The Anaconda standard., 1895-12-16
RICH CRIPPLE CREEK
Only the High Places Are Touched at
the Modern El Dorado.
A TYPICAL WESTERN CAMP
Impressions OF q Visitor to the
Mining Town In the Valley West
OF Mount PIsgah Money
on Every Side.

Buffalo. N. Y, Dec. 15-The Express
prints this dispatch from its special
agent in Cripple Creek: This is the
most wonderful town In the country
to-day. Several thousand people I'LL
this little valley to. the west of Mt.
Pisgah. where five years ago there
were only grazing cattle and lonely
ranch house over on the edge of the
hills. And they are all here with but
one thought, one object, which arouses
all their energies-gold. And there is
gold by the tons. The hills are filled
with It. 1t glistens in almost every up
turned sod. 1t sparkles in every piece
of rock that comes from the shafts of
the mines. 1t has enriched hundreds
of poor men, and II bids fair to make
hundreds of rich ones paupers. 1t sets
a pace that has never been equaled
since the palmy days of Leadville. 1t
has made a town in a month. It has
turned this quiet and once lonely
mountain valley into the liveliest place
| in the West. Its mines are the richest
| in the world. They are richer than the
| old prospectors of the state ever
| dreamed of finding. They are produc-
ing more gold than the whole of West
Australia. This is the Ell Dorado.
1t is at night that this town is In its
| glory. All night long the theaters,
dance halls and faro rooms are in full
blast. II you take a Midland train
| from Colorado Springs in the early
evening you see Cripple Creek at Its
best. The train climbs UP some thou
sands of feet from the plains, winds
through long tunnels cut in the hills.
and lands you at Gillette Gillette has
| half a dozen stores and a few shanties.
but the stage coaches outnumber the
buildings. They are old coaches that
| once were driven through the noun
| tains to the mining camps of pioneer
| days. Some of them are almost falling
to pieces from age. Some of them. and
| their drivers as well, have passed
| through all sorts of experiences. They
have been held up by desperadoes, pur-
sued by Indians and riddled by bullets.
| They have carried men, who had all
their lives been penniless, to fortune
Thay have carried Tabor, Stratton and
dozens of other millionaires in the last
80 years from poverty to wealth. Not
even the famous Deadwood coach has
such a history as some of these.
You can either climb up to the top or
pile in with the crowd of eager fortune
hunters inside. Then the driver cracks
his long whip over the heads of the
six horses and you rattle away over
the rough mountain road. You pass
through groves of waving aspen and
past hills whose sides are honeycombed
| with prospect holes, and at last you
find yourself at the top of a big hill
| where the driver swings his whip over
the tagging horses and the coach
shoots down the steep road like a bolt
from a catapault. And then you lool
down before you and you see a rolling
valley hemmed in by the hills, and
down in the center the twinkling light:
of the town. And beyond, through the
hills to the north you see the lights al
the mines, scattered here and there
and to the right the glistening. snowy
top of Pisgah. 1t was at Pisgah once
in an evil hour that a man who wa
| never heard of before or after started
the first gold excitement of that par
| of the mountains. He scattered golt
| ore here and there, and he sold land I,
the excited people who found the ore
| And then, when these deluded people
dug and found no more gold. he left tn,
| country for parts unknown. II he has
| but dreamed that few miles ava,
from where he worked his swindl
there were millions of dollars worth o
gold!
The stage will carry you to the Pal
ace hotel. the business center of tn
town. 1t is a plain, red-brick. two
story building, but II was a gorgeou
place for those rough miners, who FIRE
quented IL when IL was built. Insid
this dingy building you see a crowd o
roughly-d dressed men. Some of then
are miners, some spectators. som
men who have made thousands in
month, some who have just arrived
who are about to enter the wild rae
for wealth. There is a row of black
boards around the main room. and o.
| these are the latest stock quotations
| 1t Is a sight worth seeing-the eager
| restless men, who watch these board.
| Behind the rails around them are
few shrewd-looking men. who sit ther
hour after hour, showing no excite
ment, not noticing the eagerness an
| excitement around them. They ar
men who have already found success,
and are manipulating the stocks fc
the benefit of the hundreds who war
to speculate.
Then YOU can stroll down the mai
street of the place where rows of saddl
horses are tied to hitching posts. an
drop in at one of the dance halls. Their
is a fiddler and a man playing
piano seated together on a raised plat
form in the rear. and on the sande
floor a great crowd of miners, wit
trousers tucked into their boots. dane
, ing with girls in short dresses TIL
music goes on and on as the hours TO
by. and not for a moment does
cease. Midnight comes and goes. bu
the dancers are still there. The girl
with their faces covered with pair
and powder. dance and laugh and sinl
and the men who stand around th
dancers shout and beat time with the
| feet while the room gets blue wit