A. M. Chisholm

“ Investments there were in plenty; not a man but was ready to put a figure on anything he owned or might acquire. But the figures were invariably high and Mortimer was looking for a gilt-edged proposition—one that would yield him one hundred per cent. profit and show it on its face. Modest gambles on quarter interests in unproved claims he passed up as too risky and too slow.
His first unfavorable impressions of Galena City were confirmed. The town was raw and hopelessly vulgar, as well as exceedingly dirty. ”

“ It rained without intermission—a slow, soaking drizzle of needlelike streams that turned the yellow and red clays to clinging paste which gripped boots with a despairing clutch.
On the principle that so much water without needed a corrective within, the entire white population of Galena, male and female after their kind, imbibed freely of more or less undiluted alcohol. ”

“ For which shortcoming he received but a measly two bits instead of the expected half-dollar, and in consequence dumped the grip with slight ceremony on the station-platform, leaving its owner to shift for himself.
As Mortimer stood uncertainly on the platform in the falling rain, jostled by muddy and unkempt men. he presented much the air of a sleek, pert young spaniel suddenly shot into a company of lean, sinewy sled-dogs. He was carefully dressed with an effect of studied negligée eminently proper for a mining-town. ”