Show = J WINiNG AOUND DENVER II I Dont you think Denver is the moat beautiful city in the west jfo I do not think Denver is the most beautiful city in the west Isnt Denver the most progressive progress-ive tc1 ty west of the Mississippi Uudoubtedly it is Denver has a grand future dont you think so V That depends altogether upon I tow one defines a grand fut iro = If a severe hut unsuccessful struggle strug-gle to maintain its lateand present rate of progress may by termed a grand future then it will unquestionably unques-tionably be hers otherwise not The stranger in Denver Is plied by such questions and conundrums time he as the a ove from the enters the place until his departure and if ho be an observant person and a studelit of western industrial and urban History his answers will be similar to those indicated Eleven years ago this writer was somewhat some-what familiar with Denver A boom was ti en setting in and tbd place was beginning to assume haughty airs Ihe Ucity was a thriving town not unduly prosperous prosper-ous yet living on a strain and to its full capacity Some of the wise ones were predicting disaster for it in the then near future The trouble did not come and the town continued its advance Thousands were spent iu advertising the climate was lauded the scenery i pictured and praised and oppor tun tics for remunerative investment invest-ment exposed to the world Consumptives Con-sumptives and asthmatics flocked hither sightseers came in droves and tho rich brought their moneybags money-bags m search of the twelve or eighteen per cent returns from julicious handling of their ducats More railroads were required to accomodate the rush and they were constructed More stores and hotels and boarding houses were needed and they were forthcoming And Denver was at the height of her capacity The strain could not have been maintained many months longer Indeed the creaking creak-ing of the tlimsy structure was already al-ready sounding threatening notes in the ears of the wise when Lead Mile came with its carbonites and horn silver In all America there has been nothing like Leadville We do not know how many millions mil-lions it has yielded up of its silver substratum nor is it required to write figures with arithemetical exact ex-act ess We simply know that ieadville saved if it did not redeem Denver It r1 t more it transformed trans-formed it from vergrown western west-ern town into re F magnificent oitya young giau of the west that hangs its head only in the presence pres-ence of half a dozen American cities The millions that Leadville cave up were united with others from the east and emptied into Denver Den-ver where they wer3 formed and fashioned into stately mansions into literal palaces into lofty blocs of brick and iron and stone into bug streets and in fact into everything every-thing that an intelligent active and energetic American community numbering G > COO can possibly require re-quire whether comfort convenience conveni-ence display or style The stores and banks of Denver are as solid is elegant and as expensive as those ot Ctucago or New York The residences would excite wonder and admiration on the avenues and in the fashiona suburbs of our great cities Her opera house is the most costly the richest in structure fin aa and ornamentation the altogether alto-gether most magnificent and best n the United Statesa country that prides herself upon the possession of fine theatres and gorgeous playhouses play-houses Everything in Denver has oeen begun I and is being continued upon a scale of magnitude and grandeur that does credit to her peoples tastes and ambitions if not to their wisdom and forethought If things were to continue as they have been for the past ten years before the babes of Denver reach t tkeir majority Chicago would ba proud to clasp hands with her young sister of the plains SanPjMucisco be awed in the presence pres-ence of the Rocky Mountains metropolis me-tropolis while the slowgoing cities of the Eastern and Middle States would stand aghast as they gazed up here towards tho backbone of the continent But this sort of thing cannot continue It is unnatural un-natural it is improbable it is impossible im-possible America is not going f to keep on working for Denver and devoting her energies aad efforts to the building up of a oity out here in the mountains for which there can be no possible use during the present pres-ent generation at least We are all liable to mistakes in judgment and much more BO to errors in guess ins and with this saving sugges ton I am willing to risk my reputa tlOn as a Yankee by declaring it my best guess as Justice Twiss Would say that Denver has about reached tin limit to her remarkabLe career She is overgrown and unwieldy un-wieldy She has lived l and built ahead of her merits and beyond her capacity She has overreached her self and must now slacken her pace tQ a proper natural and consistent gait There is not the inherent wild bottom to maintain the wild i break neck speed She cannot al i ways have a Leadville from which I to draw the required wealth All rich people are not consumptive nor JS everybody asthmatic Nor is Denver or Colorado the only sani wnura When tho checkingup die come will It not be sudden Severe aaa r + linou s11111 it not be ccetded by a crash l that may wreck things Those of Denvers People who are not mad eathusi A i L tJirl I i < a I J L u t > c r asts who can think and talk in the light of reason admit that everything every-thing here is overdone They say the city u a mammoth shell liabln to crack and crumble to pieces at anytime Leadville is going to decay de-cay The bottom has been cached in many places and the foundation is unstable Two years ago 40000 people claimed LeadvIlle ior home today a census would show les than half that number in the city and surrounding mines two years hence estimating