sang, and who, till a rollicking Irishman with a shillelagh followed, seemed the most souldepressing creature that ever strutted the stage. The boxes at the Zoo were fairly filled, a moiety of the occupants being harlots, painted, noisy, and in all ways loveless. These women have their claim upon the consideration of the citizens, since they contribute largely to the relief of the rates. They are required to pay a pound a month for their licence, and for the ingathering of this revenue there is a municipally appointed collector. Should the five dollars in any case be lacking, the corporation suddenly and sternly awake to the sin of the thing, and the woman is cast into prison. If the five dollars be forthcoming all is well.

It should be said that the corporation of Leadville are as inflexible with wrongdoers within their own ranks as with those outside. A short time ago an alderman, having a difference of opinion with a local editor, settled the controversy by knocking him down and kicking him. The corporation, taking note of this irregularity, have forbidden the alderman to take part in their proceedings for one calendar month.

Over the stage-box at the Zoo is printed an injunction to "Step in and see Pap Wyman

on your way home." We did so, and found Pap beaming over much business. He is one of the oldest residents in Leadville, and started the first regular gambling-house. He is now getting up up in years, and has developed some eccentricities. At the little counter where he dispenses drinks is a box, in which is placed a Bible, so that a gentleman in the interval of playing euchre, or whilst refreshing himself with a cocktail, may read a verse or two. Over the clock face is written "Please don't swear;" and under strong provocation Pap has been known to enforce this request with a round oath. Though these little matters may seem to indicate what Leadville would call old-fashioned notions, Pap is well abreast of the times. He has fitted up machinery by which the saloon is illuminated by the electric light, and in other ways keeps his eye open to the attractions of his place.

Pap's tables were all going, and so were the four at the Texas House. Two of the tables are for faro, one for draw poker, and the fourth for a game called stud-house poker, an improvement in speculative range on the older game which has recently made great headway in Leadville. The faro tables were most patronized. The banker sits in the middle, under the fierce light of two huge gas-burners.

On his right, in a high armchair sits a man who in the interests of the proprietor keeps his eye on the game and sees that all bets lost to the bank are paid. In the contrary case it is reckoned that the players may be trusted to see justice done.

I visited several gambling dens, and found prevailing everywhere the same quiet, bordering upon dull melancholy. The proprietors of the gambling dens, like the lessees of the drinking and dancing saloons, were pining for pay-day. I made the acquaintance of one gambler, who, as far as personal appearance and history went, comes nearer to the realization of Mr. John Oakhurst than seemed possible. Born of a well-known Massachusetts family he had been a gambler, miner, billiardmarker, and some other things not so reputable. Having won and lost several fortunes at cards, he had arrived at the conclusion that the chances are greatly in favour of the bank. He had accordingly, very early after Pap Wyman began to flourish at the corner shop, set up in business for himself, and has so greatly prospered that he is now building a new saloon, paved, as he mentioned with pardonable pride, with Minton's tiles, directly imported. A tall, handsome, dark-eyed, lighthearted man, I suspect he would not hesitate

either to shoot or cheat an acquaintance if direct advantage were to be obtained. But, if physiognomy is not wholly deceitful, he looks like a man who would stand by a friend, and be kind to women and children. In these respects, and with the advantage of gentle birth and early education, he is a fair type of the drinking, gambling, shooting, and hardworking men of Leadville.

CHAPTER VII.

THE CITY OF THE SAINTS.

THE traveller entering Salt Lake City by the Denver and Rio Grande Railway has a very charming introduction. The beauty of this wonderful line has faded amid the sandy plains that lie between the Green River and Grassy Trail. Then in the early morning the train glides into Utah Valley, with its comfortable little homesteads, tree-embowered and surrounded by grass plots, which excite the marvel and envy of dwellers in the middle States, who all agree that it is more like Connecticut or Massachusetts than anything they are immediately acquainted with. Children throng about the train with baskets of apples, pears, and grapes, which they offer for sale on the principle of a Dutch auction, the price coming down very low indeed as the train begins to move away. We pass through this valley, with its blue lake on one side, and