The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-03-27
A HE'LL on EARTH.
Al ola TndIauspoIts Boy Gives Hia ExPe.
rfeucs in Leadville.
Indianapolis News.

An0lalaPOus NeWss
A News reporter met Mahlon B. ORA
per, an old Indianapolis boy, who has
been residing st Whiteland, this state,
lor seversl months, and who, q short
time ago, was seized with the gold fever
apG went to Leadville, Colorado.
Back already v' inquired the rePor-
ter.
Well, yes; I know when Pve got
enough. was only in Leadville for one
week, arriving there on the sixteenth OF
February, and leaving on the twenty
third
Mr.. Draper is a man about thirty-two
years of age, full of pluck and determine
ton, and enc 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 q modeTate-sized mule is
reported to exalt ten dollars worth OF
gold and silver every time he raises q
6oof9'
"I'u tell you. l went there with q
view of locating, but seon saW there was
no show. Merchandising was what /
intended, groceries, and everything of
that sort-general stock; but soon saw
that nothing of that kind would pay
already oveTdone. Dry goods business
in the same ix-in fact, there seems to
be nothing in anything but the vices.
In the first place, rents, even If you are
lucky enough to set a room, are too
high. There are twelve thousand people
in Leadville to~day-neaTly all men
the few women there are, as matter of
course, prostitutes-and of these twelve
thousand people at least one~sixth-that
is, two thousand-aTe without work and
without q dollar in their pockets. 1
never saw so many beggars in my life,
miserable OWLS. begging fer quarter
to buy loaf of bread. You can get a
little loaf, about a mouthtul, for ten
cents, but decent-sized loaf sells for
quarter"
q But the other ten thousand-are
they making money 2'
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 cons antly running
now all the men they can handle. And
just think This little city, the ivsliest,
wickedest city in the world, has nearly
ali grown within the past year. In 1861
it was called SlabtoWp, and there were a
few houses there, but its present popu-
| lation has all come within the past year.
a LOT in the business part OF the town
| that sold fer one hundred dollars, to-day
/ sells for four thousand dollars. Rents
are yiciously high. A business room
eighteen feet wide and forty feet deep
| rents at three hundred dollars a month.
! The Theater Comique building, a rough
! frame box, seating and standing about
seven hundred people, though they
| crowd in q thousand night seven nights
| in tbs week at one dollar head-Welll
| sardines in 8 box are comparatively
comfortable compared to them-Tents al
fourteen hundred dollars month. Well
the iniquity can afford to pay it, for the
| wine room alone-the attraction being 6
lot of beefy women, with few clothes
and very aggressive legs-takes In three
hundred dollars night for liquors. Il
is the Ioosest show, with no merit but
its outrageous indecency. There are
two other theatres, but not quite 50 tal
removed from decency, paying the sans
heavy Ient as the Comique, but not max
ing the money it does. Gambling houses
and saloons2 I don't know; there
over hundred of them, should think
Every saloon is q gambling house. There
are numerous dance halls which pay al
average rental of six hundred dollars pei
|
with, the customers paying fifty CT Mt
for q drink and the privilege of dancing
once. If the drink don't kill imme
diately, buy another and dance again.
"Tbe first mines are not over a quar-
ter OF q mile from the main street, anC
they extend over several miles of terri
tory, though the paying mines are, an
told, all near Leadville. The big run o
J metal is silver, though there's some.gOld
! Most of the mineral is lOW-grade ore
! There's no room there for men unac
: uusinted with mining. The foreman O
: the Little Pittsburg mine exclaimed Il
me the other day: What the devil d.
people mean by coming here-green mel
Ito work in these mines? D-n 'em
! we don't want them. 1t takes the bes
bridging to keep these mines from tum
2 bling in now when worked with expert
enced bands-old miners-as the minera
is chiefly in the form of carbonate, anI
} crumbles like rotten cheese
{" The paving mining interests ar
monopolized by capital. 1t takes capi
: tai to run these mines, and a great dea
of it to get any profit out Of them
They are already filed with old miners
+ who have poured in from DeadwOod
+, Georgetown, and hundred other points
50 you see tneTe Is no slloH HA@teFSH IL
2 amateur talent"
9 "Any lawyers in Leadviile ?''
1 LAWYERS? Yes, there's forty of them
1 poor devils; nothing to do unless the
D can play keno or faro. There's been s
g much building that carpenters wh
I brouRht their kits of teOls with ther
have had work right along at four do
lars per day; but there is a surplus {
merchants, laboreTs and mechanics OF g
y kinds"
o sDo merchants make much money ?
r ssI dent think they do; they're cate
q I'D BY rents aGd 1reighfs. RailToa
/, freights are outrageous; while from Wei
s ster. the terminus of the rail, to Lead
7 Vile, a distance of seventy miles, tue
are simply damnable, slow freights com
4 ing by wagon being one dollar and ort
5 cents per hundred, and express bein
a seven cents a pound. You go from Wei
/, ster to Leadville by stage, seventy mile
y tor which you pay one hundred dollar
5, being allowed forty pounds Of baggag
e paving for all above that amount seye
e cents pound.
5 "The saloons, lOdginghOuses, TestsI
D. rants, darcehouses and theatres are ma
g ing money; merchants certainly are no
u The IesdYiile excitement was got up
70 railroad companies, assisted by new
G. papers st Denver and Lsadyille, WI
q wanted to get people there for the Pu
ss pose of making money out Of the
as Denver folks sre beginning 70 be alarms
thinking they've overdone the busine
ie and are now looking forward to I
n pleasant prospect of thousand OF t'
10 starving and desperate men taking 0
e, commissions as road-sgents, and maxi
90 travel somewhat more exhilarating tn
OF even the glorious air OF Colorado b
hitherto rendered it.
Es . How is board in Leadville ?"