from present appearances and indications indi-cations the famous carbonate camp will bo stalking ground for ghosts It will have a history but little el3e Its story has been that of all mining camps only magnified and briefer Colorado will ever DB not only a pleasure resort and charming state in which to reside but it Is lacking in those natural resources necessary to the continuance continu-ance of the unexampled prosperity and development that have marked its course for the past fifteen years I sincerely hone that my estimate and foreboding of this wonderful young city may prove erroneous and wild in the extreme and that Denver Den-ver will go on in seemingly mad and reckless career ever growing and always thrifty prosperous and progressive as now I would dislike to see Salt Lake undertake to follow her example and jump suddenly iuto greatness and importance fir cities like water will certainly find their i level be the settling process brief I or protracted Tho slow steady certain ogress of Salt Lake is preferable to the speedy movement I of Denver The foundation upon which the Utah capital is being I erected is firm and everlasting whatever that of Denver may le When we advance the ground is covered for good and all when Denver Den-ver goes ahead a step so uncertain is her foothold that any moment she is liable to fall l back beyond the point of beginning I Any mention of Denver is incomplete without a reference refer-ence to exGovernor Tabor of so much and so many kinds of notoriety noto-riety This fellow seems a strange 1 combination of littleness and greatness I great-ness of consistencies and extravagances extrava-gances of wisdom and recklessness of brutalities and the finer human I sentiments of grossness and refinements j refine-ments of financial caution and monetary improvidence in a word a cross between the better and the I worse the good and the bad One side of his character is noble and I commendable in the highest degree I the other low and execrable in the extreme He has dona more for Denver than any half dozen other men who can be named I He has opened here the finest opera house in America he has built one I of the most masmticent hotels he i has put up bJoi k after block of beautiful resident > and substantial stores and bushiest places His millions that came so easily have been permanently if not always wisely invested and if tho town has given him name and fame lIe I has done more than any other to help it to greatness and permanency perman-ency On the other hand Tabor has been guilty of childish shameless shame-less even disgraceful actions which mark him as the man of low principle prin-ciple and base instincts We can commend the pride that induces I him to put 300000 into a theatre tbat can never in the very nature I of things be made to return even nominal interest upon tho money i invested again we must despise him for turning from the wite of his youth and of his urmhood from the woman who shared with him the pains and struggles and trials of poverty and who did as much it not more than he to acquire the enormous wealth that afterwards came to him we say we cannot do otherwise than despise de-spise him for turning against this 1 woman aged and uncouth as she I may be and sharing his fortune with a lady who at best can belittle be-little else than an adventuress The worst fault cf Tabor seems to have been his inordinate desire for office and notoriety If he had been content to live within his sphere and had managed his millions mil-lions as he seems when in his right mind disposed to manage them his name must have been revered re-vered In Denver and throughout Colorado and respected by the caantry generally Since he has chosen to rise above his station socially to buy offices not because he thought himself qualified to till them but merely for the titles and notoriety they give he ought not to complain if the press and public sport with his name and say unpleasant things of him He invites contempt and offers himself a target for the masses There is one great thing in Tabors favor and which covers a multitude of sins and indiscretions he made his money in Colorado and is spending it there and not like so many have done carrying it away to enrich other places and communities Some of the men who have found fortunes in Utah mines would be respected more and liked better if they had not carted their money out of the territory RaIlroad riding is rarely enjoyable enjoya-ble and then only when journeys are short but a most interesting ride as such thngsgo is from Denver to Santa Fe via Atchison Topeka Santa Fe Here it is appropriate to say something pleasant about a railroad and feel conscientious in doing it It ii hardly necessary to suggest as everybody travels nowadays now-adays that as a rule railroads are miserably mean and operated with the view to accommodatin the public as little as possible If a passenger wants the slight favor of a seatback reversed it astonishes him when his request is gratified for to comply means an accommodation accommo-dation something that seems calf trary to if not inconsistentiwith tine j t f I d 2 f ii 5L11t j < ti Hrlr i I f 7 t j ti i I r management of too many railways Hence when one runs across a road tint appears to be operated upon the principle hat i the right thing to do is to be civil courteous and obliging to patrons the impulse is to state the fact and emphdsiza the discovery It may ba cJm eLi ion or something else but wlmteypr the cause or incentive the Atchison Topeka t G S uiia Fe seems to appreciate appre-ciate the fact that tho traveling public have rights that railroads should respect and protect and tho consequent is a wellordered finely quipped and commendably managed line wnere cars are kept clean employees are civil awl d obliging and what is of inestimable importance meals are provided pro-vided