The Girl of the Golden West
I. It was when coming back to the mines, after a trip to Monterey, that the Girl first met him. It happened, too, just at a time when her mind was ripe to receive a lasting impression. But of all this the boys of Cloudy Mountain Camp heard not a word, needless to say, until long afterwards. Lolling back on the rear seat of the stage, her eyes half closed,--the sole passenger now, and with the seat in front piled high with boxes and baskets containing _rebozos_, silken souvenirs, and other finery purchased in the shops of the old town,--the Girl was mentally reviewing and dreaming of the delights of her week's visit there,--a visit that had been a revelation to one whose sole experience of the world had until now been derived from life in a rough mining camp. Before her half-closed eyes still shimmered a vista of strange, exotic scenes and people, the thronging crowds of carnivals and fetes; the Mexican girls swaying through the movements of the fandango to the music of guitars and castanets; the great _rodeo_ with its hundreds of _vaqueros_, which was held at one of the ranchos just outside the town; and, lastly, and most vividly of all, the never-to-be-forgotten thrill of her first
instrumentality of a corrupt oligarchy, of a large, compact
body of members holding place and pensions at the pleasure of
the Government, removed by the system of rotten boroughs from
all effectual popular control. Its friends would describe it
as essentially the government of Ireland by the gentlemen of
Ireland and especially the landlord class.
"Neither representation would be altogether true, but each
contains a large measure of truth. The nature of the Irish
constituencies and the presence in the House of Commons of a
body of pensioners and placemen forming considerably more than
a third of the whole assembly, and nearly half of its active
members, gave the Government a power, which, except under
very rare and extraordinary circumstances, must, if fully
exercised, have been overwhelming ... On the other hand,
the Irish Parliament was a body consisting very largely of
independent country gentlemen, who on nearly all questions
affecting the economical and industrial development of the
country, had a powerful if not a decisive influence ... and
it was in reality only in a small class of political questions
that the corrupt power of government seems to have been
strained. The Irish House of Commons ... comprised the flower
of the landlord class. It was essentially pre-eminently the
representative of the property of the country. It had all the
instincts and the prejudices, but also all the qualities
and the capacities, of an educated propertied class, and it
I. It was when coming back to the mines, after a trip to Monterey, that the Girl first met him. It happened, too, just at a time when her mind was ripe to receive a lasting impression. But of all this the boys of Cloudy Mountain Camp heard not a word, needless to say, until long afterwards. Lolling back on the rear seat of the stage, her eyes half closed,--the sole passenger now, and with the seat in front piled high with boxes and baskets containing _rebozos_, silken souvenirs, and other finery purchased in the shops of the old town,--the Girl was mentally reviewing and dreaming of the delights of her week's visit there,--a visit that had been a revelation to one whose sole experience of the world had until now been derived from life in a rough mining camp. Before her half-closed eyes still shimmered a vista of strange, exotic scenes and people, the thronging crowds of carnivals and fetes; the Mexican girls swaying through the movements of the fandango to the music of guitars and castanets; the great _rodeo_ with its hundreds of _vaqueros_, which was held at one of the ranchos just outside the town; and, lastly, and most vividly of all, the never-to-be-forgotten thrill of her first