Once, as I have already shown, I had to suffer attachment of my receipts at the hands of a body of "scalpers," who, when I had liberated the money through the aid of two friendly "bondsmen" and a courteous Judge, abandoned their claim; though when next year I returned to Frisco they could, of course, had it not been absolutely groundless, have pressed it before the proper tribunal. Among other extraordinary claims made upon me immediately after the affair of the "scalpers" was one for 400 gallons of eau de Cologne. Some such quantity had, it was alleged, been ordered for fountains that were to play in front of the Opera-house; but the dealers, in lieu of eau de Cologne, had furnished me chiefly with water of the country. They swore, however, that I really owed them the money they demanded, and an attachment was duly granted. It was through the treachery, then, of the dog-fearing Ravelli that our misfortunes in Frisco were brought to something like a crisis. In seizing the music in which the whole Company had an interest the thoughtless tenor was, of course, injuring himself and preparing his own discomfiture. The effect of his action was in any case to stop for a time my departure. We had evacuated the city, and now found ourselves blocked and isolated at the railway station. The railways would not have us at any price but their own. The hotel keepers were by no means anxious for our return, and some of the members of my Company had a healthy horror of running up hotel bills they were unable to pay. This may in part at least have been inspired by the following notice which, or something to the same effect, may be found exhibited in most of the Western hotels:-- * * * * * _An Act to Protect Hotel and Boarding-house Keepers._ "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri as follows:-- "Section I.--Every person who shall obtain board or lodging in any hotel or boarding-house by means of any statement or pretence, or shall fail or refuse to pay therefor, shall be held to have obtained the same with the intent to cheat and defraud such hotel or boarding-house keeper, and shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county gaol or city workhouse not exceeding six months, or by both (such) fine and imprisonment. "Section II.--It shall be the duty of every hotel and boarding-house keeper in this State to post a printed copy of this Act in a conspicuous place in each room of his or her hotel or boarding-house, and no conviction shall be had under the foregoing section until it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the Court that the provisions of this section have been substantially complied with by the hotel or boarding-house keeper making the complaint. "Approved March 25th, 1885." * * * * *