, 1879-12-18
Ieadville

vile, l am IN JusIlce oouilu w "ulIiiV Ine
dofects of the locality as place for hu-
man habitation. 1t should be promised
| suppose, that my own experience has
been unfortunate, in that the climate
has given me a severe warning and left
me here little stranded, and needing
care and rest to prevent permanent IN
iury. For one | am not at all in love
with the carbonate city. lam immense
ly struck by its wondrous growth and
still more wondrous activity. l have
already put on record my opinion of its
future, so am warranted in expressing
freely the adverse opinion that to be
able to live there at all, requires the
greatest care on thepart Of large ma
ior.ty, and that every one going thereto
on business or pleasure, or to reside, re-
quires to take great care of themselves
The majority never do that. Conse-
quently there is large mortality. 1t
would be considerable at the best, Ibut
might be greatly lessened. So far as l
could observe, the ladies / saw there
seem to look and wear better than the
men. The ma jority Of the labor had
strained, nervous expression. Altitude,
physical and menta, answers largely for
that. The pulse beats from ten to fif.
teen degrees more rapidly than in lower
regions. So any tendency to heart dis
ease viii soon manifest itself, and in any
event nervous vitality is more readily
exhausted. Physical weakness Of al
most any kind is also sure to tell against
the bearer, r,of it. Of course that is not al
ways true. Mr.. Davis of the Chronicle,
tells me when he came here first, he
could barely walk block from pulmo-
nary trouble. Now he is hale and
hearty; others have a similar expert
ence. But the fact remains that the
climate, as well as the high-pressure
condition of life, tends to make Lead
vile place requiring great care if one
wants to enjoy toierable health. Pull
monary troubles, ,catarrh, bronchitis,
pneumonia, are dangerous. OF one thing
all men must be careful to avoid, that
is, indulgence in strong drink. Whisky
and altitude are dead shots at mortality,
when combiucd. But j do not believe
that the climate or the height alone are
responsible. In spite of the learned
dissertations of LeadVille doctors as to
the very small and innoxious quantity
Of arsenic and antiInony in the atmos-
phere Of the place, J. believe that the
smelling furnaces poison the air with
the fumes that are blown Off III their
smoke. My reason in believing this is
not SO much from the quantity smelted,
as from the fact that it is breathed over
and over again. In the rariied air, the
alkali dust, furnace fumes and other de
eterious elements that belong to such a
place as Leadville, rise only to certain
height, there remains not as q rule, to
be blown away, but to be condensed at
night and come down again to the place
from which it has risen. The atmos-
phere is poisoned thereby, and that is
the end Of it, fatal though it may be.
In this way, / believe, the Leadville
people are really poisoned by that on
which they think Of themselves as thriv-
ing. OF course, it must be presumed,
that great deal Of recent mortality,
certainly among the older denizens, has
arisen from the shocks to which their
systems were exposed last Winter and
Spring in the utterly insufficient shelter
that then existed. The life Of pros
pectors is also at the best one very hard
and exposed in its character. As to
other conditions, regard all but those
arising from climate and exposure as
mere bagatelles. Few persons would
choose to live in such a regicn except
under some strange incentive. 1t offers
one of the very strongest; the chances Of
fortune quickly acquired As to the fu
ture of LeadviIle, | have already ex-
pressed myself most favorably. AS u
mining camp it will remain Of the first
Importance: as city, my impression is
that after next year its size and popula-
ton will somewhat diminish. The rail
roads will pass through and beyond
Some other camp will have boom.
Like Virginia City, Nevada, I.eadville
will find everybody living out of it that
possibly can, and when mine managers,
bankers, merchants, capitalists, etc., can
sit down in their own parlors or offices
at Denver or Colorado Springs, or per-
haps some midway town yet to be estab'
hshed, whore climatic conditions will be