The Elk Mountain pilot., 1881-11-10
A GRAND IDEA
C.lorado's Debt to Her Iursv Gsas, Bail
Roads.

LIN e"HAA'6 oiAO ueAA1AA6 "a ~VaOA~
ado has been the result of a grand idea
resolutely realized, and that idea is a
railroad. When the Kansas Pacific
reached Denver in 187oit was 4 finger
pointing out into nothingness-at
least, unless the mining region then
tributary to Denver could be. made
easily accessible to the railroad fermi-
nus, no great amount of development
could be hoped for. Freights over
the mountains we're thirty cents per
pound, and for good part of the
year frei ghting could not be carried
on at all on account of the SHOWS of
winter and the mud Of spring. But
further railroad extension seemed i'm
possible. The grades up to the min
ing camps were too heavy, the sharp
curves in climbing tine mountain sides
and twisting along the canons too
severe to permit railroad building up
on the basis of a standard gauge. 1t
was at this crisis that the narrow-gauge
idea had birth-and the successful de-
velopment Of the state was assured.
The little line that was run down from
Denver to Colorado Springs was an
experiment that most people prophe-
sled would be a failure. But it was
button the cheerful estimate of
thirteen through passengers each way
daily-and from the first day Of its
operation it paid. The opportunity
to travel made travel, and the cautious
estimate proved to be very much be-
low the encouraging f.cts. Out of
that experimental line, but seventy
miles long, has grown the existing
great railway system, comprising near
ly 900 miles Of completed road and
that may be said to include the 600
additional miles already OF soon to be
placed under contract. And more
than this, the road from Denver to
Colorado Springs if the parent of the
Colorado narrow-gauge system, assur-
edly is the grand parent of the mar
row-g gauge Mexican National railway
with work being pressed vigorously
upon 500 miles. No wonder that the
L0udon Saturday Re0tw, that staid
organ Of decorous conservatism, con-
templates these tiarrow-gauge lines
with astonishment, and especially the
fact that the Colorado road is taking
an average of $50 per mile per week,
and it is worked at fifty per cent. of
the gross receipts, which leaves ret
income of eight per cent. on a capital
of t,1o,ooo to the mile" and no
wonder that it adds: "T'his is more
than satisfactory result. 1t is very
astonishing result, "-as indeed it is,
though 1t does not astonish Amen
cans, who are used to astonishing re-
suits when they go to work in earnest
as much as it does Englishmen.
But because this great work was un-
dertaken and pushed after the ener.
getic fashion peculiar to Americans,
Colorado is what it is to-day. In its
system of narrow gauge railroads lie.
its strength. Its rich mines in Lead
vile, its ores and timber in the San
Juan country, its silver, galena, iron,
coke and coal in the Gunniscn-its
coal fields near Trinidad-all of these
would have produced but little, OF
would have produced nothing at all,
had not railroad been devised that
could Chamber grades of 2.7 feet to
the mile and 60 around right angles
which only can by courtesy be called
curves, over the Denver divide, over
the Veta and Marshall passes, through
the grand canon of the Arkansas and
over tbe nights of the Toltec gorge.
And devising the plan by which the
cities Of the plains and of the noun.
tains could be knit together would moi
have composed any great results had
not there been also energy remaining
to execute them-the nerve that is re.
quired for realizing hazardous con
ception. tsgfe1 Republican.
Madame, who is very fat, asks hel