One would have imagined that this handsome fellow had just stepped out from a smart New York club, could he have forgotten that such an institution was almost a continent to eastward. The Governor had maintained that it was quite possible to live as a gentleman should wherever Providence had provided Chinamen and water, and that the matter was not entirely hopeless if the Chinamen were not to be had, so the water remained.
It was true indeed that the Executive had maintained his customs with no little pain against the divers protests of gods and men, ofttimes wrought in silence, but not infrequently urged fiercely in the open. But the Governor was not one with whom meddling folk could trifle and preserve the peace. This fact certain bad men had learned to their hurt west of the Gila, and divers evil-disposed persons regretted and were buried, and regretted and remembered south of the Pecos. So that in time this matter came to be regarded as a peculiarity, and passed into common respect as is the way with the peculiarities of those expeditious spirits who shoot first and explain afterwards.
The Governor was aroused from his reverie by his private secretary who came in at this moment from the outer office.
"Governor," said the young man, "there is a strike at the Big Injin."
"Well," replied the Executive, "telegraph the sheriff."
"But," said the Secretary, "the sheriff has just telegraphed us."
"Then," continued the Executive, "send a courier to Colonel Shiraf."
"But Colonel Shiraf is out on the Ten Mile."
"In that case," said the Governor, "you must go up to the mines, and if the dignity of the Commonwealth needs to be maintained, you will maintain it, Dave. You should find some troops at the post, some herders at the cattle ranch, and a very large proportion of the State Guards, by this time quite drunk, at a horse fair in Garfield County. If they are required, notify me."
As the secretary turned to leave the room, the Governor called him back. "Dave, my boy," he said, "peace in this Commonwealth is a sacred thing--a superlatively sacred thing, so sacred that we are going to have it if thereby the word 'census' becomes a meaningless term; and remember, my boy, that the State is very expeditious."