96 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



telligent people, with what trash it doth satisfy 

 its soul ! But it is an excitable people, and 

 oratory is beloved of it ; and it never pauses 

 to consider significant revelations such, for 

 instance, as that which proved the most 

 notorious expounder of the Free Silver 

 doctrine to be a resolute and prudent Gold- 

 bug in his private business, and other minor 

 details. Nevertheless, it is maintained by 

 those who know that the American people 

 can always be trusted to come to its senses, 

 given due time. This is as it may be. Should, 

 however, the event not justify the prophecy, 

 one would like, if possible, to become a 

 convert to the inevitable, for considerations 

 involving personal comfort. 



There is another matter which English- 

 men settling in the South or West are wholly 

 unprepared for, and naturally so, seeing that 

 the Eastern paper which finds its way across 

 the Atlantic steadily ignores it, and that is the 

 strength of the sectional feeling. What is 

 more, so far as the West is concerned, it is 

 growing, and there is a threat in its growth. 



Union, peaceful and assured for ever, is 

 inscribed as one of the shibboleths of the 



