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Show TO LEADYILLK, jAnd Bust Up With the Country. An Overrated Camp That is Sadly Overdone. "No More Leadville for Me," Is What Ona Says Who Has Eeen There. Like thcussnds of others, the fever caught me, Eort of badly, too, and j nothing seemed to clicck it, alter it got a (air hold, except the onethirjg, and that I tried; took myself ofl, went to Leadville and am now cured, fully convalescent, perfectly cool and am not at all afraid of a relapse. When I arrived at Denver the number of poor, miserable looking tenderfeet, who had been to Ec-ethe elephant and returned mere miner lue worse ol the wear, somewhat astonished us. There were lets ol us new-comers, but then, of course, we concluded they were not made of the right metal aud likely enough found things difleren', from what they wculd at home, but bad not stmiina to rough it and take things as tbey found them, Eort of "happy-g.;-!ucky," as we intended to do. We were going anyhow, acd were not afraid of trilloa. So with Btifl upper lips ofl we etaitcd in the South Park traio, which took us up the cauon some seventy-five mile?, through magnificent scenery, to the terminus of the road, which has now all the appearance of a large military camp, from the great many tents I that are here pitched, and the hundreds hun-dreds of teamsters aud team3 of a!! sizes, Eome loaded and others being loaded, all for Lbe great mountain Mecca, to nhich ail eyes for the time bemg are wUUuliy turned. Here, too, a great many were on their way back, who had been and seen for themselves, ana were thus far on their way returning and rejoicing. Tbey could, too, all be observed to wear a peculiar grin of heartfelt satisfaction, as if pleased to bave again struck the lower altitudes. Any of them I put the question to (I waB now myself beginning be-ginning to feel a shadow come o'er the spirit of my dreams, but it was so lar only a shadow) about bow they liked Leadville and why tbey were leaving, looked as if X had tramped oard on tbeir corns, and answered in an evasive manner, or us if I was trying to euchre them, or as much aa to Bay "Well, I had to pay for my experience; go and see for yourBelf." One. a little more open though, than the balance, however, auswered ibis: "Well, now, to be candid with you, ii is the most overrated over-rated camp this side of h and the newspaper men Bhould be clubbed for aiding in the swindle; it is a lousy, God-forsaken eick ol filth and iniquity and not fit for any white man to go to." "But perhaps with a little natiencG and nerseverance. tbe.se troubles can and will bo overcome aod the authorities will, doubtless, attend to the sanitary condition, for the welfare and future prosperity and health of the city demands it." "'Yes, its all very fine, 1 don't want to scare you; go and see for yourself, because you or any other man cannot, otherwise, know anything about it. They have already got small pox there and half and moro of the funerals tako place at night." After thanking thank-ing him lor his attention and Becretly wishing he bad taken a jumping toothacke just before he beean his last piece of information, X bid him good by with something away down in my boots, and hurriedly got seated in one of the five fine stage coaches that were in waiting to whirl ua up tho mountain ranges and across the wide prairies to the various fortunes tbat were lying for us to pick up, io the future homo of our adoption. We walked ever the steep bills and rode across the praiies, almost uninhabited except by large droves of antelope, ihe soil being ill adapted for farming purposes. In time we arrived at Fairplay, cow a dull and delapidated place, once a thriving and thrifty mining camp. Here again we met largo crowdB of returns, all having bad "enough ol Leadville" but not one coming back with "a pile." (except of regrets.) So we took the bull by the bonrs and turning the joko on them lor being so tender hearted, which they all took quite philosophically philo-sophically replying "You will eoou find out lor yourselves; we'll forgive ycu." Alter enjoying a very com-foriable com-foriable Biipper, bed and breakfast break-fast at the B;rg House, we started off much reircshed and continuing con-tinuing along in the beautiful South Part, for a time through worked-out old placer diggings, the country looking look-ing wild and picturesque aud now wo gradually ascend, till arriving at the loot of the range, we here touk mule wagona. Aud now every man is expected ex-pected to do his duty and wnlk over as much of the rangn as be could or until he had to lie down fo; want of breath. The rauge being somewhat near 13,000 feet above the Hue of the sea, the air is pure aud very rare, indeed, acd it becomes very hard lor any one to get a good long breath. Oar driver took us all on buard at the top ol the range aud we went whirling down bill at a rapid rate. The cold was most intense; it Bnowcd and the wind blew bitterly keeu, but the uliakiuti we got going dowu grado kept the blood circulating aud we arrived at the bottom of the range i old and delapidated but none frost-bitten, frost-bitten, when a cup of hot collee was veiy acceptable indeed. Here we again got into ii.ur and six horse Concord Con-cord coachcj and drove otT in fine ttyle, arriving at Leadville shortly alter 7. i'iie scene, that is here pre-scnttd pre-scnttd bailies description. There is busiiius excitement and jostling aud crowding in every direction; well built good streets aud stores ol every imaginable Itiud and description of merchandise. Hotels. boarding houses, lodgings, barbers' shops, grog shops, ealoony, dance houses with lota of loudly dreeecd women witii beads covered with bangs, gambling houses, music of the cimmonesi order, all is hurry, burry, and the first imprecsion one tnea to have ia no im pression at all. There is loo much ol it. You can't take it all in, it is eo unlike anyiuiug oue nas ever bcuu in any