New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-09-26


half an hour the miniature tornado has passed
away but the air continues raw and wintry for the
rest Of the day. The mercury can rise or fall here
further and easier, in the same time, than in any
other portion of the Union. On the Atlantic coast
these sudden and daily changes would cut our lungs
to pieces and send us all to the grave in gau0plng
consumption; but in this dry, pure atmosphere,
they cause no pefmant Mt inconvenience
The stages have come in from the mountains,
crowded with dusty passengers, and bringing 'no
Express messengers with their packages Oh iSteis
and gold dust for the States. The shadows pegln
to el gthen, and we stroll homeward. lhere you
sec male. tottering invalid still weak from "moun,
tain fever" but spending happy hour IN the blessed
sunlight Here passess little girl, WIN oasAoV
of mountain and prairie flowers arranged IN sucn
tasty boquets as only feminine hands can shape a
quarter will purchase one, ana cause hci Oibn' o'o'
TO glisten gratefully.
There are many ladies' upon the street, often
dressed with taste and elegance The unmarried
ones permit me to assure you, pass rsPldy INTO Tue
state matrimonial, for the demand is large, and the
supply limited. There goes merry party IN ear,
rage behind pair of coal black horses, followed
closely by a company of equestrians, while rapid
youth in Jockey cap and skeleton gig, calculates,
q elang," and passes them like the wind. Here
stood the little log cabin, which, year ago was
iumped by Mr. Greeley and his and your most ODE
dent and by them jointly occupied for three weeks:
Rents were then at low figure IN Denver, and
even when the owner of the habitatlon returned
from the mountains, he merely looked IN Tor mo-
mept by way of curiosity, humbly apOlOglzed for
his intrusion (politest and most marvellous of land
lords y and Jumped" the next vacant cabin
which he found for his own use, until the depar-
ture of his non-payng tenants. But L regret TO
notice that he does not seem to have found THIS
method of doing business lucrative, for he has re-
moved the cabin sixteen miles from town, to
rancho on Clear Creek. The house in front of it,
too has concealed its original honesty OF logs, I'M
der hypOcritical disguise of clapboards.
Passing on, at this wholesale house you notice
the wagons of half dozen miners, buying supplies
for the mountains, while man on horseback, IN
nebrate iOculary rides into the next door saloon,
imbbes, filings his glass against the wall or at the
head Of the barkeeper, pays literally for the damage,
and departs to repeat elsewhere his pleasant eccen-
trcities.
Home again, and tea over, we recline upon the
green sward before the door, to enjoy our evening
reflections and cigars. Three or four prairie dogs,
cOnciated by daily tit-bits from the hand of Sam,
play unheedingly few yards away, now standing
0pOn their hind legs erect as grenaders, to nlbbe
bit of bread or of grass, and now chasing each
other gayly from one of their little mounds to an
other. This is the heart of one of their towns,
built long before the advent of civilized man. They
are eminenty merry and social creatures, like the
except their bark, which lis ike the yelp of an ex
tremey infantile puppy. Attempt to catch one of
them, and he laughs audaciOusly, and waits till you
think you have him, when he suddenly gives you
parting yelp, and by an agile summersault throws
himself into his subterranean dOmice. pair OF
prairie squirrels look up nquirngly as they play at
our very feet and a flock of black birds walk about
in confident security, with grateful memories of the
daily crumbs which fall from our table.
Rnt look nm hpVonl thp city the tuftS OF trees
and the green prairie. There rise the mountains,
after all, the great feature of the Gold Region.
Seventy miles TO the south Pixies Peak, like an old
castle, majestic, though in ruin," lies dim and
dreamily against the sky. Forty miles to the north
stands Longs Peak, distinct, rugged, and CORFU.
gated its feet wreathed in pine, andits head crested
with snow. A dark, irregular, variegated wall, at
the verge of the sensible horizon, sweeps grandy
between them and beyond, on either end merges
into the uncertain, debatable ground between earth
and sky.
1t reveals every hue; from the dark, rich purple
of the nearest hills, to the unsuled white OF
the Snowy Range; every form, from the long, fiat
summit of Table Mountain, to that perfect cone,
waiting to mpale the dying sun. Gaze on 1t daily
for months, and you shall never look twice upon
the same picture, but find it an endless variety-a
perpetual intOxicatOn OF delight
Here at the very door of our rude cabin, has Ma
tlre painted for us such panoramaas never feasted
the eye OF monarch IN MS palace. Last nlghl tnat
furthest mountain was arrayed in a fiery, daz-
zng glory too terrible TO look upon" Now, tits
robed in a pale, uneafthly light, and you feel that
it belongs to another world. View il again. Does
it leave the impression that you could ever reach it
by mortal means, or clothed in mortal body 4!
No; you can only think of the CELESTIAL City, as it
burst upon the vision of the pilgrim Christian; or
those Sabbath evening pictures OF heaven opening to
earth, which you receive in childhood oDyOur moth
er's knee.
The sun goes down, but the cold air assails you
in vain; for still you lie upon the sward in silence
that perfectest herald Of joy" until the last fold
of nights curtain has fallen and shut cut the pic
ture. Quiet and subdued we enter the house; the
doors are shut the candles are lighted. An hourn
conversation, another at rubber of whist or some
kindred department Of productive industry, and
then, in that sweet sleep which comes to the pillow
Of WEAKNESS you forget the strange, incOngruOus
images OLA Day at Pixies Peake. Abr.