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Show 310 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. " little brown jugs" are pressed into service to meet the greedy demand. The crowded hotels, which are calculated to surprise the tourists at first, cease to excite wonder after one has visited the Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, Glen Eyrie, Rainbow Falls, Pike's Peak and other natural attractions near this place. We had grown weary of climbing peaks, and concluded to postpone the ascent of Pike's Peak until the completion of the railway to its summit. While discussing the subject, Mr. K., of the Denver Inter-Ocean, related a reminiscence of his: "In 1877," said he, " I held the position of leading violinist in the Richings-Bernard Opera Company, then making the tour of the Western towns, and while in Georgetown we took in Gray's Peak. Our double-bass player, not being able to procure a horse, had to content himself with a mule. One of our choristers, a German, by the name of Stein, had an old mare which was too slow for him, so he swapped her for the bass fiddler's mule. These two men had from the start formed the rear guard of the cavalcade. Just a little beyond the last toll-gate we came into a beautiful piece of mountain meadow. Up to this time, Stein's mule had behaved tolerably well, but, sniffing the aromatic pasture, he quietly put his nose to the ground, and our friend bounded over his head. The yell in our rear made us all turn, when we saw poor Stein seated on the ground, looking with undisguised amazement at his mule, then quietly browsing some fifty yards from him, utterly innocent of the joke. " Seigler, the bass player, sat upon his nag, convulsed with laughter; and Seigler, weighing about two hundred |
