The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-08-10
From Colorado.
Correspondence of the DePocrat.

LAKE CRY, COL, Aug.4 1882.
BRO. GOULD promised to write you
a letter from Colorado, and l now take
pen in hand to redeem that promise. OF
my trip out here 1 shall have little to
say. L stopped at Topeka and found our
friends Auter's and Larsh's happy and
prosperous. Homer was absent from
home and 1 failed to see him. l could
devote a page to Topeka, in speaking of
her beauties and the push and enterprise
of her citizens, and not say half, but YOU
space forbids. l remained a day and then
came on through to Pueblo. For 200
miles from Topeka; in fact from a short
distance west of st. Louis, till We struck
the Arkansas river, there has not been
such crops for years. The small grain
crops seem to have SO absorbed the at
~tention of farmers that, to a great extent,
the corn crop was neglected, but it vas
blooming all the same" in spite of the
neglect, and l never saw such corn, even
in the Miami Valley, at the same period
after planting. We were scarcely ever
out of sight of a steam thresher, and
sometimes could count a half dozen at a
time. Miles upon miles OF wheat shocks
and stubble. Seas of ~ripening oats and
oceans of waving corn, saucily tossing its
tassels and silks to the winds and causing
the hearts of the tillers of the soil to re-
joice and forget that a gr~asshopper ever
jumped or few.
When we reached the Arkansas, the
scene began to change and the landscape
became, by comparison with that Just
passed through, a barren waste. The
less said about the country for 200 miles
east of Pueblo, the better for the coun-
try. The most that can be said for it is,
that it had its holiday clothes on; it did
not lack SAND, and was GRIZZLY doing
its LEVEL best to look pretty. We reach
ed Pueblo at 7.2O a. m. July 14th and
took breakfast at Numas; looked around
the town a few hours and then took the
Narrow Gauge for Gunnison.
You notice that I frequently say 1--WE"
This is for the reason, that though l start
ed from home alone, until l reached Sa-
Ida, Colo, there was scarcely an hour
that I was not with some acquaintance.
Sometimes one, sometimes another. ]
met Judge Doane at St. Louis on his way
to Texas, where he 'switched off," /
1 got in company with Mr.. Johnson, OF
Springfield, o. After we left Pueblo
found Hon. Frank LeBlond and family,
on the train. These are only a few in
stances in illustration of the fact, that in
any part of this broad country of ours,
one can scarcely board a train Of cars
without meeting an acquaintance.
Shall [ attempt any description of the
scenery between Pueblo and Salida? J
know that an utter failure to give yor
the most distant idea of the grandeur
the awful grandeur of it, would be the
result, and hence 1 refrain from the at
tempt. 1t is simply indescribably grand
Canon city is located at the mouth o
Arkansas Canon. and to this point VI
rode in the ordinary passenger coach
but here they put on observation cars
These are merely cars without any top
ON them, where comfortably seated, tn,
passenger can take in all the magnifi
cence and beauty of the ride through tn,
cannon. 1 advise my friends, however
to sit with their backs to the engine.
charge nothing for this advice, though i
cost me something to find it out.
These narrow gauge roads through tn
mountains, are wonderful specimens @
: engineering skill. There is scarcely
rod of straight track-constantly curry
ing, winding, twisting and zigzagging i
and out of apparently inaccessible plac
es, and always rising higher and highe
l above the level of the sea, like an i'm
r mense sea serpent attempting an ovel
land passage from the Pacific to the Al
lantic. We remained all night at Said
l ran down to Gunnison the next day
Here ended the rail road journey, leay