and served with some knowledge of and regard for the human stomach and the capabilities and possibiliti sof the digestive orgilis if so mtath could be said ot all our railroads we believe be-lieve he howl about land grants and subsidies and heartless munop olea would at once we Ikln into a I whsper It is the downright meanness mean-ness of the roads thatsmbjcts them to popular censure and xcites the illwill of the public The Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe now runs trains through to Denver having laid a thirl rail on the Denver and life Grande grade from Pueblo atl I which latter point one branch of the I Santa Fe line terminates Pueblo is one of the most populous and thriving cities of the state that is to say south Pueblo is the old or north town being a Mexican and Indian village and reiain ng much of its priuutivenefcs both as to architecture ar-chitecture and the characteristics of the people while the new city Is thoroughly American in construction construc-tion and in the enterprise ol its inhabitants South Pueblo I is the direct and immediato outgrowth of the Denver and Ilio I Grande Rail way a corporation that seems to be operated upon the I somewhat original theory that it is better to build up a country to support sup-port the railway than to suck the I i lifeblood of the tell tory through which it runs But of this on some future occasion At Pueblo we see evidences of ancient Mexican civilization and these multiply upon us as we run south theie being a considerable sprinkling of dark skins among the population the towns bearing Spanish names here and there is seen a burro and the low ll1t roofed adobe houses area quite frequent all through southern Colorado From Li Junta going south there is a gradual and quite j perceptible ascent the read winding wind-ing up into the mountains cast Trinidad the elevation of which is 6000 feet and so on over into Newt Mexico the first town of note across the line being tho somewhat amous Raton way up I her among the Rockies nearly 8000 feet above sea level The I scenery along the line is of that grand and awful kind peculiar to the southern range of the Rocky Mountains and which is more pronounced pro-nounced iu the Black and Arkansas Canyons of Colorado From Trinidad Trini-dad to Santa Fe the mean elevation of the line is above 6000 feetso high that the sum iding mountains moun-tains appear shore and squatty as compared with the Wasatches as viewed from Salt Lake Valley The countrYis moderately well timbered with an inferior pine cedar and a scrub mahogany that is less valuable valu-able as hardwood than the mountain moun-tain variety that grows in Utah and Nevada As remarked heretofore hereto-fore only occasional evidences of the Mexican and Pueblo Indians have been encountered but now things have been reversed and only here and there are Sean evidences of the white man and these at or adjacent to the railway depots Numerous Mexican villages are passed the little black men women and children chil-dren lazily lifting their eyes to watch the train go by or as they move along the side of She road behind be-hind their shaggy burros casting scornfulor indifferent glances at the locomotive that shrieks terribly of their early destruction There is a want of energy enterprise und even cleanliness about their villages and their ancient inhabitants tuat wearies one just as much as it annoys an-noys a fellow to find the Chinese always at work whether it be night or day The church or chapel of these towns is a prominent feature of miserably mud strutures just as that horriblyforlorn looking little I lit-tle animal the jackass Is a feature among the people You will oftener see a Mexican minus his cigarette than separated from his burro Los Vegas is the most populous and properou3 city in the territory the majority ol its 8000 people being Americans who have been drawn hither by the famous hot springs and the opportunities presented for I moneymaking not only from the springs but from cattle rar ing and mining the Vegas being a central point South of Los Vegas we come into the Glorieta range of mountainswhtch no less famous for their beauty than for the history I that has been made in them Up here In these impressive hills within a few rods of the railway track and in full view of the traveler trav-eler are the ruins of the Pecos Church its mud walls and long since deserted columns crumbling in dust and clods over the foundation founda-tion of the Aztec temple in which Montezuma the famed culture god of the A zte nation rstsaw the light of day One instinctively removes his hat and bows in semireverence at this spot 1C the ground is not hallowed it should be Montezuma was a better cod than most people had or have Ha was good great aul unfortunateand we can respect his people for worshiping reverencing I reverenc-ing and loviq him Through this whole country we are constantb > > 1 brodght1 into contact wit I w r a a wiJiJ t I i tfi lali i > rJ hl t r 0 I lT 1 t evidences of the ancient Spansh civilization that had been grafted into or supplanted the still more ancient civilization of the Pueblo and Aztec And the three are apparent today all dimmed by and yielding to the fourth against which even the deep seated religion of the others cannot stand It is for us to claim that ours is the brightest and beat civilization that the world has ever seen at the same time we must admit that it was a sorry day for the Puehlos and Aztecs when I the hordes of Spain came among them and an equally gloomy occasion occa-sion for tho Mexicans when American Ameri-can civilization was forced into their cities towns villages and families A rain storm on Glorieta Moun tain i1 a glorious experience but of thi another time We are here at S into Fe tho oldest maybe the dirtiest and ugliest certainly the queerest city in America Let us rest G |