l persons of bad character, clear the
atmosphere for a time, that such crimes are ever punished.

The desperado stalked the streets with a swagger, graded according to
the number of his homicides, and a nod of recognition from him, was
sufficient to make an humble admirer happy for the rest of the day.

The deference that was paid to a desperado of wide reputation and who
kept his "private graveyard," as the phrase went, was marked and
cheerfully accorded. When he moved along the sidewalk in his excessively
long-tailed frock coat, shiny stump-toed boots, and with dainty little
slouch hat, tipped over his left eye, the small-fry roughs made room for
his majesty; when he entered the restaurant, the waiters deserted
bankers and merchants, to overwhelm him with obsequious attention; when
he shouldered his way to the bar, the shouldered parties wheeled
indignantly, recognized him, and--apologized. They got a look in reply,
that made them tremble in their boots, and by this time, a gorgeous
barkeeper was leaning over the counter, proud of a degree of
acquaintance that enabled him to use such familiarity as "how are yer
Jack, old feller; glad to see you; what'll you take? the old thing?"
meaning his usual drink of course.

The best known names in the mining towns, were those belonging to these
bloodstained heroes of the revolver. Governors, politicians,
capitalists, leaders of the legislature, and men who had made big
strikes, enjoyed some degree of fame, but it seemed local and
insignificant, when compared with the celebrity of such men as these.
There was a long list of them. They were brave, reckless men, and
carried their lives in their own hands.

To do them justice, they did their killing principally among themselves,
and seldom molested peaceable citizens, for they considered it small
credit to add to their trophies so small an affair as the life of a man
who was not "on the shoot," as they termed it. They killed each other on
slight provocation, and hoped and expected to be killed themselves, for
they considered it almost disgraceful for a man not to die "with his
boots on," as they expressed it.

Gradually their ranks were thinned by the ever ready pistol, but it was
not so much this, as the change in public sentiment, that caused them
mainly to disappear from the older mining communities. Now, except in
newly opened diggings, the genuine desperado is a thing of the past.

CHAPTER XXX.

CONCLUSION.