76 ON THE FEONT1ER. 



I had been much amused by my interview, but was 

 sincerely sorry for its result. Here were a number of 

 representative men, members of a class of whom specimens 

 had then been rarely seen on the American frontier. In as 

 small a place as Leavenworth then was, they would be 

 observed by everyone. Numbers would ask me what really 

 was their standing in the " Old Country ? " I should have 

 to say they belonged to the upper class. Of the upper class 

 they would be considered types. It would have been so 

 pleasant to have been able to say to my questioner : " Don't 

 talk to me about effete, played out, old countries, and the 

 enervating effects of their institutions. Look at those men. 

 They were not born to toil. There is no necessity laid on 

 them to compel to energy and enterprise. They have plenty 

 of money, and can indulge in idle luxury, in dissipation, in 

 lordly ease. And here they are, strong, hearty fellows, court- 

 ing hardship, toil, and danger, for the love of it, and calling 

 it sport." And instead of having this pleasure, I felt morally 

 certain I should see them made the laughing-stocks of the 

 whole country ; hear them described as " Cockney sports- 

 men," as "Battue lordlings." Why, even the hotel clerk 

 had already begun to ridicule them. I should have them 

 and their doings flung in my face until I made a "serious 

 difficulty " with some fellow about it, pour decourager lea 

 autres. 



