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Show 212 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. He was making his way to receive his rations, as usual. The crowd parted before him, and he marched directly up to the platform, which blocked his further progress. He fixed his melancholy eyes on the speaker, and then gave vent to a discordant "haw he! haw he!" that awoke the echoes ^from the surrounding hills. The politician had tact enough to turn the ludicrous event to account, and bowing to his audience said, " one at a time, gen- ONE AT A TIME tlemen." The crowd dispersed in uproarious laughter. The first time, probably, that a political meeting- was broken up by a bona fide jackass. " I was traveling in a stage coach," observed Col. P. R. Smith, " when a fellow traveler told me a story of BACKING UP A MINISTER. "In an early day, when only the brave, reckless and daring adventurers from the States had obtained a foothold in Colorado, a young man no less brave, wended his way to a mining camp, somewhere near California Gulch. The sojourners in this camp were generally termed " a hard set,' and the mention even of one or more of the bloody scenes enacted there would make a pilgrim's hair stand on end. Imagine, then, the reception likely to be given to an humble worker in the Master's vineyard. " But nothing daunted, our young gospel dispenser made bold to enter and announce his intention to preach on Sunday. But no sooner had he published his intention than a committee of the worst characters formed to wait |