Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-09-13
In Colorado.
GuNNrsoN, Colo, Sept. B, 1888.

In Colorado.
GuNNrsoN, Colo, Sept. 5, 1888.
Ed. Register-I have been 80 alb
sorbed with business and trout-fishing
since reaching Colorado, that l have
not literary idea in my head. Still !
suppose you desire few words rela-
tive to my wanderings.
My humorous Pennsylvania friend,
Capt. c., and his wife. stopped OFT at
Topeka, Kans., to see friends, so
missed very interesting company the
remainder of my journey.
The trip through Kansas was de-
lightful. There was no dust, and the
grand brood farms, herds Of fat cattle,
tasty, neat and elegant farm houses,
and splendid school houses-all make
I'D a most pleasing panorama to the
traveller, and a gratifying exhibit to
every lover of his country.
In Western Kansas, a man in the
garb of hunter came in the cars and
took his seat beside me, with several
birds he had been shooting and gun and
dog. After few words, he surprised
me by asking me (the car was a little
dark) if I was not a professor in Cor
nell University, N. jill On being as
sured that had the honor of being
only a Missouri "border ruffian," he
laughed heartily at his bad guess, and
explained that he was professor IN
Columbia College. and he thought he
had seen me and heard my voice be-
fore. He had been a month out on
the plains in search of fossils. The
two hours we rode together before he
got off the train. to ride on q pony out
to friends cattle ranch where he was
staying, was most enjoyable to both OF
us. He had found fossil sea-serpents,
some of them over thirty feet long;
fossil fish, many of the species now ex-
tinct-some of them still inhabitants of
the sea-thus demonstrating what was
long ago very we'll demonstrated: that
the ocean once washed the base Of the
Rocky Mountains, and that the whole
of the trans Mississippi plains was once
the bed of the sea.
Kansas has been settled too far west.
The settlers have tried to raise crops,
but it is too dry, and they are aban-
doning It and moving elsewhere-some
of them to old Misseuri-and the stock
men are possessing the land. The
truth is, about all Of Kansas that is
capable OF cultivation is now occupied,
and henceforth emigrants will have to
drop back to Missouri or Arkansas and
fill them up, as they ought to have been
filed UP with enterprisiDg citizens long
ago.
Denver is the prettiest little city Of
$4,000 people on this or any other con-
tinent. On reaching it went out TO
the great Exposition, where Capt. Row
land, who is interested with me In
mines and toll road, was in charge as
one of the Exposition Commissioners.
The building is a magnificent one, and
the collection Of minerals is probably
the grandest ever collected together in
one place. He showed me specimens
from our own mine which assayed
$40 500 90 per ton, and specimens from
other mines that contained over $70,-
10000 per ton. What makes Denver
30 elegant q city, Ia the liberality of
her bonanza kings. They have made
great fortunes, and they spend their
money in the erection of magnificent
structures. Everybody in Denver is
now greatly excited about artesian
wells, and scores of them are being
bored to q depth of 500 to 700 feet,
where they find q strong flow Of pure
water that rises far above the tops of
the highest buildings.
The County Commissioners had been
negotiating for the purchase of our toll
road, with q view to making 1t free.
Capt. Rowland and they could not
quite agree, SO he requested me to
go and attend to it. I proceeded
up to Boulder, where, in connection
with my friend, Mr.. Buckingham,
President Of the National State Bank,
I soon came to terms of saIe-the mat
ter to be legally transferred at their
regular and legal session little later.
This much accomplished, started up
to our mine, on which work was sus-
pended while Capt. Rowland was at
tending the Exposition, and pending
negotiations for its sale. Walking and
crawling through hundreds of feet of
tunnels and drifts, with gold and sill
yer ore sparkling and flashing in the
light Of your candles, and with scores
Of tons piled up ready for shipment,
makes ''tenderfoot" feel that he he
almost millionaire; but the wise one
will figure up the net profit, and will
conclude that the wise thing to do IL to
be sure of nothing as to the outcome of
q mine until he has It safely in his
pocket. Generally, the mines of Colo