ave. This was, of course,
observed by the clergyman, who hastened the ceremonials to a conclusion,
and ended his prayer thus: "Stake me off a claim, Bill. We ask it for
Christ's sake. Amen."

Horace Greeley's visit was fully appreciated, and his name given to a
mountain hamlet, long after known familiarly as "Saint's Rest," because
there was nothing stimulating to be found thereabout. Poor Meeker, for
many years agricultural editor of the New York _Tribune_, founded that
settlement. He was backed by Greeley, and established the Greeley
_Tribune_ at Saint's Rest. In 1877 Meeker was made Indian agent, and he
did his best to live up to the dream of the Indian-maniacs; but, after
two years of self-sacrifice and devotion to the cause, he was brutally
betrayed and murdered by Chief Douglas, of the Utes, his guest at the
time. Mrs. Meeker and her daughters, and a Mrs. Price and her child,
were taken captive and subjected to the usual treatment which all women
and children may expect at the hands of the noble red-man. They were
rescued in due season; but what was rescue to them save a prolongation
of inconsolable bereavement?

When General Grant visited Central, the little mountain town received
him royally. A pavement of solid silver bricks was laid for him to walk
upon from his carriage to the hotel door. One sees very little of this
barbaric splendor nowadays even in Denver, the most pretentious of far
Western burgs. She is a metropolis of magnificent promises. Alighting at
the airy station, you take a carriage for the hotel, and come at once to
the centre of the city. Were you to continue your drive but a few blocks
farther, you would come with equal abruptness to the edge of it. The
surprise is delightful in either case, but the suddenness of the
transition makes the stranger guest a little dizzy at first. There are
handsome buildings in Denver--blocks that would do credit to any city
under the sun; but there was for years an upstart air, a palpable
provincialism, a kind of ill-disguised "previousness," noticeable that
made her seem like the brisk suburb of some other place, and that other
place, alas! invisible to mortal eye. Rectangular blocks make a
checker-board of the town map. The streets are appropriately named
Antelope, Bear, Bison, Boulder, Buffalo, Coyote, Cedar, Cottonwood,
Deer, Golden, Granite, Moose, etc. The names of most trees, most
precious stones, the great States and Territories of the West, with a
spr