New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-18
SILVER CLIFF.
rur THIRD CITY OF COLORADO.

ro,ps AND TELFPHONE~-A QUIET MINING
cAyF-BEAuTIFUL FOR SITUATION.
,rpoN ,sTNFF CORRESPONDENT OF TuE TRrBUSE.l
suyrn CLIFF. Colorado. July est is remark
h,a what an air of maturity one of these upstart
,ras,erp mining towns can take on IN few months
.,e, the first prospcctor strikes il rich" any
horo near H. Now here is silver Cliff whose cti-
aus what there were of them bUrrowed under
oround in dug-outs or lived in tents all the
Gunner Of 1878 and who built their first house
On the site Of the present city in Septemb,r of
that vear putting on rs many airs though it
,~.ra hundred years old. To be il has the
a..rrol t~rck 10 back its prctcns ions 10
ovnres,iyc Western phrase hut / must confess
Not VIII n au reminded at least six times week,
,,r one or another of the three daily newspapers
,nbli.bed here that this is the third city and the
ss,ood mining camp in size and Importance in the
centennial state. | wonder If they won be trying
% move tie capital down here from Denver in the
oonrse Of % year or two more, or doing something
ose eoually presumpt.ouS Leadville actually
t,,ted of transferring the seat o. Government to
4be meurtain tops about the hcadwaters of the
Arkansas a year ago. when Twas there, even before
al the log cabins were removed from the middle
of Uarr.,ou-ave. or the first brick building in The
town was completed
AsroRY WITH An APPLICATION.
Thevauiting ambition and unblushine assurance
Of some OF these infant mining camps remind me
ola pool story when a gentleman from Galveston.
now about to engage in mining here told me the
otAer evening about Major Tom Ochiluee. OF
Texas ] don't mean to apply II TO Silver Chh,
though have not failed to discover traces of the
same spirit here. Everybody who has been en-
Washington often since the reconstruction OF the
South knows Tom Oohlltrce, ana lie IS not
stranger IN Ne WORK good soldier, believe on
the Confederate side. he became "A Republican at
the close OF the and n tavOIlte OF PRESIDENT
Grant. VINO appointed him United states Marshal
for Texas when that Office was worth good deal
more money than it is Sow. The Majors father
was one of the must eminent iursts ID Texas,
before The war and had good deal Of trouble with
his son who. though not lad, full of mischief.
Al length when Tom approached young man
hood the old Judge determined 10 sober him down
by study and so took HIM into his own law oihce
where he kent him pretty closely at his books Tor
about three years. Tom good scholar, made
satisfactory progress and was finally admitted 10
the bar and taken into partnership by ms father
months after this. the Judge as he was start
ing for Dallas morning to attend long session
of the cour. looked up at the old. weather-beaten
sign which had been above his Office door for
Quarter of a century and told Tom he thought 1t
was about time TO have a new one and. Iom' III
sad. suppose you attend TO it. get good sign
and have the name of the firm painted upon it,
The old gen leman went to DALLAS, and was gone
several days. Returning. when he came in sight OF
the little frame Office. he thought II looked strange
and rid NJ nearer he found stretching clear across
the buildiny an immense sign-Doard on when was
painted in huge letters:
"r. p. OCHILTRtE AND FATHER.
CoUNsELLORs AND ATTORNEYS flaw
Tom was at his desk deeply absorbed in working
I'D "a case. and never could understand why the old
man should have caused that sign to be taken
down.
TRANSFORMATIONS SCENE.
The growth of Silver Cliff has been one Of the
phenomena If the mining excitement OF the past
two years and if there had been no Leadville with
It's thousands of of carbonate deposits ana Its
sudden transfo rmatOn from Almost deserted
mining pulch INTO busting, driving, Western city,
fuI of excitement and speculation and enterprise,
this place would have attracted the capital ana
the people and been the wonder of the state to-
day As II is with the great Carbonate Camp as
arrival and with no great ruth to II OF either men
or money! il has maintained a steady growth, an
+wentv-one months after the first wooden house
was erected. 1t had. by the oihcial count OF the
Census Bureau, population of more than o,ooo.
Silver Cnf is more fortunate than most of the
mining camps in the mountains, III having heen
bnilt ON q broad gradual y-soping hillside, III
This was au accident fortunate one, but an acci-
dent nevertheless. Mining towns almost always
spring up in the immediate vicinity of the mines to
which they owe their existen The original pros
pec'ors cabin is the nucleus OF the future city, and
if that is built up against the side OF canon
through which there Is room Tor only single
street then the town that comes when the pros
poets are ines will range itself in long double or
single row by its side. This city seems to have
started in the same way. shallow dry guich eA-
tends along at the foot Of the cli from which the
place takes It's name, and upon the side OF TINS the
first street was made but back of tnat the town is
laid out with broad streets crossing each other at
right angles and il well built as Western towns 90,
with frame struct res a majority of them one story
hi,h but with the inevitable squareEiront, which
is added suppose to give statelIhess TO the Duiid-
ing and To hide its petty proportions.
Silver Gin Is the quietest mining camp OF Its SIZE
Ihaye ever visited. Its streets are never Gro "ded
with people its shops. though seeming TO 60 good
business are never thronged with customers, not
even on Saturday night and Sunday. In fact the
latter instead OF beng the nOsiest ana busiest day
of the week was the quietest. and there was moth
ing except the open doors of the shops ana an coca
sonal r..nchman's team to distinguish it from
New-England sabbath. / am told that the floating
population of the town is nearly all away IN the
mountain. prospecting The Gunnison fever
seems 10 have seized almost everybody IN TINS part
Of the State last spring The men who are always
rowing about. spending then winters IN the larger
towns and going from one new mining camp 10 an
other in the summer, went over the range as soon
a. the SHOWS would permit, IN April and May, and
many OF the steadier miners and bOrers LETT their
places and followed that there has been no sur
plus OF labor here this summer and hear that over
al Rosita. some of the mines have been obliged TO
Suspend operations because men could not ne iouhd
to work in them at 81 % and IS q day.