New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-07-21
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY.
XIV.
WESTERN CHARACTERS.


"ein" are conventional and reative-Castine being
Western 10 a Bluesose sod Carson Valley
"Ess'ern" to Cshiomau-I take the response
bhty Of grouping certain characters | have noted
on the Plains and in or about the Mountains as
Western" begging tbs. most respectable region
w5icb lies EAST of the Daialo raDge-also that por-
ten which lies west OF tie Colo-sio-to excuse
the liberty.
The first circumstance that strike. \ stranger
trayer,Dg this Wild country is the yaerant ia
strc,s and habits Of the great msjorlty of It's DEM
zen.-perhaps should say, of the American peo-
pie generally, ss exhibited here. Among any ten
who you successfully meet there viii be natives Of
New-Euglaud, New York. Pennsylvania, yirgiuis
or Georgia, Ohio or Indians, Kentucky or Missouri
France Germany. and peihspsIreland. Bat worse
than this you cannot enter circle Of dozen
persons of whom st least three will not have spent
some years in CaLioInis two or three have made
claims aud built cabins in Kansas or Nebraska, and
ST lesst one spent year or 50 IA Texas. Boston,
Nev-York Philadelphia New Orleans. ST. Louis,
Cincinnati, have all contributed their quota toward
popping the new Gold Region. The next man you
meet driving an OK team, and white a. miller with
dust. ia probably an eJ-bsuker or doctor, broken
merchant or manufacturer from the old States.
Who has scrapcd together the candle-enls charita-
bly, or contemptuou,y allowed him BY his creditors
on settlement, and rsked them on a last desperate
cast Of the dice by coming hitber. Executors eI
printers, eI-cerks, eN-steambost men, sre here N
abundauce-all on the keen hunt for the gold which
on, a few will secure. One of the stations at
which we slept on our way up-the rough tent
with cheering hope (sipcc blasted OF a log house
in the near futurc-was kept by an exllwyer of
Cincinnati and bis wife, an tx actress from eur
New.Iork BOwery-she being cook Omnbus
drivers from Broadway repeatedly handled the rib
b0ns: eN Border RU'iaus from civilized Kansas
some Of them Of unbessed mem0ry-were en-
countrrcd on our way at intervals none too long
All these blended with veteran Mountain men. In
dams of all grades from the tsinest to the widest
HsIfBfecds. French trsppcrs and royag,urs (who
have generally two or three Indian wives apiece
ard an occss oDsl Dlgger, compose medley such
as hardly another region can parallel llonolnlu.
or some other part of the South Sea Islands could
probably match il most nearly.
The old Mouataineers form caste by themselves,
snd they prize the distinction. Some of them are
Frenchmen, OF FrancoAmcrcaHs, who have been
trapping OF trading in and around these mountains
CIR quarter of a century, have wives and chill
3ren here, and here expect to live and die. Soue
Of these have accumulated property ana cash to
the value of ?200,0tD which amount will not
easily be reduced as they frugal in everything
Oquor sometimes excepted, spend bat plttance
on the clothing of their families trust little, keep
small stocks Of goods, and sell at large profits.
Others came years ago from the St,tes, some of
them on account each Of . difficulty" wherein
they severalIy killed OF savsgey manned their re-
spectlye antagonists under circumstan ,es on which
the l,w refuses TO look lenieutly; whence their
pilgrimage to and prolonged scjOurn here, despite
entcing placards olefiog $500 Or perhaps ) 600
for their safe return to the places that knew them
once but snail know them no more This class
is not numerous, but is more Influential than It
should be in giving tone to tie society Of which it's
members form u part. Prone IL deep driGhing,
soured IN temper, always armed brlsthng
at word, really with the Tihe, revolver
or bowie-knife, they give law AID set fashions
which. in a country where the regular admin
i,trs,iop Of justice is yet matter OF prophecy, it
seems difficult 10 override or disregard. | appre-
bend that there have been, during my two weeks So
jourD, more brawls, more fights more pIstol-shots
with criminal intent in this log city of $50 dwell
ings, not three. fourts completed nor two. thirds
a.. Il q. D.. /
NUDITY Of 20 greater numbers on earth. This VIII
be changed in time--I trust within year, for tie
empty houses are steadily finding tenants from the
tWo streams of emigration rolling 10 daily up the
Platte, a. VEL as down Cherry G. eek, including
some scores Of women and cAlldren, ~ho generally
stop here, rs all of them should; for life in the
MCuntsins is yet horribly rOu H. Public religious
worship, regular mail and other ciyiliziDg infu-
ences are being e.tablshed; there is gleam Of
hope that the Arspshoes-wbo have made the last
two or three nights ndescrbably hdeous By their
Internal war-whooPs songs and dances, Will at last
clear gu. on the fOray against tie ties they have
so long threatened, diminishing largely the aggre
gate Of drunkenness and riot and justifying expec
tstons Of comparative peace. So let me close up
my Jottlngs rom TINS point-"hlch circumstances
beyond my control have rendered too voluminOus-
with a rough ambrotype Of
LIFE N DENVER.
The rival cities Of Denver and Aprar. front on
each other from either bank Of Cherry Creek, just
before il is Lost in the South Platte. The Platte
has its sources in the South Park Of the Rocky
Mountains, hundred miles ;. w. Of this point,
but Cherry Creek is headed of from them by that
river, and winding It's northwsrd course OF forty
or fifty miles the Plains, with it, sources
hsrely fouehing toe MonntaIns j. q caprlcions