The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-02-23
A WESTERN WONDER.
THE NEW CITY PERCHED among THE
MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO.
A Busting, Active Town In the Wilds,
with sChurches, school Houses, Gam
bling Hclls and Other Aojunets OF
CivilxatlOn-H0w streets spring UP In
n Night-ReaI Estate Activity.

Night-KeAl Estate ACTIVITY.
correspondence Chicago Tribunel
LEADv1nLE, Feb. 12.-Who dare undertake
description OF this newest and strangest OF
mining camps2 The attempt has been made
heretofore, 1t ID true, but not with the most
satisfactory results. Besides, Leadville is
constantly changing. 1t is kaleidoscope In
the suddenness OF It's transformations. though
4 its colors are OF the simplest kind and OF the
most sombre, too. Entire streets open up,
are built upon and settled In week. Stores,
houses, log cabins and hotels spring up side
by side There is an opera house, constructed
out OF rough pine boards, looking for all the
world like an unfinished livery stable, which
has been opened this week by the Forester
Company, and where there is a dress circle
and gallery. There is also theatre COM
iaue where the illegitimate drama hourishes
to the delight OF the sturdy miners. Religion
Ia not furnished to this back-mountain popu-
iation In chuncks. But there Is church and
I q school-house Considering that there are
10000 adults In the camp, 1t Is not surprising
that the congregation often swells up to as
many as forty or fifty hearers.
THE PRINCIPAL HOTEL.
ksurnamed the Grand, is two-story frame
IA.
Mansard roof. It is actually covered with
coat OF white paint. The Office is about six
feet wide by sixteen long, and was evidently
not planned for the accommodation oil loafers.
That large class OF the population are given
room In the bar and billiard hall opening
from the Office. A solitary barber plies his
occupation at one end OF the same apartment.
charging twenty-five cents for q shave and
fifty for haircut. The Grand turns away
from fifty to one hundred people day who
apply there for lodgings. or course there
are other hotels with equally imposing titles,
but they are little else than boarding houses,
and far below the Grand In their appoint
ments. AN are constantly filled, and new
arrivals are compelled to seek shelter In
lodging houses OF which there are a great
number. The one in which our party re-
NAMED on the first nights OF their arrival Id
was one-story log-cabin, with rear addi-
tion, constructed OF green pine boards. RUDE
hunks were placed around the Two pacK
rooms In tiers as in a sleeping car The
hunks Lad each set or WOODEN DiankeI5.
The floors were bare. For this accommoda-
tion the travellers were charged nall dollar
each At the more pretantious lodging
houses. where two people are assigned TO q
room with a bed In it, the price is double.
But after all these details afford the reader
little idea OF
LEADERvILLE AS IT is.
Let the worthy person who is sufficiently In
terested in this subject to peruse these iines
imagine himself penned up IN the wlldest
businesses of the Rocky Mountains at an altl-
tude OF 1900 feet above the sea- He IS lit
eraily on the mountain tops Yet far above
Leadville on every hand rise the bald crowns
Of the snowy range-desolate, bleak and aDsO-
lutey without vegetation OF any kind. Here
In the gulches are forests OF pine and ever
nm ba Sides
adjacent peaks. But the timber line Is as
strongly marked and as clearly cut on every
side as Ii human hands had been at work clear
Ing away every trace OF tree or shrub along
the line OF survey. and as II the same hands
had nlaned off the mountain summit to the
smoothness and barrenness OF country
sehoOl-yard.
To the stranger, coming from the luxuries
and comforts or civilization, Leadvile pres
ents an aspect of unutterabie desolatFn. Val
ley and mountain are alike covered with
snow Through the spectral pine trees the
storm wind rushes in the day Time and IN the
night time and otter one hears the hysterical
shriek Of d wild gust that has come swoGping
down from the mountain tops through gorge
and chasm In an agony OF rage and despair.
The camp, or village, STANDS
IN a PINE CLEARING,
and all about are freshly1cut stumps and
logs, some split into rude boards. anu deheIs rue, :
chopped off at the ends preparatory 70 peIn9
lifted into the walls os projected cabin.
Through the trees, which still remain in large
numbers undisturbed, one catches gnmpses
OF unpainted frame structures ana :l Gapll1s -
built here and there irregaiarly, accordlng e
the fancy Of the original seuatter f.a IL 1s 'the the
that some order Is being evoked lIo.li ,aid ia
architectural chaos. Streets are being ialuu Y
cut and lots surveyed. But there Is not %
nod of fence in the town, and often the pedss-
tfian is at d loss to tell whether he is walking
On the public highway or thrSngh cltlzesn !
ktek yard. These defects in t be construction
~ The town. however, are being rapidly rem !,
ened, and that, too, by the stlrest natural
agency
PRICES or REAL ESTATE
are laughably high. On the main street SZoo
aaIront foot is considered an average Vaiua-
Ton, and owners are actually afraid Up sell az
nat figure for fear that they may noT mahe
e much as they may Il few months heshce w
tnoldlng on to their property. The ,diGoTs o.
tne Daily Chronicle bought a lot for ttnfl,I
once two months ago for S175, and last vseeh
refused $4,000 for it. On Harrison Avenue,
running at right angles with the main street,
residences are held at from $500 to slOIoo.