Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-08-22
LEADVILLE, COLORADO.
Life at the Silver Center-NO
Good Women and Plenty OF
Bad Men.

Lie Ut Tic ohNcT SChsOA NO
Good Women and Plenty OF
Bad Men.
Letter in N. Y. Sun.
The better class OF residents and visi-
tors here, the capitalists, the lawyers,
the assayers, the engineers, and the
Eastern promoters OF mining companies,
are never TO be seen in any public place,
and seldom to be met with even in the
streets. In the daytime they areat their
Offices or out in the mines, and at sun
set they retire to their log cabins or to
their rooms in the hotel. All OF them
90 TO bed early and rise early, leaving
the city during the night at the mercy
of the rowdies and the desperadoes, the
bulk of whom do not seem to go to bed.
The drinking, gambling and eating
houses are open all night, and the re-
voting orgies seem never TO cease. In
this respect Leadville is an excellent re-
formatory for debauchees OF the more re-
fined Eastern stamp. All such who sim
cerely,wish to reform should come here
for a few weeks. They would give up
smoking and drinking, first, because the
stuff sold here is absolutely undrlnkable
and unavoidable, and second, because
the high latitude 10000 feet renders
both drinking and smoking additionally
injurious by cutting the breath and
making a man gasp in a most uncom-
Portable manner at the slightest attempt
to walk or to make any other physical
effort. They would give up gambling,
because there is not a decent public
place to gamble in, while private card
parties are almost unknown. Every
honest man is so busy IN the daytime
and so tired toward the evening that
sleep becomes the only possible recrea-
ton.
OF society there is, of course, not the
slightest vestige here. A few ladies,
whose husbands, brothers, or fathers
are compelled to reside here all the year
round, occasionally come to spend a
week or two in the summer months;
they appear like so many bright me-
teors in this gloomy atmosphere OF vice,
cupidity, brutality and toll. Home life
is unknown here. Leadville does not
contain half dozen cultivated families.
An accident may bring you TO the door
of a log cabin in which you find Mrs.
Mary HallocE Foote writing her grace
full contributions 10 Scrlbner'S. But
such accidents are rare exceptions.
Most of the professional men compelled
10 live here have left their families lar
away, and years will pass before Lead
willie will be able to boast of anything
like a social circle, or even OF decent
homes.
Queerly enough, one of the first com
Portable and solid buildings is being
erected by woman, who came to Lead
Vile i'm its infancy, about two years ago,
with no other capital than her knowl-
edge of cooking and washing. She has
made a fortune, which she is now IN
vesting in fire-prOof building, supplied
with all the modern improvements. The
example OF this woman OF business,
whose name escapes me at this moment,
demonstrates that there is a fine field
here for women of her class, provided
they really know something OF house
hold duties. They are needed here not
only as servants, but as wives. Young
men who make a lucky strike in pros
pecting would willingly renounce gam
bling dens and dance halls if they could
find neat-looking girl capable OF man
aging boarding house, a restaurant, or
a laundry, or even of simply making a
comfortable home for husband. The
old advice of Horace Greeley, go west,
young man" should be changed now
into "Go west, young woman, Tor there
is no exaggeratiOn in saying that the
domestic and moral culture OF the West
will not make any progress till the East
begins to send out here the surplus oil
its female population.
One of the strongest proofs OF the UNI
settled condition of this region is TO be
found in the scarcity of Jews here.
While they are plentiful in Denver, here
YOU find only a few clothing dealers and
one or two pawnbrokers. The place is
evidently not safe enough, the business
too risky and the work too hard for them.
In the mines proper you do not find any
Hebrews at all, and very few are to be
found among the purchasers OF mines
A short time ago wealthy Hebrew
came here from Georgia, bought all the
prospect holes he could get cheap, and
disappeared, intimating that he would
return to work his purchases when
things became more settled and lie and
property more secure.
OF the cost of living in Leadville an
idea can be formed from the fact that
every article OF food for man or beast has
to be brought a distance OF 100 miles
over the toughest mountain road. In
terminable files of heavy wagons drawn
bv long teams of mules cover the passes
from Denver, Canon City, Colorado
Springs, Fairplay. and surrounding
country. They haul up everything,
from hay, grain, and flour, to lewelry,
steam engines, and the chemicals used
bv the assavers. The country around
Leadville is absolutely barren and it IL a
wonder where the few head of cattle
which are to be seen find pasture.
Even that useful bird, the hen, does not
seem to thrive here. Atall events, eggs
are a great luxury, and chickens are de-
voured before they have time to recover
from their journey from the valleys.
The ONLY article OF food which the en-
yirons of Leadville supply inabundance
is trout. Had il not been for the intro
duCtiOn of canned provisions, lie here
would have been exceedingly uncomtor-
table and exorbitant in cost. Great eX-
pectations are entertained in regard to
the projected railroad from Denver, but
all work on the road has been stopped
bv order of the courts which have IN
hand the settlement of the litigation be-
tween the Rio Grande and AtchisOn,
Topeka Il Santa Fe Companies. Yet,
even when the road is completed, the
main fact will remain the same, that
Leadville produces absolutely nothing
except bullin, and that the more it pro-
duces of that the more it will have to
give of it in exchange for the first neces-
saries of life.
TABLE GOSSIP.
WET enough for yer?