Pauls and Omahas in every forlorn group of tents pitched by some muddy
stream in a desert of gumbo and sage-brush; and they named both the
towns and the canvas buildings in accordance with their bright hopes for
the morrow, rather than with reference to the mean facts of the day. One
of these towns, which when twenty-four hours old boasted of six
saloons, a "court-house," and an "opera house," was overwhelmed by early
disaster. The third day of its life a whirlwind came along and took off
the opera house and half the saloons; and the following evening lawless
men nearly finished the work of the elements. The riders of a huge
trail-outfit from Texas, to their glad surprise discovered the town and
abandoned themselves to a night of roaring and lethal carousal. Next
morning the city authorities were lamenting, with oaths of bitter rage,
that "them hell-and-twenty Flying A cowpunchers had cut the court-house
up into parts." It was true. The cowboys were in need of chaps, and
with an admirable mixture of adventurousness, frugality, and ready
adaptability to circumstances, had made substitutes therefore in the
shape of canvas overalls, cut from the roof and walls of the shaky
temple of justice.
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