The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-26
PRAIRIES AND ROCKIES.
SIGHTS AND SCENES IN FAR FAMED
COLORADO.

Notes About Chicago-Denver's Won
derful Growth--Extraordina Ad-
vance in Real Estate-Magnificent
Buildings-Colorado springs-A Re-
sort for 75, 900 People Year-Grand
Scenery of the Rocky Mountains
Travellers from All the World.
In THE HEART OF THE Rocky MOUNT
AIMS, COLORADO, May 24-Chicago received
us in her ususual style--first, a cold, pene-
trating wind Off the lake. and then damp,
drizzling fog. These were not mentioned
among the attractions Of Chicago for the
worlds fair, but there they are, and the
visitors in 1898 had better keep close to
their umbrellas ana overcoats, even if the
day should accidentally open with sunshine.
Everybody knows, suppose, that when
you strike west from the Windy City there
lies between you and the Rocky mountains
a belt of thousand miles in width of
monotonous prairie, both treeless and shrub
less. 1t extends from Canada southwark
to Texas, so that all the Pacific roads are
compelled to cross it. Over these vast
prairies once wandered the tribes of red
men and herds of buffalo, at whose i'm
mense numbers the imagination grows be-
wildered. An old miner and frontiersman,
upon whose ranch am now staying, in
forms me that in the '60s he has seen herds
of buffalo so numerous that he has Travelled
for three days through them
with thousands in sight every hour of the
day. The first train into Denver
reached that city on June Is.
1870, and for several years thereafter it
was not an uncommon matter for the train
to be several hours late on account of the
troops of buffalo crossing the track. This
will give us some faint appreciation of the
vast multitude of these monarchs of the
plain that once wandered over these great
prairieS, going north in summer and to the
south in winter And now in the year
1889, government report informs us that
there are only 125 buffaloes in existence,
most of them in the reservation ct Yellow
Stone park. The destruction of them began
with the forty-niners, as they journed across
the country to the gold mines of California,
but as they only destroyed for their own use
their ravages scarcely equalled the natural
increase. And the same with the sports
man, who hunted them for sport. The real
| destruction began In the '70s, when a con-
servative estimate tells us that there were
10000 to *, 600 men for several years on the
Pl dltACo 0uuOluk blctu lOI buolE ulQco anu
leaving the carcasses to rot upon the prairies;
and the average to each man was from 400
| to 200 year. This at the lowest figure
| makes the annual destruction 4, 1000, 900, and
| at the highest "a, ,000, ,0O0 Thus barbarously
and wastefully did manmake way with what
might have given food te,countless genera
tions. For years after their destruction the
plains for miles upon miles shone and glis-
tened, like snow field, from the whiteness
| 0f THAR hOpac until m erat tbara1 tha hOpao
from this great cemetery for commercial
uses, SO that now not one femur to tell Of
the glory of the great animals that man SO
ruthlessly destroyed remains to break the
monotony of journey across the plains.
MAGNIFICENT SCENERY.
At first, the very strangeness of the
scenery attracts The dry, level plains
| without a tree save the cottonwood raised
by the hands of mani shining under a
vernal sun, and looking for all the world
| like the vast unbroken surface of the sea
on hot summers day, merging itself off
| into the distant horizon; but soon the eye
| accustomed to the rich verdure of the south
| wearies of the dead monotony. We look for
ward to the crossing of the Mississippi river
as furnishing a change, butt still the same
| prairie; and then we hope that the Missouri
| river will certainly introduce some variety,
but when we find that there is no change,
but the same hot. dry landscape stretched
out indefinitely before US, we resign our
selves TO our condition, and henceforth give
our attention to a novel rather than
possible by irrigation, and when
properly irrigated the land is the finest in
| the country for corn and wheat; SO fertile,
indeed, that corn has been selling this spring
at IL cents bushel, and at that price is
certainly cheaper than fuel, when we con-
slider the absence of timber and the heavy
freight on coal. AS l write / see that a
| committee of congress, through Senator
! Reagan, has made report on these great
prairie lands, looking forward to their re-
clamation for agricultural purposes by a
| national system of irrigation. IL this could
be accomplished, and it is perfectly feasible,
| then millions Of acres would be thrown open
to the public use and the plain that now con-
stitutes our American Sahara would bloom
| and blossom as the rose. W ith an occasional
! glance upon the mysterious desert, and
| another upon a young dude from the east
who was endeavoring to impress himself
| upon an unsophist1cated maiden of the west
| within the car, we sped along to our des-
tination; here short stop for a few mo-
| ments to gather corn out of the queer long
and narrow barns that spotted the prairie
| and now and then alone upon the vast table.
land a single grave with its cross, swallowed
1 up Az bhC fdsb GOutASQAbJ OA odld-ttn GfoI
| present reminder of mans mortality; and
here and there, miles apart, a single light
| glittering in the darkness of the night that
told of human habitation. These were the
sole objects arousing our contemplation and
affording food for thought.
THE CITY OF DENVER.
And then suddenly, out of the dead leve
| of the prairie, arose-as if called out of the
earth by wand of some genie of the land
the city of Denver. 1 don't know why
but we expected to find Denver on the foo
hills of the Rockies, but instead of that the
city rises up in the midst of the prairie
And it fairly takes ones breath to think o
| city which in few years has grown from
population of $4,000 to that of 175, 900
more than trebling itself in so short space
of time. 1t is a "Prairie City," with streets
unpaved, destitute of that magnificent foil
age that gives to our own homes the fit title
of the Forest City, There are few man
planted trees, kept alive in summer by
trenches which hold the snow water
coming down from the mount
aims sixty miles away. And the
original Denver, which still remains to G
large extent, was town Of small, one-story
brick houses. but the genius of architecture
has struck this city of the plains, and now
immense buildings, hotels, stores, clubs ant
public edifices are rising on every hand Il
the hight of eight or ten stories. In few
years no city on this or any other continent