The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-07-25
Special Correspondence of The News.

Special Correspondence OF The News.
LEADvILLE, Coll, July Is, 1879.
Here is the Mecca of fortune hunters
the city of log cabins, shanties and
frame houses, built of resinous pine
and ready for brilliant bonfire. 1t is
city of eXaggeratiOns, mine-brOkers,
bunk-steerers, gambling dens, saloons,
dance-hOuses, shops, smelters, dust and
industry. Daughter of the mountains,
high-horn, 10000 feet high, but two
years old, yet the stopping place of 49,
600 people, no ones home; the scene of
pOintment. What of her? For every
dollar made in mining here, ten have
been spent, and for every fortune made
in mining, or business, ten are lost by
speculation, or in reckless gambling.
Come west, young man, if you wish, but
stop in Kansas; take up her rich acres,
make house and be honest, as the near
er way to fortune, happiness and
heaven.
Jim Gallagher discovered carbonates
here in 1876, others followed adroitly,
advertised their finds, and hence-Lead-
vile. A broad park stretching from the
foot hills of the Mosquito range, on the
east to the Arkansas river, to the west,
and between California Gulch, north,
and Capitol Hill, south, is occupied by
the city, and Ualta, three miles below.
Beyond the river rises the Snowy Range,
the dome of the continent, its timber line
II 800 feet above sea-level, its summit
the resting place of eternal snow.
1t was n dismal night last Marc Ii,
when, in company with thirteen others,
after two days of rough staging up the
valley of the Arkansas from Canon City,
winding now along fearful gOrges, then
through the valley and dust and summer
heat, your correspondent first reached
this city of wonderful Prescriptions,
then of slush, mud, and a dreary wintry
outlook. AS we drove by the city Gem
etery, bonfires therein cast their lurid
and ominous glare over many new-made
graves, while thawing the deeply frozen
earth that new homes for other victims
might be prepared.
Then, and for months, decent lodging
was difficult To find-half a bunk i'm a
cabin accommodating from so to 40
snoozers, was the usual resort, at 30 cents
per night; furnished room cost ten to
twenty-five dollars per week; hundreds
slept on saloon floors, and some stood
up and dreamed the happy hours away,
walking the streets.
Gambling bells and brOthcls held high
rcvclry, and with hash-hOuses and lodg-
ing places, took the weary, homesick,
'tenderloor IN. Lots sold at 81, 500 to
1000, and rents ranged from $500 to
81 300 per month for business or theatre
cal purposes. Hay sold at $40 per ton,
milk at 81 per gallon, and Jersey light
ming at % cents per shock. Buildings
went up like mushrooms, and hammers
volleyed like musketry, while saw-mills
buzzed with orders for lumber at $50 per
thousand feet. Mechanics earned So per
day, laborers three, and all went merry
as a halfcrazed multitude could make it.
The inevitable reaction set In months
ago. Building has ceased, rents and real
estate have tumbIed, business of all kinds
is relatively dull, the whole town is la
beled "for SALE" and the citizens refuse
to pay their taxes to support the city gov.
eminent There are ten men ready for
any job that offers, and the groves along
the streams swarm with Leadville refu.
gees homeward bound.
Society here improves slowly, though
little better than four months ago
Many Outrages have been committed in
the camp, and perhaps dozen murders
downright, malicious, cowardly muir
ders-half n dozen well known, white
men now and then disappear and are
heard of no more. OF half dozen muir
ders in my own knowledge, but one per
petrator has been brought to justice-a
vicious negro, who one evening stabbed
to death a young man from Michigan
He had no money, and is serving a life.
sentenceln state prison; while Jim Bush,
wealthy wretch who killed a young
man from Denver for Jumping lot
claimed by the former, is out on $4,000
bail, and is said to have left the state.
Sunday is strictly observed here as 9th.
er days, business and foot-races occupy.
ing the day. The churches, however, are
usually well filled with seriously DIS
posed people-maay Of whom are always
seriously disposed 10 Sell you worth.
less mine. Still, the morals of the place
will improve with age, and in time rival
those of New York or Chicago, and af
ter awhile Leadville will hang somebody
for murder
The health of the city has always been