84 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHVVOMAN 



a corral as if they were a bunch of steers, 

 kept them under guard all night for the 

 purpose of ensuring their * straight vote ' on 

 the morrow. This incident is only one of 

 the anomalies of a country whose freedom is 

 not only in perpetual danger of degenerating 

 into license, but which does constantly de- 

 generate into some of the worst forms of 

 slavery facts so obvious that the occasional 

 lament of the more thoughtful citizen is not 

 required to draw to them the attention of the 

 new-comer, provided that the latter has eyes 

 and ears of his own. Whether matters would 

 improve, so far as New Mexico is concerned 

 whether its Augean stables would be 

 cleansed by the simple process of turning a 

 Territory into a State with State rights it is 

 not given me to believe, any more than, with 

 the best intentions in the world, I can be 

 converted to the Free Silver faith by the 

 hollow and specious arguments of its ex- 

 pounders. 



It is claimed that, by the conversion of 

 this Territory into a State, an immense influx 

 of solid citizens, able and willing to develop 

 so favoured a section, would ensue ; that, 



