The Newtown bee., 1879-05-13
A NEW ELDORADO.
A Sketch of LeadviIle, Col, the Newest
 Product of the Mining Fever.

A Sketch of LeadviIle, Col, the Newest
 Product of the Mining Fever.
 California gulch, in which or on which the new town of Leadville is growing up, lies at right angles to the Arkansas val ley, and about twelve miles from the headwaters of the Arkansas river. It was wild gulch, its sides grown thick with spruce forests, and little snow-fed creek making its way down among them. But the waters of the creek held gold, and men soon found it out, cut down the spruce forests and began placer mining all along the sides of the gulch. They are torn up and riddled to-day as if an earthquake had shaken them violently. All this while, in the stony mountains at the head of the gulch, lay stores untold of solid silver, of which the miners lower down, working for gold sands by the handful, never so much as dreamed. It is the old story of treasure biding the time of the man who knows its secret One day, a man who knew one stone from another picked up a bit of mineral and handed it slyly and significantly to his cOmrade, saying nothing. The con- rade, experienced in the ways of mines, took it, saying nothing, and pocketed it. The gulch was full of men; there were those working by their side to whom one word might be hint. Later, alone, the two comrades conversed with each other on the subject of this bit ofstone. They a,,I l11 the mountain side. They said not one word to anybody for two years, but quietly possessed themselves largely of lands. To-day, in one mine which these two men own, you may see, it is said, six millions of dollars worth of silver, not infer it, trust, hope, believe it, from the dip" or "bearing," or "vein,'' as is usually the case in silver mines, but see it; the walls of the galleries areit The miners simply chop the walls down, foot by foot, and wheel out the ore in bar rows.
 And the whole range is believed to be full ofthe precious metal. It is the west ern slope Of the mountains lying back of Fair Play, on whose eastern slopes many profitable mines have been worked for years. It is odd that miners did not at once think if one side ofa mountain were made of silver the other was likely to be- But they did not; and so the Leadville silver bided its time.
 The town is marvel. In six months tract of dense spruce forest has been converted into bustling village To be 10 ft1V ,l,- hacked stumps of many of the spruce trees are still in the streets of the town; fallen spruce trees, too, on which you can sit down to rest, and here and there clumps of superb tall ones standing, which afford a most grateful protection from Colorado's hot May sun the sun which made that mud I spoke of at the top of Weston's pass. Great spaces of 5corched sage brush are to be seen, its gray stalks looking as twisted as if they had been wrung out wet and thrown down to dry. Great spaces covered with chips, also nobody had time to pick up his chips, and they are handy to burn; the houses are all log cabins, or else plain, unpainted board shanties. Some of the cabins seem to burrow in the ground :; others are set up on posts, like roofed bedsteads. Tents, wigwams of boughs, wigwams of bare poles, with blackened spot in front where somebody slept last night but will never sleep again, cabins wedged in between stumps, cabins with chimneys made of fower-pots or bits 0 stovepipe-I am not sure but out of old hats cabins halfroofed, cabins with sail cloth roofs, cabins with no roof at all- this represents the architecture of the Leadville homes. The Leadville places of business are another thing; there is one compact, straight street, running east and west, in the center of this med- ley of sage brush, spruce stumps, cabins and shanties. Here are shops, restau- rants, billiard-rooms, dance halls, banks, lawyers offices, hotels, livery stables-all that town needs. There are fairly built, wooden houses, principally of the battlement-front style, and one story high "a few of them two stories highland not without some pretence of finish; the platforms and steps in front of them make one continuous line of lounging grounds for Leadville men. l counted forty six at one time in short distance, men either leaning against doorposts, or sitting with elbows on their knees. The middle of the street was always filled with groups of men talking. Wagons were driven up and down as fast as if the street were clear. 1t looked all the time as if there had been fire and the people were inst abOJIt diSperSinp or as if a town meeting werejust over. Everybody was talking, nearly everybody gesticulat- ing. All faces looked restless, eager, fierce. It was Monaco gambling-room enptied into a Colorado spruce clearing. 44tlaaatic Monthly.