The Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1870-1875, 1870-12-30
DENYER, COLORADO,
Deeem Der %, 1870.

counterpart IN the meteorological
freak of this, our first December in
Colorado, for $50 foul and fair a month
I have not seen" Coming in famed
by gentle south breezes. and glorious
with the soft sunshine and clear skies
which, We fancy, brood over Ital-
ian landscapes-it is going out
with all the rigors of an arctic vim
ter. For ten days the thermome-
ter has been ranging from zero to
twenty degrees below, wlntTy winds
have been bowling their mournful
dirges over the plains, and the
g nipping and eager air has made
us beat a general retreat to the kindly
protection of heavy overeoats, furs
and mufhers. To add to the growing
discomfort of the trading and travel
ing public, the trains on the Kansas
Pacific Road are stuck in the snow
east of Kit Carson, entirely blocking
freight and travel across Kansas. The
last passenger train in was Sunday
morning, four days ago, while the
freight trains succumbe to the storm
king several days before.
This unlocked for experience of the
rival road, affords infinite delight to
the Union Pacific, which had . SINH
lar misfortune before the erection of
their snow sheds, but whose trains are
now running regularly. Their
agent here rubs his hands and
bIandly says to the crowds of disap-
pointed and profane passengers who
gather at the hotels: Gentlemen,
buy your tickets by the Great South
ern Routel No detention BY snow
fine iron bridges no delay By ferri-
age! Tonight the wires are down,
and no one can guess when the road
will be open again. Of course, the
/ oldest inhabitant never saw the like
and a. that, but this don't help the
matter with us who are enjoying IL
for the first time.
Shut off from out door pleasure, we
propose to kill time by giving your
readers a few paragraphs on Denver.
/ find the Denver of which Richardson
wrote, will be sadly disappointed.
| The romance of the early days, which
he so graphically portrayed. has all
passed away. When he wrote, Den
yer was six hundred miles from the
nearest telegraph station, a seething
ealdron of American pioneer life,
with all its marked peculiarities in
tensified by the maddening greed foI
gold, which had drawn Adventures
/ hither from all quarters of the globe.
But the hoWie-knife aud revolver is
no longer a necessary part Of the cit
| izen's personal outfit. Human lives,
/ however desperate, are not staked up
on the popular vote of a mob, and
/ editors now can write their most
singing leaders, without q loaded
carbine lying upon the table before
them. Truly did Richardson prophe-
81 that "ten years hence we should
| have no Far West, no border, nc
civilization in line of battle, pres
sing back hostile savages and
eonquering hostile nature. THAI
/ feeting phase of our national life. 90
grotesque and yet SO grand, so lswless
and so courageous, must hencetorth
be known only In history.
Down on the corner Of Blake and
G. Streets is one of the primitive mud
and log huts, and on the opposite cor
ner stately three story brick hotel,
built last year. They tell the differ
ence between Denver in '59 and Den
yer in 80. Most of these shsnties
have disappeared, and in their places
have risen fine business blocks, COM
Portable, aud even elegant, residences,
while along the wide streets, threaded
by irrigating dceqUlas, shade trees are
beginning to take away the last vsstige
Of new town appearance. The city
] Al
junction of Cherry Greek with
the Soath Platte. twelve miles
from the base Of the mountains
Bierstadt once remarked to one o.
our citizens: You have always spread
out before you the grandest panorama
the world affords. cannot think
the artist was over enthusiastic in his
observation.
Day after day have 1 saddled M
horse and rode for hours along thu
bluffs that skirt the city on the east
to gaze on the Yondrous picture o
the Great Artist, and always with |
new and ever increasing delight
True, there is not the fresh verdur'
and varied beauty of our New Eng
land valleys and frost covered hills
but these vast plains. stretching int
the deep blue OF the eastern sky
that. rugged, corrugated wall o
mighty mountains, sweeping tn
verge of the western horizon for NOR
than two hundred miles, present
scene more than beautiful. It is grand
often sublime. Nor is there a Weari
some monotony in the view. Yol
shall gaze upon the magnificent pano
rama every day in the year. and lool
in vain for reproduction of the sam
view. This morning the snow eappet
submits are rejecting back the daz
sling glories Of the opening day-to
night the mountains are robed In tn
unearthly splendors of the dying sun
again they rise like peaks of "pile'
gorgeousness among the fantastic
parEi-colored clouds - now, gloom
and grand in the pale ligh
of the moon, they stand lik
sentinels Of the still and solemn nigh
while ever and anon you shall Sc
the Storm King raging along thei
black and mighty battleTnents, wit
rumbling thunder and forked light
nings, as If in mocking defiance Q
puny man. / never gaze upon Ties
changing scenes,
but tide of awe,
| And love. and wonder, from the Infinite
| SWells up within me, as the running brin
F. ON the Notwithstanding, Wide heavin
!