National Republican., 1883-07-10
THE BAD BOY IN COLORADO.
George w. Psek's Experience i'm the Rocky
Mountains.

Mountains.
George W. Peck, the editor of Pcck's Stn
and the author Of tho now famous Dad Boy"
has been spending week or two in Colorado,
and telling lies with ths champions of that
state. He thus narates his experience in
Clear Creek canyon:
Central is the homo ofSecretary Teller, or
ex-senator Teller, and il is the richest min
Ing district and the hottest place to be found,
The mines about Central are all gold mines,
and the miners would not pick up silver, If
they found It on the road. The town Is built
on gold mines, and the back yards of the resi-
dences are rich with gold dust. If this isnot
true then they have somo star liars there l
was only there three hours, but heard some
of the most colossallics, from the most colossal
liars that ever lived. They may have taken
me for "chump," but they give It to me raw.
was sitting in the Teller house, exchang-
ing lies with the local talent for two hours,
and never had more interesting season.
They all knew me, and l think the landlord,
who is Chicago man, put up a job on me.
| went in the porters room TO have my boots
BACKED, and the porter brushed the dust into
n pan, and when he was done polishing the
boots he looked wise, like bank cashier, for
moment and then handed me ten cents.
asked him what that meant, and he said that
was tho difference, though could take the
dust IL wanted to and pay him ten cents.
didn't understand him, and finally he said he
estimated that he would get twenty-five
cents worth of gold out of tho dust Off my
shoes and so he paid me the difference.
walked off feeling pretty good, and looked
back twice at the colored man, but he never
smiled, and l don't know whether he was
lying or not, though the white men lie, and
thc colored men may learn how. Soon after
that setter dog came into tho hotel Office,
all dirt, and began scratching his neck for
flea. The proprietor of the hotol snapped
his finger, just as Charley White does at the
Plankinton house, when he wants a colored
bell boy to get up and fly around, and the
porter came up on the run with pan and
held it under the place where the dog was
scratching to catch the dust. / didn't want
to ask any questions, but l looked around
at tho landlord with an inquiring turn of
mind, aud he told the porter to take the
dust out and wash it and SEQ how much it
panned out. The porter took brush and
brushed the dust oil the dog into the pau,
and went out, and just as we were going to
dinner he came in and said he only got
30 cents out of the dust off the dog, add
ing that the dog was getting unreliable.
The landlord said the confounded dog prob
ably shook himself before he came in. He
said 1T was getting so you couldn't place
any dependence on q dog nowadays. Such
thllSs ds bucSo Always Seu me 10 tnluklnB,
and | thought how these Colorado people
can discount us OF the effete east, ON scientific
lying, and laid it to tho air in high lati-
tudes. | expect when get up on the main
range, few thousand feet higher, one of my
lies can be used for Sunday school lesson.
Central is at the head of the gulch, and a
mile down is Black Hawk, thousand feet or
so lower. The railway was built to Black
Hawk, and there did not seem TO be any par
tiDulnr napnssitv of I'm iI1ino INV furtbar
as it seemed though Central people could
come down the gulch a mile to take the train,
but Senator Toller, who had large property
interests at Central, insisted that the road
must go there aud the result was piece OF
engineering that is called tho "switch-
back" The train goes four miles to
get one mile, running back and
sise. You start from Central to 60 down,
aud run along the top Of the mountain, past
Black Hawk, a 1000 feet above, and look
down on the depot, which looks like bed
bug on Sheet and then you strike down a
few hundred feet, feeling that the COW, on
the track ahead, will throw the train off, and
that it will roll down and fall through the
roof of a house. You wonder what you can
say by way of apology, if your car fell
through the roof of house and woke up a
man who might be taking nap, and specu-
late on whether the man would shoot you
before You could tell him it was an accident
After winding around for twenty minutes
the train reached the bottom of the gulch,
and starts for Denver, down through the
canyon, and the fear of the day before is
somewhat worn OIL, though the train runs
much faster than it did coming up.
On the trip down did not care SO much to
look at the scenery, so / watched the railway.
There are no more accidents on these Col
orado narrow guagc railways, that run around
corners, jump streams, and hang onto the
side of mountains by their tue nails than on
any other roads at the east but / cannot help
but look upon such railroading as do upon
the acrobatic performances, bare back riding,
and flying trapeze acts of the circus. 1t
seems TO me as though the engineer must be
n lunatic to run his engine so fast within "A
foot of precipice where if a car runs oil the
whole outfit is dead sure TO go down (,
eternal smash, but when / 20 forward at q
station and take look at the "lunatic,"
find him to be calm thoughtful, nervy gem
tleman, qualified to be governor of the state,
II man who has evidently family of children
at home, who would feel perfectly safe to ride
beside papa on the engine, and who never
worry for fear he will fail to como home at
night. And then / 90 back to the car and
feel perfectly satisfied that the man at the
helm is not COW boy, trying to SEQ how near
he can run to eternity without getting caught.