Not exactly sure what this is

I found it in my doc files from 2004.

The road seemed to go on for miles and miles. It was a small dusty road heading towards town, cleaned only by the occasional tumbleweed blowing past. In the past, it was used as an escape route for menacing outlaws and brigands, seeing its fair share of blood and lust.

Today, however, it was only playing neighbor to a solitary fellow mounted on a middle-aged mare. The rider’s bushy brown beard was visible bulging out from the shadow of his battered hat; his face was lost with it. The horse and rider were slow as they approached the town, almost as if the life was being drained from each of them due to the muggy sun overhead.

As they got nearer, sounds of the day were becoming audible. The road carried voices of women gossiping, the rattle of glasses in the saloon, and a yell from the local newspaper man as an unhappy reader took revenge with callous words. The rider drew up his seemingly tired head and stopped the horse on the edge of the town as he eyed a man in a suit squinting suspiciously at him.