Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-14
A HE'LL On EARTH.
An Old Indianapolis Boy GIves his Ex.
Derience In LeadvIIle-A Place to
Get Away FrOnl-Sin, shame
ana STnrvntiOl-WhO
are Making Money.

Indianapolis Nel0s: A Nelos reporter met
Mahlon B. Draper, an old Indianapolis boy.
who has been residing at Whiteland, this
State, for several months, and who, short
time ago, was seized with the gold fever and
went to Leadville, Colorado.
Back already?' inquired the reporter
well, yes; | know when I've got enough.
was only In Leadville for one week, arriving
there on the sixteenth of February, and leav-
nag on the twenty third
Mr.. Draper Is a man about thirty-two
years Of age, full Of pluck and determine
ton, and one would think not easily dis
couraged.
"Why did you come back so soon from that
place of surprising prosperity, where pay
dirt is so rich, even in the streets, that
moderate. sized mule Is reported to exalt ten
dollars worth Of gold and silver every time
he raises a hoof?"
I'm tell you. l went there with a view of
locating, but soon saw there was no show.
Merchandising was what intended, grocer
les, and everything of that sort-general
stock; but soon saw that nothing of that kind
would pay-already overdone. Dry goods
business IN the same fx-in fact, there seems
to be nothing IN anything but the vices. In
the first place, rents, even if you are lucky
enough to get a room, are too high. There
are twelve thousand people IN Leadville to-
day, nearly all men-the few women there
are, as matter of course, for the most part
prostitutes-and of these twelve thousand
people at least one-sixth-that Is, two thou
sand-are without work and without a dol
lar in their pockets. | never saw so many
beggars in my life, miserable devils, begging
for a quarter to buy a loaf of bread. You
can get little loaf, abouta mouthful, for ten
cents, but decent-siZed loaf sells for quar-
ter"
But the other ten thousand-are they
making money!"
'Some of them are But there's no room
for new men, and yet they are constantly
coming. The mines, smelters and saw-mills
are constantly running all the men now that
they can handle. And just think! This lit
tie city, the hveliest, wickedest city in the
world, has nearly all grown within the past
year. In 1861 1t was called Shutdown, and
there were few houses there, but its pres
ent population has all come within the past
year. a lot in the business part of the town
that twelve months ago sold for one hundred
dollars, to-day sells for four thousand dollars.
Rents are Vlciously high. A business room
eighteen feet wide by forty feet deep rents at
three hundred dollars month. The Theater
Comique building, a rough frame box, seat
ing and standing about seven hundred peo-
pie, though they crowd in q thousand night
seven nights IN the week at one dollar head
well, sardlnes IN a box are comparatively
comfortable compared with them-rents st
fourteen hundred dollars q month. Well,
the iniqnity can afford to pay it, for the wine
room alOne-the attraction being a lot OF
beety women, with a few clothes and very
aggressive legs-takes in three hundred dol
lars a night for liquors. 1t is the loosest
show, with no merit but its outrageous
indecency. There are two other the
aters, not quite SO far removed from
decency, paying the same heavy rents as
the COmique, but not making the money it
does. GamblDghouses and saloons? | don't
know; there's over hundred of them, |
should think. Every saloon Is a gambling
house. There are numerous dance-halls
which pay al average rental of six hundred
dollars per month. These furnish woa en- to
dance with, the customers paying fifty cents
for drink and the privilege OF dancing once.
II the drink don't Kill Immediately, buy an
other and dance again.
THE first mines are not o yer quarter Of
a mile from the main street. and they extend
over several miles of territory, though the
paying mines are, | am told, all near Lead
VILE. The big run of metal is silver, though
there's some gold. Most of the mineral Is
low grade ore. There's no room there for
men unacquainted with mining. The fore
man of the Little Pittsburg mine exclaimed
to me the other day:
What the devil do people mean by COM
ing bcre-greeu men-to work IN these
mines? D-n 'em, we don't want them. 1t
takes the best bridging to keep these mines
from tumblIng IN now when worked with ex-
perienced hands-oid riners-as the mineral
IS chiefly in the fern of carbonate, and
crnmhles ike rotten cheese.
Inc paying mining interests are monopol-
lied by capital. 1t takes capital to run these
mines, and great deal of it to get any profit
out of them. They are already filed with old
miners, who have poured III from Deadwood,
Georgetown, and hundred other points; so
you see thereis no show whatever for amateur
talent"
Amy lawyers in Laadville?"
Lawyers? Yes, there's forty of them,
poor devils; nothing to DO unless they can
play keno OK faro. There's been SO much
building that carpenters who brought their
KITS Of ools with them have had work right
along atfour dollars per day; but there is
surplus OF merchants, laborers and mechanics
of all kinds"
''Do merchants make any money!"
Il don't think they do; they're eaten up
by rents and treIghts. Railroad freights are
outrageous; while from Wei ster. the termi-
nus of the rail, to Leadville, distance of
seventy miles, they are simply damnable,
SLOW treights coming by wagon being one
dollar anu forty cents per hundred, and ex-
press being seven cents a pound. You go
from Webster to Leadville by stage, seventy
miles, for which you pay one hundred dollars,
beng allowed forty pounds of baggage, pay
In: for all above that amount seven cents a
pound.
The saloons, lodglnghouses, restaurants,
dancehouses and theaters are making money;
merchants certainly are not. The Leadville
excitement was got up by railroad companies,
assisted by newspapers at Denver and Lead
vile, who wanted to get people there for the
purpose OF making money out OF them.
Denver folks are beginning to be alarmed,
thinking they We overdone the business, and
are now looking forward to the pleasant pros
Pect OF q thousand or two starving and des-
perate men taking out commissions as road
agents, and making travel eoIuevV hat more
exhilarati8g than even the glorious sir of
Colorado has hitherto rendered 1t.
How Is beard IL Leadville?"
'Wetl, prices are not SO high. You can
get day board by the week for seven dollars;
a single meal for fifty CENTS
Did you see any Indianapolis people at |
Leadyile?'
No; though I guess some arath here. / saw
Valentine RGtsch and William Dickson at |
Malta, three miles this side of Leadville. |
Trey are smeitets, assaying and buying. the |
mineral. then melting it as their own. They |
know just what they make every day. They /.
are running one hundred men. who ere cut-
ting timber and burning charcoal for smelt- |
ing, and putting up two new furnaces and a |
saw mill for saving their own lumber. Mr.. |
Butsch is not making less than one hundred !
dollars every day OF his life. His settlement |
furnished the brightest picture OF entarrrisn |
saw during my journey, As FOR LeadviIle |
my advice Is, stay away. It may not be as |
easy to starve to death elsewhere. but If can
De accomplished n time even at other nlncao
with saving of railroad fare and many miles
II rough riding IN stage-coacb.'
Romantic story OF Two Orphans.
New York correspondent Baltimore 4,ae,.-
A little Of a. 1c - 4