Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-12
A CITY OF THE PLAINS
Notes About Former Washingtonians
Who Live in Denver.
AND BUILDING S.
some PecultaYities Of the Town-Evory-
thing in acknowledgements Of an
Easserner-A Good Place for Hustlers
and Capitalists.
, of The EVENING STAR
DENVER, July 6. 1880.

W. portlon OF the west winch lay on the
other side of Chicago from Washington
we're as crude as fresh Pennsylvania petroleum.
Like many of my eastern brethren whose
horizon had been bounded by the narrow con-
| fines OF conceit, / started for Denver pulled up
with superiority like Potomac river toad
| fish. and during that drearv. weary Pullman ride
| OF nearly couple thousand miles conned over
| my mental library and collated generous as
sortment of fine. large and symmetrical lies
with which to astonish the untutored noun
taineers when expatiating to them how we
| did things in the east.
am aware now what a waste of intellectual
energy was thereby incurred. As | rolled
westward from Chicago and the train continued
to flash through mile after mile and league
after league of rich farm lands, in which the
| piow shares were just beginning 10 turn. COM
| forted myself with the reflection that pretty
| soon civilization would be left behind and the
original prairie with its troops of coyotes and
It's bounding jack rabbits. would soon be
reached. This fatteriug JUNCTION was laid to
the soul IN vain. Never a field We passed that
ana not display the presence of man, and when
the train crept into the union depot here and
came to q stop with a final snort of relief NV
knowledge OF coyotes and jack rabbits was
| just what it had been before starting-gleaned
from MIR. Phineas I. Barnum's aggregation of
animals.
DENVER AS GREAT TOWN.
do not wish to boom" Denver in the ac-
cepted meaning of the word-indeed, it needs
no assistance that could render it-but it is
one of the most astonishing and amazing towns
IN America without question. | knew ere
left the finest city III the world--and everybody
knows who reads this letter what it's name is
something of Denvers wonderful growth and
had read of its prosperity and of its re-
markable climate. and was willing to be-
lieve what L had read. but the mental picture
was that Of Il city hastily thrown together by
the requirements OF its rapid increase in popu-
latlon and commerce; an aggregation of fimsy
constructions. hourly inviting a confagration
such as Seattle experienced a year ago. and its
citizens conglOmerate community with any
amount of lOng-haired males and an over
WhelmlnS contingent of shOrt-haired females.
That picture about as true to the real
city as the pictures OF some Washington artists
know are like the scenes that they endeavor
TO reproduce. When L left the train | found
myself III busy, bustling, magnificent metrop-
olis. Ire crowds upon the main business
streets-l6th and Larimer-were as much like
those on Pennsylvania avenue or Broadway as
two peas. and they were more like the Broad
way throngs, in that they moved along quicker
and seemed to have some defined object in
view.
AND THE BUILDINGS.
If any one has a desire to see massiyeness of
structure and beauty of architecture he NAV
to the Queen City of the Plains. We have
nothing like them in Washington save in
height; the Atlantic and the Pacific buildings
are not to be mentioned in the same breath
with fifteen or twenty "blocks" here,
and the Palais Royal building would
look like COW shed beside
several structures now approaching compile
ton, while the CorcOran building wouldn't be
In 1t at all, and mortar and brick are but little
used in their construction. Ten miles from
Dany tha Roc H.,
granite and sandstone and marble to beautify
the city that nestles at their feet. The supply
| Is as lneXhaustlble as it is inestimable, and
| there is no better building material on the
face OF the earth. In conversation with
prominent insurance man yester-
| day he told me that there were in
| course of erection nearly completed at the
present time in Denver over 8, 500 houses, and
can well believe it, for have ridden over
every portion of the city and its suburbs since
my debut on this stage and have never got out
OF sight of piles of mortar or out of hearing of
the sound of the trowel and the hammer
There Ii one ludicrous phase about the build
lngs in Denver, however, and that is the uni
versal custom of calling everything that is
built for business purposes a "block." If Mr..
Smith puts up a two-story structure with
couple of store rooms on the ground floor he
forthwith calls it 1.-The Smith Block unless
he desires more poetic cognomen. As a con-
sequence there are more blocks in Denver
than there are houses in Alexandria
There is another thing in which Denver is
pre-emlnent, and that is in its cable. electric
and street car system. Competent Judges de-
clare that the cable system in use here is the
finest in existence. There are 35 miles of cable
| roads in daily operation, and the question that
has been bothering eastern communities for so
many years-that Of rapid transit-has been
completely solved here, and in the last two
years at that. remember that when
the question of the introduction of the
cable system was first agitated in
Washington that the chief objections were
the numerous curves and steep grades
which characterized the existing stree. rail-
ways, and it was seriously asserted that these
| alleged obstacles could not be overcome. lam
now III position to appreciate the absurdity
OF such objections. The cable cars here whirl
around corners whose angles are as sharp as
any of those on the Sixth Avenue Elevated road
IN New York, and great deal more acute than
would be necessary in Washington, and they
slide up grades to which that of Capitol Hill
would be as an infant to a full-grown man.
The electric lines In operation cover about
seven miles and have just commenced running.
They are so popular that the cable companies
are seriously considering the wisdom of max
ing electricity the motive power ON their sys-
tens. The horse cars traverse every nook and
corner OF the city, and, in q word there is not
portion OF Denver or its suburbs that is not
accessible by fve-cent fare conveyances.
MUD OR DUST.
WIN tuc tACcptiOu VI blT66IS Denver Is
well nigh all that city should be. Its thorough
fares are disgrace to any community 50 far as
the wagon ways are concerned. They are guilt
less OF paving, and wet weather are vertable
mud puddles, while in dry times it requires the
constant use OF scores of street sprinklers to
lay the dust and prevent its choking pedestri-
ans to death. But wet weather here is a phe-
nomenon. In the last thrty-nine DAYS
including today, there has been but
two slight showers, or rather sprinkles
neither of which lasted more than
five minutes or suftced to even wet the earth
sufficiently to lay the dust. The street evil
Will be shortly remeded, however, as the city
council passed an ordinance last night provid-
ing for the paving of 18th and 10Th streets with
asphalt, and the other streets will shortly be
attended to in a similar manner. The adop-
ton of asphalt on the two streets named
was reached only after a very bitter
Tight IN which citizens and newspapers
alike took sides. The Republican took
up cudgels in favor of asphalt, claiming
that 1t was best adapted for this climate; that
1t was noiseless and had been practically DEM
onsrated to be the most economic pave
ment in cities all over the world. The Ne,rs
the other big morning paper here, entered
the arena as the champion of Colorado
stone, claiming that it would make a
lar superior pavement, and that all
things being even, stone should be adopted,
as thereby home industry would be fostered and
the prosperity Of the state substantially ad-
vaneed. The citizens were for the time being
not democrats and republicans, but asphalt
and stone" men. The action of the council