At Bent's Fort, a happy intermixture of nations and languages brought French, Spanish, Indian, and English together in one place. Everyone worked to keep the fort running and to make it successful as a commercial enterprise. For some it was home, while for others it offered welcome respite from the rigors of the Santa Fe Trail. After trail hardships, visitors encountered a fort filled with the trappings of society, including tables, chairs, tablecloths, plates, silverware, chandeliers, glass window panes, musical instruments, billiard, plentiful dry goods, and liquor, all calculated to impress and to set Bent, St. Vrain and Company apart. With dancing, gambling, and toasting, it was remembered as the very merriest of all the trading posts on the frontier. From the fort's Council Room to the tepees on the plains, peace was pursued as good business practice, and the placita, or plaza, served not only as a center of trade but also as the center of a diverse frontier community. When the Cheyenne danced with onlookers encircling the plaza, it became a spiritual center. Children also labored daily, grinding corn into flour, cleaning chamber pots, and scooping animal manure while singing songs of prairie, sky, and buffalo in their native tongue.