Morning journal and courier., 1883-09-29

l the brutal bully, who had SO shockingly mutiiated popular newspaper man, did not 1 impress me with sense of his pugilistie pro- penalties. He was coward at heart and rather cunning and crafty than openly mur- l derous. In fact he was of 8 quiet rather
 than a noisy disposition. Still, Leadville hesitated to put it's city official out of the way, despite his manifestly foul record The
 town had evidently quaffsd a draught of civ ihzation during the year that made it less
 willing to act, although still free to threaten. One characteristic little scene on the street
 may illustrate the degree of progress made
 Joy, being out on bail, ventured forth one
 morning and was soon surrounded on the
 street by growling throng of indignant cit
 izens The encounter took the form of an
 angry dialogue between one or two cronles
 of Joy and the incensed crswd. The latter
 openly remarked that MT. Joy should be pre-
 pared to die, as he certainly had only few
 hours or days at the most to spend on this
 mundane sphere. In fact, some immediate
 menacss were made and one or two of the
 more impulsive patted their hip pockets
 cheerfully and suggestivsly. Finally the
 the postof6ce, and Joy was passing out unat-
 tended just as MT. Abbott, the managing edi-
 tor of the Herald, entered Each cast a
 black look at the other. Meanwhile block
 ade had occurred at the street crossing out
 side, and the editor caught up with the ob
 noxious Alderman. For moment the two
 stood scowhng at each other in silence Then
 a gap occurred in the teams, and Joy started
 forward, nervously glancing about himself as
 if in doubt, advanced little ways and then
 retreated, and waited for Mir. Abbott to take
 the lead. The incident Illustrated the Alder
 mans real cowardice. He dared not walk
 in front of the offended editor.
 For exhilarating journalism commend me
 to Leadville, even as it is to day. Entering
 th0 HAr0ld 0ffSaa I ahnUn intn MF An
 bott's private sanctum, and the first thing my
 eye rested upon was handsome new double
 barreled gun leaning up against the editorial
 desk. 'You combine the pen and the sword,
 observed. ''Oh don't place my main re-
 liance in that" and he pulled 8. couple of
 silver mounted revolvers from his hip-pock-
 cts. ''These I can command at an instants
 notice But it is nothing now to what it was
 in those early days when first started out to
 tell fearlessly in print what I honestly
 thought. Many an editorial have I written
 with cooked revolver in one hand. Many
 an anonymous squib have received announ
 cling that was doomed man. And many a
 time have been unable to see any means of
 escape when 8 noisy mob was pressing about
 me. It happens to be 8 little exciting just
 now, but in general things are very subdued
 in comparison with what they used to be-"
 They are also having an exciting railroad
 war in Leadville just now. The Denver and
 Rio Grande, which is a veritable Briareus
 reaching out with it's l 700 miles of narrow
 gauge arms, and grasping the wealth of the
 entire Rocky Mountain district is the only
 road at present reaching the city, although
 numerous lines have been projected. The
 South Park division (narrow gauge) of the
 Union Pacific has been paying the Rio Grande
 $100, 900 rental annually for the privilege of
 running it's trains over the latter's tracks from Buena Vista. Notice has been given that this lease will be vacated soon, and the South Park folks are hurriedly constructing a line of their own. This action has brought on the war. Each road is doing it's best to thwart the other. As matters stood when I left the town the the South Park had full permission to cross the necessary streets in getting into the city, but any engineer or conductor assisting to man train in so do ing was liable to arrest and fine
