oms was not far off. Mountains--the Sierras of many a fireside
dream--seemed to wall in the town, and great pines stood out, sharp and
clear cut, against a sky in which a moon and stars were shining
frostily.

It was a sharp frost at that great height, and when an "irrepressible
rigger," who seemed to represent the hotel establishment, deposited me
and my carpetbag in a room which answered for "the parlor," I was glad
to find some remains of pine knots still alight in the stove. A man
came in and said that when the cars were gone he would try to get me a
room, but they were so full that it would be a very poor one. The
crowd was solely masculine. It was then 11:30 P.M., and I had not had
a meal since 6 A.M.; but when I asked hopefully for a hot supper, with
tea, I was told that no supper could be got at that hour; but in half
an hour the same man returned with a small cup of cold, weak tea, and a
small slice of bread, which looked as if it had been much handled.

I asked the Negro factotum about the hire of horses, and presently a
man came in from the bar who, he said, could supply my needs. This
man, the very type of a Western pioneer, bowed, threw himself into a
rocking-chair, drew a spittoon beside him, cut a fresh quid of tobacco,
began to chew energetically, and put his feet, cased in miry high
boots, into which his trousers were tucked, on the top of the stove.
He said he had horses which would both "lope" and trot, that some
ladies preferred the Mexican saddle, that I could ride alone in perfect
safety; and after a route had been devised, I hired a horse for two
days. This man wore a pioneer's badge as one of the earliest settlers
of California, but he had moved on as one place after another had
become too civilized for him, "but nothing," he added, "was likely to
change much in Truckee." I was afterwards told that the usual regular
hours of sleep are not observed there. The accommodation is too
limited for the population of 2,000,[2] which is masculine mainly, and
is liable to frequent temporary additions, and beds are occupied
continuously, though by different occupants, throughout the greater
part of the twenty-four hours. Consequently I found the bed and room
allotted to me quite tumbled looking. Men's coats and sticks were
hanging up, miry boots were littered about, and a rifle was in one
corner. There was no window to the outer air, but I slept soundly,
being only once awoke by an increase of th