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Show 260 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. " There was no church in the camp, but there were many saloons and gambling halls, and several dance-houses, where were congregated painted Jezebels and girls of desperate fortunes, who had fled the crowded thoroughfares of the Eastern cities to take part in the unbridled liberties of a bad life, far removed from the scenes of their maidenhood and purity. " Life was busy and buoyant there, but was not held in high esteem. Duels between men were frequent, but entirely informal. An insult was given, and without delay insulter and insulted drew their 'guns.' The law always justified the man who got the drop on his antagonist. The murdered man was informally buried and soon forgotten, until his 'partner' or 'brother' came to avenge his death. " But one day the whole camp was still, and the ghost of a fallen girl seemed to walk through the tented town and into the saloons and places of revelry, commanding peace. "The mild-mannered Magdalen was dead. Her sisters in shame had prepared her a shroud-of raiment white as snow, and procured a handsome coffin for her poor body. " A young preacher with his wife had lately come into the camp, and he was asked to conduct the funeral service over the dead girl. He consented. "The hall where the body of the girl was placed for the last rites was filled with desperate men and fallen women. There was one pure woman there, the preacher's wife, and she was seated by the side of a handsome madarae in whose house the girl had died. " After the opening prayer the minister read from the |
