parcliment-armed dignitaries fresh from Washington
squabble and bribery, and disappointed office-seekers;
Texan rangers and placeless Mexico-fighters with
occupation gone ; pompous, portly Britons ; sarcastic,
scheming, polite Frenchmen ; sagacious, imperturbable
Germans ; fiery Castilians ; omnipresent, silent Jews ;
negroes, mulattoes, and quadroons, — mixtures of
every shade uniting in their vain affectation and pre-
tentious disposition all the evils of their diverse an-
cestry with few inherited good qualities. And such
diversity of costume, and cast of countenance — the
Broadwa}^ dandy with tight pantaloons; the profes-
sional in black broadcloth, high shirf collar, and tall
hat; the western huntino'-shirt and wild-cat head-
dress, and the loose butcher's jacket and greasy boots ;
the boatman's pea-jacket and nor'wester ; the Mexi-
can's blanket and sombrero, and all profusely orna-
mented with pistols, bowie-knives, and rifles slung
from belt and shoulder. Here is a man with musket
and bayonet, and yonder an apparent attache of some
company organized for fighting for gold, with an
alarm trumpet tied to his neck. And in their feat-
ures you may read of wit and of cloudy brains, of
merriment and of gravity, of piety and of blasphemy,
of honesty and of speculation. Military officers en-
liven the scene with their brass-buttoned uniforms,
and faces glowing under the influence of the good
things of life.
One wonders where they all came from. Evidently some are fresh from the soft endearments of home, fresh from the embrace of mother, sister, or newly made wife, alone in that motley company without the dust of distance yet upon them, whose eyes moisten, and cheeks blanch, and hearts sadden at thoughts of untried waters and lands, which are to separate them from loved ones, perhaps forever; others are as reckless and indifferent to their future as the hardened sinner is of heaven, men who never had a home and care little whether their feet rest on ship or shore, or tread
