The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-06

up in the air above the people who
live on the edge of the sea, and it's
great gold treasures lie, as it were,
on the very roof of the United States.
You are very close to the sky. The
air is so clear that you can see many
miles. 1t is dry and pure and full Of
ozone. You seem. to be breathing
champagne, and you go on and on
climbing the hills hour after hour I'M
til the night comes, when you find all
at once that the stimulating atmos-
phere has worked your system to more
than it's full and you are ready to drop.
Cripple Creek itself lies in nest in
these hills. The country surrounding
it is in some places not much wilder
than parts of Pennsylvania, New York
and Ohio, and in others it is composed
of mountains which rise gradually up
clear blue sky.
STREETS OF CRIPPLE CREEK.
The whole region surrounding the
town contains gold. From it, in 1891,
was shipped 100000 worth of ore. In
1892 the shipments jumped to 100000;
In 1893 to $2,500,00 and last to more
than $S,000000. The output this year
promises to be at least one-third larger
than that of 1895, and now the hills on
every side are honeycombed with holes.
You could not chase a fox over any
one of the old grazing fields without
breaking your horses legs. Here and
there you see great shafts standing
out against the blue sky with piles of
rock beside them. These are working
mines, and those big frame buildings
which frown down upon you from the
hills are more productive of gold than
was Aladdin's palace when it contained
the wonderful lamp. The hills are
covered with rocks, nearly all Of which
contain small proportion of gold,
and the very streets. of the town are
underlaid with low7grade ore. Cripple
Creek is built upon~t the rocks, and the
stony streets over which you walk are.
I am told, worth from SIS to $40 per
cubic yard. If the processes of reduc-
ing low-grade gold continues to- i'm
prove, the town may some time have
to be moved for the gold upon which
it stands. A friend of mine took me
behind building In the heart of the
city the other day and In the wall or
the excavation showed me strata of
light color running through the darker
rock.
it would pay to mine it, You can fol-
low the vein and see how 1t crops out
here in the alley beyond.
That same afternoon l met MIR.
Frances, the editor of the Cripple Creek
Mining Journal He took me through
the little pine building in which his
paper is gotten out and then showed
me in his back yard shaft, about
which there was a pile or dirt.
'"That shaft" said he, marks pros
pect which our newspaper company
owns Some of the rock has assayed
$40 a ton. and 1t may be very rich
lower down.
CRIPPLE CREEK AND THE FIRE.
The town Of Cripple Creek is a Won
der. 1t is less than five years old, but
it contains $4,000 people. 1t was burned
down three months ago, but 1T is now
fast being rebuilt. Some parts of 1t are
being substantially constructed, and
the people are evidently here to stay
Today it is hodge podge or a town. 1t
has all kinds of buildings, made OF all
sorts of materials thrown together IN
all sorts OF shapes. The town lies on the
sides of the hills 1t is laid out along
wide streets which are filed with dust
in the summer and which in the winter
become almost rivers of mud. Some OF
the shops in its business section are
more like store boxes than houses. You
can stand on the sidewalk and almost
reach over the roofs. zOthers are sub
stantial two-storyl brick buildings, and
an excavation is now being made for
a hotel which wills cost S100, 900 to build
The cellar has to be dug out with blast
ing powder, and every foot Of the rock
is drilled and blowH 0uttwith dynamite.
There is gold in the granite that is
thrown out. it is truegbut it is of too
low a grade to pay fot% smelling it. A
little further on rock has been blasted
out for mining Exchange, and good
buildings are going upgin every part of
the town. All of the nfHin streets have
wide board walks, (which are filled with
men from daylight until midnight, and
along which you may see many people
moving during the wee small hours of
the morning What Al cosmopolitan
crowd it is that walks these streets.
They are Frenchrber. Germans, Eng
lish and Americans; cowboys from the
West and tenderfeet from the East
moving along to and fro.- trying to
keep out of the dust There are men In
vefyeteenss with laced boots coming up
to their knees, and there are men in
hcmespun who tramp past you IN cow
hides. There is the plug hat Of the Wall
street broker, the bicycle cap of the
clerk and the sonbrero of the bad man
from Texas mixed in and cut with the
mass. Every enc moves fast. There Is
some pushing and showing. but you are
surprised at the good eEdsr severyHhere.