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Show 210 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. there. The snowy sails that float over the silvery waters are nine thousand feet nearer the sky than those that fly the ocean. It cost me considerable of a pang not to go, but I had made a contract with myself to gather stories, and I could not fritter my time away in other pleasures. A woman is very conscientious about breaking an engagement- with herself! But one is always rewarded for resisting temptation. They had scarcely started when I was summoned to the parlor to meet a number of pioneers a friend had kindly brought to see me. They were a jovial set, and from them I collected the following: In the early days of California Gulch, a man by the name of Pat. Smith struck it rich, and, as goes the world, honors were thrust upon him. He was nominated Tor the Justice of the Peace. In all probability he had never read a line of law in his life. One Jim Brown, a lawyer and well up in his profession, declared that he didn't want to practice before such an ignoramus as Smith, and fought him with all his might and main during the canvass. But money is power with voters, and so Smith was elected. When fully robed in judicial ermine he felt the dignity of his position, and lost no opportunity to get even with Brown. On one occasion a man was found on one of the lonely highways, going at a rapid gait, on a horse that belonged to some one else. The primitive method of disposing of such malefactors was a rope and a convenient tree. But the wheel of progress rolls on, and the owner brought suit to recover his property. Brown was engaged to defend the suit, and he brought up points of law to convince the Justice that the man being in possession of the horse was not proof positive that he had stolen it. |