CHAPTER X. 



HATS CTTY BY LAMP-LIGHT THE SANTA FE TRADE — BULL-WHACKERS MEXICA 



BABBATH ON TIIE PLAINS — THE DARK AGES — WILD BILL AND BUFFALO BILL 



OFF FOR THE SALINE DOBEEN's GHOST-STORY AN ADVENTURE WITH 1NDIAN8 



MEXICAN CANNONADE A RUNAWAY. 



HAYS CITY by lamp-light was remarkably lively 

 and not very moral. The streets blazed with 

 the reflection from saloons, and a glance within 

 showed floors crowded with dancers, the gaily dress- 

 ed women striving to hide with ribbons and paint 

 the terrible lines which that grim artist, Dissipa- 

 tion, loves to draw upon such faces. With a heart- 

 less humor he daubs the noses of the sterner sex a 

 cherry red, but paints under the once bright eyes of 

 woman a shade dark as the night in the cave of des- 

 pair. To the music of violin and stamping of feet, 

 the dance went on, and we saw in the giddy maze old 

 men who must have been pirouetting on the very 

 edge of their graves. 



Being then the depot for the great Santa Fe trade, 

 the town was crowded with Mexicans and specula- 

 tors. Large warehouses along the track were stored 

 with wool awaiting shipment east, and with mer- 

 chandise to be taken back with the returning wagons. 

 These latter are of immense size, and, from this cir- 



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