Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-06-03
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10 "a OF totor2dez
I,eadviIle Is known as 4
camp, and, lifted up among fha
as it is, you would expect 60 A.
so shut away from aIIthoeartE
and rude, filled with tents 81
and dusouts, the resort of the
characters. But Leadyille {
fullest sense OF the void, a rodes'
1t has waterworks, gas snd
lights and the telephone. II
Grand Opera House, seatins
persons, its ably conducted =
and evening papers; its commas
Gil and its city debe. 1t has 4
plete directory and 5000
tants. The architecture of ~
is not yet classic or greatly infl,,
by the style of Queen Appe
its streets are lined by Cd.
able houses and its stores are
der. In cities OF three tim,
size one will seldom see larger \,
establishments. / found three
dry goods houses, for instance
carrying on an average SiOd
worth of stock, one of them /
no less than $4,000 in rues3
carpets. There are hardware ~
furnishing and news stores to ~
The city commands the trad]
the mountains country through
cult of thirty or forty miles. ana
centre for all mining supplies
miners pay quickly and largely
want the best Of everything wbile]
money lasts. Both the demand
profits are therefore large and
1t is for this reason that to ind
of the finest assortments of diam,
and precious stones west of the NJ
sippi you must come to Lead
The miner patronizes his own I
asnone other does. Under the ef,
supervision of Professor Joa]
Yale graduate, the city schoolx
doing good work, though a
placed streak of economy limits
term to six m onths i'll a year.
or ten churches have houses oil
ship, and are year by year liftin
community up from depths 4
have been as deep as the lovati,
high.
But the night side ofLeadvillei i,
among the most characte,
features. The times have passed
the unruly element ruled the /
Society has organized itself, and
eminent stretches out its strong 4
1t has checked violence and regul
vice. But it has not expelled or
suppressed it. There Is nc spot !
tested by parasites of society
mining city. Since the early
many OF these have left. seeking
fields of conquest. A few hav
formed. But, while | have va
through some of the great gamt
places of Europe, have never s.
place where as large a propertic
the population seemed TO be d
within the clutch OF these night ,
and to actually participate in
bling, as here. Keno, poker, rou
and other similar games are til
traction for the crowds that ss
from the mines and furnaces into
saloons, where they spend the gr.
part OF the night. There is a Writ
openness about it all. The repr
tative OF the law may always be
But | have never witnessed in
places such n mingling of all class
society as here, the well dressed an
ragged, the cultivated and the ignol
the hardened and the weak, fascin
by the same serpent, infected
the same poison. dragged down Il
same fate. Some of the profess
gamblers are men Of almost supel
uraI keenness. College gradu
some OF noble Eastern families
among them; young men who, a
to toll, unfortunate, perhaps, in
ulations, are cast on their wits
live on the gains of Others. In all
ing communities there is such an
mosphere OF uncertainty and the
bred such temperament OF spe
ton that there seems little difel
between risking what one has in |
pecting a claim and in chancinI
turn of a card. 1t seems no wor
lose money in one way than ano
equally legimitste to make none
either. Gambling requires less ca
than mining, and its returns areq
err. l have talked with many y
men in Leadville who have put all
could save, from time to time on
their wages, into mining claims,
almost every one assured me tn
had never made a dollar. Yet
could point out some one who
made fortune. "My turn must
some day. l mean to keep on
make the lucky hit" What !
natural than that such a life Sd
beget professional gamblers.