other camp aud peculiar ouy to Leadville. Toe older bouses are built of Ions, but most of the more modern dale are put up of white pine, quite green, and covered on the iinside with muslin and calcimined. The tiding Of course warps aud leaves ,the houses very cold. Some ot the boarding bouses give very comfortable meals, but the sam" cannot be said ' j 0f their beds, each et which, by the way, is invariably shared with another I man, and sometimes a "regular" will !havo anew transient every mgbt in tho week, and sirange bedfellows they are too. some of them, as there are I eome of the worst characters to be found anywhere in the world in and Jround tuis city. Ol blacklegs, bor- -jder ruffians acd cut ibroata there is estimated to be not less than '..OoO here at present. ! A lit" the firt i-iciu's rt uce leels ' refreshed and ai:xious to 0 cut aud see the eights, but it bus snowed to ; the amount of several inches and ; our first cut cry was to buy : overshoes. Tnua prepared we ! go out to get some imermation abDut the mines and guess whereabouts where-abouts our future "big boniLZi" is hiGden, but here we are bilked in the start. You can't get hall as raucn of the information your inmot man is yearning for as could be don? at Coicago, St. Louis, New York, or almost any place where they have correspondents for the le-ading papers on the ground. The only reii-'hie information you can glean, is SOTUISO HAS 1IEE-N' 6TEUCK Since last fall. There are prospect holes by the thousand, and you can buy any one of tbem, too, but you never hear of one that has struck anything more than mere indications. There is now and will be or two months to come too m ich snow. Iu the meantime thousands upon thousands thous-ands will go aod just as many thousands, thous-ands, except deaihs aud tose who are busied, will come back, il not a onr.il tv.ur..; n,Arfl q a iha ia nroMu Birong even now on ihe back track and as the sanitary condition of thi city is in a very deplorahle aa well ai disgraceful slate.the outbreak or somt tearful epidemic, and small pox i: undoubtedly there cow, will scattei and decimate lbe present population with a rapidity that will surely astonish aston-ish the older identities of the place, as much as tbey have in the pisi been at ihe rapidity with which il filled up during the winter; and while the then still uncertainty gave birth to the strong credence that there might be some new strikes. Let this bubble be pricked and it will soon burst, as it deserves to. But in doing so let me not be micapprchended. There are mines there and doubtless good ones, at least so far as they go, but Ihey are neither old enough nor bave they been worked deep enough to warrant one hundredth part of tbo fuss and excitement ihey have caused. Such mines in Utah or Nevada would have created no excitement at nil, and in fact the amount they produce in a mere drop in the bucket to the yield of hundreds of mines that attract at-tract no attention at all. The large stocks ot goods that have been rushed , tncre during the hey-day of the excitement excite-ment will yet be sold for a mere song. Already the key note has been given by the stages, railways, hotels and other interests that depecd on these rushing excitements for the reaniug of their richest harvests. They are even now sounding their clarions that will tell of newer fields and rich discoveries dis-coveries in the farther ofl San Juan aBu Gunnison countries. "Distance lends enchantment to the view" and these faraway and inaccessible points which can only be worked one or two months in the year will yet become the grave yard of mauy thousands during the next few months; while Leadville, with her sinks and her cesspools cess-pools beuind her every house and hotel, exhaling and giving forth the most poisonous and deliterious gasses wnich have been allowed to go on month after mouth accumulating aud prop.4ating, will yet become a byword by-word of the past and be lelt deserted and alone in the homes of her gr.isp-ing gr.isp-ing properiy-owners aud her shortsighted short-sighted city fathers, the latter either too ignorant or iudiflerent to any except their own immediate interests. Leaving what ought at leat to be the first consideration now, to tue last, and when they find time and inclination, inclina-tion, itgwill then, alas! be too late; tho birds will nave flown and the glory ot Leadville have departed forever. for-ever. The daily presB there take uo notice of the death rate and it is excessively ex-cessively large, but let one strike be made in the mines of the most trivial character, too, and it is blazoned forth to the world exaggerated a thousand fold. There are some fairly good mines and some others may and doubtless will be struck by bo mo ol the 25,000 or 30,000 who are now there to prospect, but the riches that come from the mines, will not equal the amount that has been spent in search of them. After two weeks I concluded X had enough of Leadville. Lead-ville. One dose of sore throat and fever all over and being satisfied that sickness abounds throughout the whole camp, particularly loathsome and nauseating catarrhal affections, i bronchitis, pleurisy, pneumonia and other lung diseases, and that they, together with the mauy unskilled un-skilled vagabonds who stick up shingles and put Mercenary) D(eviU) as bick handles to their names, scon finis i a poor fellow up, and the poorer ihe quicker he i3 sent to bis long homo and no quest ous asked. So I left when X could get away alive. As spring opens strong efbrts will be made to recuscitate the fortunes of this decliuing carbonate camp. New and rich strikes wilt be reported, oomo, too, without any foundation, but let everybody take all these wild and exciting rumors with a large allowance fir leeway, and keep fir wide of Leadville. As Seuatur Jones wisely ie marked on bis return: "It is worth a million to go there and couie back olive;" find such is the opinion of Tue People's Fkiesd. |