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Show 104 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. broadcloth, and went to New York to cut a swell. He stopped at the largest and most fashionable hotel, and was assigned a room on the fifth floor. When he left his room that evening for a saunter in the city, thinking the halls and stairways rather bewildering, he blazed a way, in order to be able to retrace his steps. It cost him $2,000 for repairs. When I take a ride on this "switch-back," said Hal., I invariably think of a sleigh ride I had some years ago. Hal. is no "spring chicken;" she has reached years of discretion-when most ladies find it convenient to discourage birth-day parties, on their own account. As she maintains an unbroken silence respecting her age, I'll be magnanimously discreet and do likewise. But I cannot resist the impulse to relate HER COASTING STORY. " In this high mountain region," said she, " the snow generally falls early in the winter and stays late, making us twice glad, like the proverbial visitor. "The winter of 18-, was of this description. The first snow came in October, and there was not a thawing day through that long, dreary winter. By holiday times the roads, which were constantly used, had become firmly packed, and as smooth as polished steel. One of the favorite pastimes on moonlight nights was coasting, and the fashionable course lay over the road from Central to Black Hawk. A party of six was formed to ride over this course in sleds and attend an elegant wedding reception in Black Hawk. This made the event doubly interesting. At the time agreed upon, we met at the starting point, where the sleds were in readiness. The ladies were in silks and furbelows, and the gentlemen attired after the |