Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-07-13
WONDERS.
Scenes in the Rocky Mountains.

Scenes in the Rocky Mountains.
A private letter from Colorado Springs
SAYS: awe hired team, and driving
ten miles, landed at a cosy cottage, Just
in the center of Monument Park, where
our sole companions are Mr.. Mclean, an
invalid from Cincinnati, who owns the
rancho, and his German housekeeper.
Imagine me perched on an airy rock
overlooking this park Of Natures handi-
work; meadows covered with brightest
flowers and greenest grasses on which
sunshine and cloud weave daintiest webs
Of light and shade; gently rising hills
crowned with signing pines; and snow
white monuments carved out out OF the
everlasting mountains, standing IN lone
" grandeur or grouped in strange figures
on every side-gigantic tombstones over
Natures mighty secrets. Before and
around me the mountains and peaks,
from Pike to Chyenne, tower into the
skv, shutting me out from all the world,
but leaving what is fairest in earth, air,
and sky, TO delight me from morning to
night. | never weary Of puZzling my
brain over these curious monuments.
From my window l see one, q huge cir
cular mass of white rock, one hundred
and fifty feet high, and across its top is
laid a perfectly fiat dark stone forming
an altar worthy of a Drudical sacrifice.
Beyond il stands a grOnp Of slender,
graceful COrinthian shafts, each with its
peculiar fiat eapi and further still group
which proves Nature has her jOcOse
moods, and can express the absurd as
well as q Hogarth. The wind shrieks
with laughter as il flies through the
group OF gigantic old women whose
robes as free as the poets delight to
describe them, stand out fifty feet in cir
conference at the base, and are only
gathered at their short necks, on which
heads as round and expressiOnless as a
Dutch cheese, sit meekly, covered with
the invariable flat hat. One looks Ike
monster toad, twenty feet high, and
others-well, not to put too fine point
very like whale"
DENVER.
The growth Of western towns is q per-
petual marvel. There is Denver, nearly
a thousand miles away, nestled under
the beetling brOws OF the Rocky noun
tains. one OF the liveliest little cities in
the country. Lippincott's Gazetteer. Of
1864 does not even give its name, but
the United States census of 1870 enumer-
ates its population at four thousand sew
en- hundred. To-day Denver IL brisk,
bustling place Of eleven thousand people,
the depot of the railroads, the focus OF
travel TO and from the mining regions Of
Colorado, the distributing point OF
large section, and in enterprise real
wonder. it crOuches twelve miles from
the foothills of the mountains, five thou
sand feet above the level Of the sea, in
view OF the most majestic scenery Of the
whole world, and in an atmosphere than
which there is none more salubriOus on
the continent. It has a regular muni-
cipal government, and in It's stores and
shops, its newspapers, the character of
residences and public buildings, wears
the proud air Of metropolis.
Among the chief features of Denver is
the waterwOrks, built under the super
intendence Of James Archer, Esq, we'll
known IN ST. Louis, WHO'S the President
and principal stOckholder of the COM
many. The cost of the works, SO far, has
been: For machinery, forty-eight thou
sand dollars; for pipe, fifty thousand
dollars: building, freights and laying
pine. seventv-twO thousand dollars. The
eXtentiOn Of pipes now going on will add
to these sums one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars-making the whole
cost three hundred and twenty thousand
dollars. The revenue partially accrues
from the city for fire hydrants seventeen
thousand dollars; other revenue is de-
rived from assessments for domestic use
Of the water. The water Of the wells is
pronounced unhealthy on account of
alkaline impregnatiOn, and the supplies
from the works are only limited by the
facilities Of the plumbers for the intro
ductiOn Of Waterfront the reservoir. This
reservoir is situated little distance from
the South Platte river, sunk in gravel
twelve feet below the level Of the bed of
the stream, and is fed by the clear, cold
sipage through the pebbles that form the
banks of the South Platte. The water
is melted snow from the peaks Of the /
mountains. As pumped from the reser- |
voir is clear as crystal, and is delicious /
" sweet and refreshing. The supply is /
forced into the pipes by immense and |
powerful engines of the Holly pattern. |
The fire hydrants are connected with |
the works by strong pipes, by which the
use Of fire engines is wholly dispensed 4
with. In thirty seconds notice the en- /
gines Of the waterworks can throw 1
through the hydTants as much water as 4
steam engines like those we have
in Memphis. water being projected |
through twO-inch nOzzles a hight Of /
one hundred and fifteen feet, and hor-
iZontally over two hundred feet! The |
Denver water system, in short, seems /
perfect. and is a great financial success. /