which lay in leather on each man's thigh.
It was a land of the individual; and a sweeter land than that for a man
was never known in all the world. Now these men were coming together
to debate what we call a great question, but what is really a small
question--that of an organization under the laws of what is denominated
civilization; that compact which the world devised long ago, when first
man's flocks and herds became of value, and against which the world has
since then rebelled, and ever will rebel, until there is no longer any
world remaining, nor any worth the name of man.

The long room, low and bare, was filled with silent, bearded men. Two
or three smoky little lamps but served to emphasize the gloom. At the
farther end, on chairs raised a few inches above the level of the
floor, sat John Ellsworth and Porter Barkley. The latter was the first
to address the meeting, and he made what might have been called an able
effort.

Ignoring the fact that civilization had been summoned to the bar of
Heart's Desire for trial, and assuming that barbarism was put upon its
defensive, he pointed out to the men of Heart's Desire that they had
long been living in a state of semi-savagery. To be sure, they had not
yet had among them men of executive and organizing minds, but the
fulness of years had now brought this latter privilege.

He paused, waiting a space for applause, but no applause came. He felt
upon him scores of straight-forward eyes, unwavering, steady.

The town, in its new shape, he hurried on to explain, ought, of course,
to wipe out and forget its past. Even the name, "Heart's Desire," was
an absurd one, awkward, silly, meaning nothing. They had tremendous
coal-fields directly at their doors. He suggested the name of
Coalville as an eminently practical one for the reconstructed
community. His suggestion brought out a stir, a shuffle, a sigh; but
no more.

Mr. Barkley declared that there must be a fundamental revolution as to
the old ideas of Heart's Desire. There had been no courts. There had
been no government, no society. It was time that the old days of the
mining camp and cow town were done, time that miner's law and no law at
all should give way to the laws of the Territory, to the laws of the
United States government, and to the greater law of industrial progress.

He additionally, and with a hardening of his voice, pointed out that,
under the provisions of the laws of society and civiliz