Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1881 — LETTER FROM COLORADO. [ARTICLE]

LETTER FROM COLORADO.

Denver, Colorado, | July 20, 1881. J Dear Sentinel: Since our advent air of the Silver State has been so dry, the sky so clear, and the sun’s rays so bripht, we had almost co®e to the conclusion that the climate was rainless. To-day it is cloudy and a steady rain falls, recalling the poets words: “Some days must be dark and dreary.” The Denverites smile and we hesr the trite remark: “The rain has come, and the long heated term is over."— We have not been here long enough to rhapsodize on a mere change of weather. A cloudy, rainy day seems to excite the people as much here as an eclipse would in old Jasper. This is a pushing, live city, and is in all respects metropolitan in its appoint merits. Having traveled for so great a distance over the bare, lonely plains of Kansas, and the almost verdureless parts of Colorado, it seems like corning to land after a long sea voyage to look upon this “the Queen City of the Plains.” Denver is making a persistent struggle to be and remain the “greatest city in the New West. This whole region resembles more the Pacific than the Atlantic in its general features. The grazing inter est is sustained more by the quality than the quantity of sncculant grasses The labor of cutting, curing and preserving is accomplished by Providence. The very dry, scorching winds and dewless nigjits preserve the nu triment in the dead grass. Stock run at large in winter and pick for grub on the heath;—’tls often slim picking. Thousands starve and freeze, but the Cattle Kings seem to care little fora small p r cent, of loss. A “Cow Boy” Is a peculiar specimen of the genus homo. A lithe, swarthy, long haired, swearing individuaal attached to a broad hat, circular saw spurs, bowieknife, lariat, whip and broncho, wo'd somewhat express his superficial characteristics. They are not plentiful, but are a necessity with brawling cows, crying calves, and fighting s‘eers, to complete the picture of a gram! “round up.” This annual frolic Is enjoyed here as well as on the grassy plains oj Texas.

SCENERY —PLAINS FOOT HILLS. To the East nothing appeals but the silent, limitless plains—:io* Ha', but in basins—nltir.ced by d y chasms primeval tempests. This treelessnr'ea brings a feeling of solitude, ami a human being beyond the horizon of forest or mountain seems like a little boat very far from shore. It is very desolate when ones eyes seal eh the horizon in vain for some tree, shrub, or living thing. Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado ate thus treeless. It is true we find the strangely gnarled and twisted sage brush, from the shelter of which occasionally springs a jack rabbit. The prairie dogs have villages, but, we scarcely see anything of the little rodents except their noses or tails as they peer or disappear. Some flowers grow on the plains from Denver to Colorado Springs, and the foo’.hills at intervals seem blue with gentian, blue-bells and lark-spurs. This carpet of flowers is only spread in choice places, the miniature parlors of tae mountains. CANONS AND MOUNTAINS. From their sources in the metamorphic rocks come the mineral springs at Manitau and Idaho. We have visited the former and will go to the latter. The Indians named the spring at the mouth of Williams Canon because the escape of air bubbling through the flowing founntain was thought by them to be the breathing of the Great Spirit—an elixir for the afflicted. The vermilion rocks assume the grotesque forms of animals, castles, and unique shapes in a park near Fountain Creek, and these mute figures standing out from tne Mesa gave a name to the park—“ Garden of the Gods.” Every gorge or nan ow chasm in the mountain chain is called a Canon. The widening of a Canon is called a Park, and the level plateau of a park is called the Mesa. If you want to see a Canon and trace it to its mountain end you will need bur»o The three great Parks of Colorado—North, Middle and South—are said to be as large as our smaller States. But Manitau, Monument, and other Parks visited by us are mere babies —a mile or so in extent | Looking to the West in the evening the horizon is serrated with mountain

peaks, and the eye never tires with the changing picture—varied in form and changing in color from the silv ery snow to the darker shades of granite. We have not seen nor heard the mountain storm said to show such glimpses of glory as were “unlawful to utter.” Many good and beautiful compensations appear to cancel the feeling of nausea produced by the alkali water parching the lips and laxing the bowels; the bire. dusty plains to blind the eyes, and the total absence or “sweet fields arrayed in living green.” The rivers here are indeed “rivers of delight,” causing the desert to bloom at their touch, and feeding all animal and vegetable life by their flowing currents. The pastures are not thrifty but perennial|and feed the cattle as the sea does its finny tribes. The man on the rush for sudden wealth—the patient fleeing from disease - the vacation tourist in this laud of his exile—looks to the mountain tops and eats his imported meals in joy. The geologist has in this country of upheavals—where the Titans must at some time have played at shuttlecock with the pillars of the earth- an open book. We visited the Garden of the Gods, and Monument Park. In the latter were pillars of coarse sand stone capped with iron conglomerate. The figures with the aid of a vivid fancy can be identified as images. The sea at one time rolled over these regions, and the fossil remains show the climate was tropical. The Rocky Mountains give birth to the great rivers and the rivers sweep into the sea. In coming years I believe the rain fall will return in regular periods to render fertile without irrigation tnese arid plains. For the present we would advise but three classes of persons to come to Colorado to live: 1. The invalid who has money and needs a lighter, dryer air as a panacea. , 2. The wealthy who have leisure and a wholesome income to feed the purse while the soul revels in the glories of mountain, canon, park, glen, alcove, cave and fountain. 3. Those who expect to wrestle physically with prospect holes or gamble in mining stocks. lhe moneyless man in this State must make up his mind to bear burdens and live like a burro unless blessed with extra luck.

The prospectors and miners say, “Its dollars we’re after!” It is often a weary road, and neither birth, brain, grit nor wit will surely win. We have merely been “lookers on in Venice. We have seen the picks flashing in the sun, heard the rumble of the rock-rifting blast, gazed upon the foot-sore and weary miner, listened to his story of baffled hopes, and heard him curse those who struck it rich. We’ve followed the ore-bear-ing quartz through the wet process at Silver Cliff and saw the shining bricks of commerce. Yet the stock of that mine is only worth thirty per cent, of its face value. Here we visited Argo

the Smelting Mill of Senator Hill, and saw how the precious metals were purified by fire. A few grow rich,, and for all of us there is the one command: “lit is not birth ner wealth nor state; It's git up and git that makes men great.” “Brick” Pomeroy is erecting the finest residence in this oity. We took a long rido and viewed Denver Lom every angle and we pronounce it a Model City. We will start East about the 25th instant.

SIMON P. THOMPSON.