The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-03-07
THE LEADyILLE CRAZE.

THE LEADyILLE CRAZE.
Crowds of Idle and Homeless Men in the
New Mining Town.
| u.eadyille Coll Cor. Denver Tribune1
As the denizens of this remarkable
city say, SO say /, the scamp fairly
looms" The truth about the excite
ment in regard to Leadville has not
been, and cannot be, told on paper The
cry is still they come neither snow nor
cold seems to offer any obstacle to the
anxious crowd of crazy fortune-hunters
who are rushing to this famous carbon
ate camp. While it is strictly true that
the mines are constantly developing
richer deposits of the precious ore, it is
equally as true that not one in 500 who
flock here to make their fortunes by
digging for minerals succeed ia making
any more than precarions living. The
temptation held out by prospects of
sudden wealth overcomes all obstacles,
and thousands upon thousands of per-
sons who were making fair wages ut
home come here to find disappointment
of the most bitter and perplexing kind.
Unable to make discoveries that will
warrant capitalists in investing their
means, failing in their efforts to obtain
employment at rates that promise i'm
mediate wealth, they become dispirited
and detected, resort to the cup, and in
few weeks the story is told.
The undertaken can furnish the Sc
quel. This is by no means fancy
sketch, as any one not misled by the
present craze will inform you.
/ have conversed freely with the best
citizens of Leadville upon this question,
ard ] have yet to find one whose senti-
ments are not fairly reflected by the
foregoing statement. There is album
dant room for men of moderate means,
or for capitalists. All over the mount
aims the mineral is deposited in strata
as rich as any ever yet discovered, and
only awaits capital to take it out
It is difficult to furnish employment
to 100 men when there is only sufficient
for one-fifth that number. This is the
status of the case in this city to-day
The streets are filed with men anxious
to obtain employment, food and lodg-
ings, and they can find neither. Food
is plenty, but these persons have no
means to purchase. The hammer of the
mechanic can be heard in all quarters of
the city, and at nearly all hours of the
day and night; but there is q limit to the
employment of skilled labor, and that
limit is now reached.
Lodging can scarcely be obtained any
where, for the reason that every avail
able foot of space is already taken, and,
while hundreds of new buildings are
going up i'll every quarter of the city,
there will be as many more hundreds of
anxious dodgers to occupy every hut
that can be put in here for weeks to
come
Fifty cents per night is the common
price for bunk, and 20 cents is charged
for the privilege of lying in tent,
where the party furnishes his own
blankets or covering. Fifty cents is the
ordinary price per meal Mt the common
restaurants.
Building lots that sold three weeks
ago for $500 each sell now just as read
lily for $1,000. The craze has even
reached as far as Ten Mile, and scores
of buildings are going up there. Lots
are held mt fabulous prices even at that
remote camp. The prospects are now
that rich discoveries will be made there
as soon as prospecting can be safely
commenced.
If the present rush continues there
will be $4,000 people in and about Lead
vile by the time spring opens.
1t is the duty of every newspaper in
Colorado to warn moneyless people from
going to Leadville. The interests of
the State demand it. All the land
around Leadville for miles has been
staked out and prospected, and man
without money has no opportunity of
finding anything in the mines or in the
city. This spring there will be heavy
emigration to Colorado, and large frac-
ton of it will go to Leadville. Many of
these newcomers will only have money
enough to take them there, and when
they reach the Eldorado they will find
that, to them, it is Poverty Flat of the
most marked type. Everything will
have been taken up, and, being without
means, they will be in as miserable n
condition as they would be- if penniless
anywhere else.