 see that the United States geologist has advanced an opinion that the Leadville coun- try is scanned underneath with richer carbon ates than have yet been reached. Unless this theory should prove true, however, it does not seem that Leadville has any extraordinary future before it. Some of the shanties and rough board stores will be torn down, and in their place plain two-story brick blocks will appear but the city has got it's growth es- sentially. There appears to be no abating of the mineral resources of the region, however. A steady increase of about twenty per cent is taking place, on the contrary. The output in silver last year amounted to SIS, GOO, 900 and this year there will be an important ex- cess over that figure. In respect to the gen. eral development of Colorado the same may be said to be true. The phenomenal growth has been of a healthy and not spasmodic character. The long trains of both anthra- cite and bituminous coal which were encoun- tered everywhere on the road some drawn by two and some by three locomotives, bear kaakSks ArA AkS ant 1l.. claimed that the pure anthracite of the Gun nison country is superior to that of the Key stone State, and equally abundant. The other interests of the State show up well. Cobra do is now at the head of the precious metal States, having long since out stripped Nevada and California The total product of last year was valued at $26, ,759,- 39S, an annual increase of $4 300. .0OO The | iron and saline interests also immen sely l All this indicates a substantial | 
 Leaving LeadVille, we were soon back to | 5alida where 8 special powerful mountain | locomotive was attached in front of the regu- lar locomotive, and we began the ascent of the famous Marshall Pass "TrJ not the l pass,'' tho old man said in LongfelIow's | Excelsior, and he must have had special | reference to this Marshall Pass the overcom- ng of which by railroad was one of the | most stupendous engineering feats ever at l .empted. But we tried the pass, and 1t suc- | ,umbed. before eur assault The engines la. | bored while making the ascent in way that ! RRs almost pitiable. Like long snake the 1 rain slowly wound up the steep mountain | tides, scarcely moving at times. At one time l Fe could look down from the crest and view | four tiers of tracks including our own, and | re knew that no other railroad came within | ! great many miles. Two or three loops were | visible at time. On, on, and up, | ap, our locomotives coughed their painful | way. Now naked trees covered the mountain | ,ides and we were told that we were up to | he vegetation point" The air grew sharp | and rare. Snowy peaks and icy orags tow sred above us. The day before, snow had | been encountered, but it had melted during l the night, and we were not able to indulge in | that coveted privilege, an early September ,now ball fight. Nevertheless, the frosty | atmosphere made us wrap our oVerooats | about us as we stood on the car platform. and 1 he warmth afforded by the snow sheds was | oercsptible. Some had headaches on | account of rarefed atmosphere. But themagni | icent panorama from the summit, command | ug 6 view of Colorado for many miles and | lefying description, amply compen | Iated for all these temporary inconvepiences. |
 We were about II, GOO feet above the sea- evel. looked up the altitude of Mt. Wash ngton, the highest point in New England, | md found it to be only 6,268 feet Speaking )L Lu4S VCS0bdtAOA 1IA1Aes 14cS h1OuS OtHScA Il ,OO0 and 12, 900 feet in Colorado, while in | Europe and the eastern part of our own | country it lies at about 1000 feet In the | Alps the line of perpetual snow does not rise | higher than ], 300 feet. We were two-thirds | ,f mile higher than even that Now begins | he preciptous descent. Curves! The | Horse Shoe Bend in Pensy lvania was an arrow | n comparison. The Horse Shoe Bend has @ curvature of only nine degrees of 637 feet adius; whereas we made ono curve of thirty Iegress of 1,19S feet radius. The Iiferepce can scarcely be appreciated, ven from these extraordinary figures. Having made the descent successfully, our rain hurried along over more level coun- " and into Gunnison, the prosperous young ,ity of western Colorado Here I had 8 ,hance to view the fine agricultural territory If the State. Only recently has farming ,ome to the front as an industry of the State, ,ut already it is only second in importance l o mining The sohoolboy who learned that he western part of Colorado belonged to | he Crest American Desert would be sur ,Eised to pass through that region to day. This Utah extension has also opened up a | Vast pastoral region. coInprising nearly five million acres of the best grazing land Al
 eady as 8 mfagre beginning it Is said that
 ]. 600, 900 sheep are raised hereabouts, afford ng an annual woul-clip of five million pounds. It is estimated that the region is ,apable of sustaining ,50O, OO0 head of cat nf khe Ia lxir kha lima 1