Now the great event of the day is at hand. The cracking of a whip
and a rattle of wheels are heard up the street: the stage is coming.
Thirty-six hours ago it left the terminus of the railroad one hundred
and fifty miles away. It is the connecting link between the little
isolated mountain community and the outside world. No handsome Concord
coach appears, but only a clumsy "jerky" covered with dust. The
"jerky" is a sort of cross between a coach proper and a common wagon.
As an instrument of torture this hideous vehicle has no equal in modern
times. The passengers emerge from its cavernous interior looking more
dead than alive. A hundred able-bodied men, not one of them with a
respectable coat or a tolerable hat, save two flashy gamblers, look on
at the unloading of the luggage. The stage goes off to a stable, and
the crowd disperses, to rally again, largely reinforced, at the word
that there is to be a horse-race.
[Illustration: Seattle in 1879 and in 1910.]
Now the drinking saloons--each one of which runs a faro bank and a
table for "stud poker"--are lighted up, and the gaming and guzzling
begin. Every third building on the principal business street is a
saloon. The gambling goes on until daylight without any effort at
concealment. In all the Montana towns keeping gaming-tables is treated
as a perfectly legitimate business. Indeed, it is licensed by the
Territorial laws. Some of the saloons have music, but this is a
rather superfluous attraction. In one a woman sings popular ballads in
a cracked voice, to the accompaniment of a banjo. Women of a certain
sort mingle with the men and try their luck at the tables. Good order
usually prevails, less probably from respect for law than from a
prudent recognition of the fact that every man carries a pistol in his
hip-pocket, and a quarrel means shooting. The games played are faro
and "stud poker," the latter being the favorite. It is a game in which
"bluff" goes farther than luck or skill. Few whisky saloons in Montana
are without a rude pine table covered with an old blanket, which, with
a pack of cards, is all the outfit required for this diversion.
The main street of the frontier town, given up at night to drinking and
gambling, by no means typifies the whole life of the place. The current
of business and society, on the surface of which surges a deal of mud
and driftwood, is steady and decent. There are churches and schools and
a wholesome family life.