is pleasant to look upon accordingly. Most of the principal buildings and residences are built with this stone, the rest being made with red