Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-26
SOME SCENES IN LEADVILLE.
Impressions of a New Yorker to
Whom a Western Trip is New.
A THRIFTY AND LIVELY CITY.
Gambling Houses, Dance Houses and
Variety Theaters in Beadviile-
The Sort OF People Who
Gamble - Morals.

DeauVllle people say lo,VVO Is Jne popu-
lation OF their town; it looked TO me
about 1900, but there are lots Of folks
around in the mountains and maybe
1900 is all right. The place looks
thrifty and enterprising and as II it had
come to stay, though the great number
Of little one-story housesseemed to indi-
cate--I may read this sign wrong-that
many OF the people had expended in
houses just as little money as they could,
so as to be able to get out with as small
loss as possible If the thing should col
lapse, don't know anything
about mining, but many Of the
mines around Leadville are we'll
known and said to be profitable while
it is equally true that some we'll
known mines have stopped producing
because they are supposed to be played
out or are in litigation, or from other
causes. But they tell me that they
haven't begun to exhaust the mount
aims, and / am rather inclined to credit
this statement, for the mountains are
very large. Some of the newer dwell
ings are larger, two-story houses; some
OF the stores are big enough for any
town and carry big stocks. The newer
business buildings are built story or
two higher, as though the owners ex-
pected that property would be worth
something, and it is. There are plenty
of schools and churches, and the general
air OF the town is driving and healthy
and permanent.
The original main street of the city
has been supplanted by another avenue
running at right angle TO the first main
street. This was inevitable, for the
new main street is seemingly just where
it ought to be according to the conform
alton of the ground on which the city
stands. In the old main street the stores,
all wooden buildings and some of them
large, are chiefly occupied for various
business purposes, but the new principal
street is the unquestioned main street
of the city. On it are the banks, the
post office, the big stores and the prin-
cipal gambling houses. 1t is the main
street of the city, just as Broadway is
the main street in New York. The
smaller gambling houses, and the va
riety theatres, and the honses of the
French women line more or less OF
block or two of cross street near one
end of the business part of the main
street.
Down one street I saw big square
brick building, the sign of civilization,
a school house. 1t was the recess hour,
and the boys were sliding down hill,
jolly, healthy, wholesome lot, just like
everybody's boys. There must be homes
where these boys live. More log houses
than you have seen before; most of
them the houses of original proprietors
or dwellers, and now placed on the
street lines. There are in the city two
pretty little houses, stabbed upon the
side in patterns as pretty as slabs can
be made to take, successfully occupied
by prosperous miner, who now lives in
larger framed house. Horses are
plenty in the streets, more blankets
strapped to saddles, more saddles with
double clinches. The men who ride the
horses, and everybody else in the town,
including the children, civil and polite.
Not SO many broad-brimmed hats, for
here more of the men work under
ground, where it is not necessary to be
sheltered from the sun and wind. All
wooden sidewalks, with steps at the
grades and, when necessary, at the
crossings. Some of the plank walks'on
the main street are two feet or more
above the gutter; made to accommodate
the store lines rather than the street
grade. Ladies in the streets shopping
look just as they do everywhere. The
business men looking just like other
men, but more men wearing caps, and
more miners. To the north on the hills,
the shaft houses and buildings and
smokestacks of the mines.
/ had II letter to
A MINING SUPERINTENDENT
and l went to his house. Not a
big house, but the instant you passed
the threshold you were In the air of a
home. Daintiness, refinement, and
comfort everywhere. The superintend-
ent is young man, tall, broad-shoul-
dered, deep-chested, sturdy-legged,
erect, graceful, self-reliant, cultivated,
and polite. His trousers were tucked
in his boots, for he goes back and forth
between two mines on horseback. He
would be quite equally at home in even
ing dress or in corduroy, and the people
he might meet in either garb would like
him equally we'll. He said he would be
Mt the mine / wanted to see at such a
time, and at exactly that minute by the
engine room clock he walked in. We
put on miners clothing and went down
the shaft and through the mines. Twas
never in a mine before, but there SEEM
ed to be here plenty OF room, plenty of
air, too much air, perhaps, and the ore
seemed satisfactory to the superintend-
ent, some Of it very much SO. Every
man whom he had occasion to address
every man that spoke to the superin-
tendent addressed him politely, and ev-
identity took pleasure in doing SO. The
miners were notably intelligent, good
looking men, and evidently everybody
did a square days work.
In the evening at the hotel / met a
gentleman who mistoOk me for man
he knew. This was calm, even-voiced,
polite gentlem, who, in the course Of
further conversation, said solely as a
matter of courteous information for me
and without shadow of ulterior pur-
pose, that he was in the gambling busi-
ness. He had lived in cities from Bos-
ton to San Francisco, and he was posted
on the towns and the newspapers and
their editors, and he knew some news
paper men that knew.
Gambling is carried on here just as
openly as the sale of dry goods or gro
ceries is in New York. 1t is easier to
get into gambling house in Leadville
than it is into grocery story in New
York in winter, for there is no latch on
the gambling house door. Neither is
their any lock on the doors OF the prin-
cipal houses, There is no hardware on
the doors except the hinges, and these
1911 A.,