The big hotel at the depot sheltered a colony of restless and ambitious life.

From the East there came a minister with his wife, both fresh from college.
They remained a week.

The Cottage Hotel had long since lost its key, and day and night there went on vast revelry among the men of the wild, wide West, then seeing for the first time what seemed to them the joy and glory of life.

Little parties of men continually came up from the South, in search of opportunity to sell their cattle.

Little parties of men came from the East, seeking to buy cattle and land.