The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-25
SOCIETY IN CREEDE, COL.
INCIDENTS OF LIFE IN THE TOWN
BUILT AROUND "HOLY NOSES"

district before he came to Willow Gap; he
began prospecting there on Campbell, now
Moses Mount. with G.. L. Smith Of Salida.
One OF the two picked up piece Of rock so
full or quartz that they sunk shaft imme-
diately below the spot where they had
found the stone According to all known
laws, they should have sunk the shaft at
the spot from which the piece Of rock had
become detached, or from where 1t had pre-
sumably rolled. 1t was as absurd to dig for
silver where they did dig as it would be to
sink shaft in Larimer street, in Denver, be
cause one had found silver quarter lying
in the roadway. But they dug the shaft,
and when they looked upon the result OF the
tirss days work, Smith cried, Great Cod"
| and Creole said, holy Moses" aud the
Holy Moses mine was named. When | was
in Creole that gentleman was offered
81, 250, 900 for his share OF this mine and de-
cltned it. After that my interest IN him
fell away. Any man who will live in
log house at the foot of a mountain and
drink melted snow any longer than he has
TO do so, or refuse that much money for
anything when he could live In the Knick-
erbocker fats and drive forth in a private
hanson with rubber tires is no longer an
object OF special interest.
WARM SLEEPING CAR.
At the time | visited Creole it was quite
impossible to secure a bed in any Of the
hotels or lodging houses The Pullman cars
were the only available sleeping places, and
rented out their berths for the night they
laid over at the mining camp. But even in
these sleeping was precarious, as one gentle
man found the night after my arrival. He
was mistaken for another man who had
picked up bag of gold dust from faro
table at Little Delmonlco's. and who had
al ..A~ Al
the pine board facade in the Mint gambling
house 10 which he was supposed to have
sought shelter, several citizens followed
him on to the sleeping car, and, of course,
pulled the wrong man out of his berth, and
stood him up IN the aisle in front of four re-
volvers, while the porter and the other
wrong men shivered under their
blankets, and begged them from behind the
closed curtains 70 take him outside before
they began shooting. The camp was di-
vided in his opinion on the following MORN
ing as to whether the joke was on the pass
| seDger or on the hssty citizens
MAKING MONEY BETWEEN MAPS.
A party Of younger sons from the east
took pity upon me and gave me a bunk in
their grub stake cabin. where had the sat-
isfaction of watching the son of president
of the Somerset Club light the fire with
kerosene while the rest OF US remained I'M
der the blankets and asked him to be careful.
They we're most hospitaOle, cheerful lot.
| When it was 50 cold that the water was
| frozen in the basin they would elect to re.
main in bed all day, and would mark up the
prices they intended to ask for their lots
and claims 300 each; and then, considering
| this fair days wages for a hard days
work, would go warmly to sleep again.
1t is Interesting, chiefly to mothers and
| sisters-for the fathers aud brothers have
an unsympathetic way OF saying sit is the
| best thing for hlm"-to discover how
| quickly such carefully bred youths as one
constantly meets In the mining camps and
| ranches of the west can give up the COM
| forts and habits of years and ft into their
| surroundings It is instructive and hopeful
| to watch young man who can and has
| ordered numerous dinners at Bignon's
| composing a dessert Of bread and mo-
lasses. and to see how neatly a Yale
| graduate of one years standing can sweep
! the mud from the camp floor without
| spreading it.
! IL people at home could watch these
| young exies gorge themselves with their
| letters, page at time, and then go over
them again word by word. they would
| write early and often; and if the numerous
| young women of New York and Boston
! could know that their photographs were
the only bright spots in q log cabin filled
with cartridge belts, picks, saddles, foot
| ball sweaters. patent medicine bottles and
three months old magazines, they would be
moved with great content.
| WEREN'T ALWAYS ovERALLs.
| One cannot always discern the true CHAR
I acter of ones neighbors in the west.
"Dress," as Bob Acres says, docs make a
| difference" There were four very rough
| looking men Of different ages sitting at
table near me in one of the restaurants or
| "eatinR houses" of Creede. They had
| marked out map on the soiled table cloth
| with the point OF an iron fork, and one of
them was laying down the law concerning
| 1t. There seemed to be a dispute concern
| ing the lines OF the claim or the direction in
which the vein ran. 1t was no business Of
| mine, and there was so much OF that talk
| that l should not have been attracted to
| them. except that l expected from their
! manner they might at any moment come to
| blows or begin shooting. l finished before
they did, and as I passed the table over
which they leaned scowling excitedly the
older man cried, with his finger on the
| map:
| Then Thompson passed the ball back to
memo, not your Thompson; Thompson of
| 10 l meau-and carried it down the field
| all the way TO the 25-yard line. Then Can
field, who was playing full, tackled me; but
/ shook him OFF, and -"
| l should like to have waited to hear
| whether or not he made his touchdown.
SOME NOTABLE CITIZENS.
met several prominent citizens while in
| Creole and found them affable, Billy
! Woods fights, or used to fight at 2l0 pounds
| aud rejoices in the fact that New York
| paper once devoted five columns to his per-
| sonality. His reputation saves him the ex-
penss Of paying men to keep order. Bob
! Ford, who shot Jesse James, was another
prominent citizen of my acquaintance. He
| does not look like a desperate, but has
loutish, apologize air, which Is explained
by the fact that he shot jesse James In the
| back when the latter was engaged in the
innocent work Of hanging picture on the
wall Ford has never quite recovered
from the fright he received when he
| found out who it was that he had killed.
Bat Masterson was of an entirely diff
ferent class. He dealt for Watrous, and has
killed twenty-eight men, once three
together One night when he was off duty
| saw drunken man slap his face and the
silence was 50 great that we could hear the
electric light sputter in the next room. but
Masterson only laughed and told the man
to come back and do it again when he was
| sober.
CLEVER PISTOL PRACTICE.
There were also some very good shots at
Creole and some very bad ones. OF these
latter was James Powers. who emptied his
| revolver and Rad Brothers store at the
same time without doing any damage. he