The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-09-12
LAND Of CRIPPLE CREEK
How it Looks Down in q Gold
Mine After Dark, as Seen by a
Close Observer.

Town and the People Who
Live There. @
What Was Lost by the Fire
and the Way the People
Recovered.
The gold regions are the only live part
Of the United States today, writes Frank
Carpenter, from Cripple Creek. Business
is dull in the cities. The factory fires in
many parts OF the country are dead. The
farmers are grumbling at hard times and
the laborars are either out OF work or al
most ready to strike for more wages. This
is not so in the Rockies. New prospects
are being opened and the output ct gold
from the Cripple Creek district is aver
aging about a million dollars Il month
There are thirty thousand men now liy-
ing and working within Il radius Of six
miles Of this town and what five years
ago was a cattle ranch has become one Of
the busiest parts of the United States.
Miners now receive from So to $3.50 a
day, and the mines are worked by day
and by night.
; You. hear little talk OF politics and little
growing about the business depression.
Every one is crazy for gold, and the chief
subjects OF conversation are the outputs
OF the mines or the new strikes which are
promised on the hills all about you,
/ / wish ! could show you lhis Cripple
Creek region. It lies, you know. just
back of Pixies Peak and as the crow flies,
within less than one hundred miles Of
Denver. Tt is two miles straight UP in
the ;,i1 above the people who live on the
edge OF the sea, and its great gold treas
ures 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 aud full of
ozcne. You seem to be breathing cham
pagne, and you go on and on climbing
the hills hour after hour until the night
comes, when you find all at once that the
stimulating atmosphere has worked your
system to more than its full and you are
ready to drop. Cripple Creek itself lies
in a 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 com
posed of mountains which rise gradually
upward until the peaks almost reach the
clear blue sky.
F The whole region surrounding the town
contains gold. From it, in 1891, was
shipped 100000 worth of ore. In 1892
the shipments jumped to $500, 600; in 1898
to $1,000, 900, and last to more than 49,
100000. The output this year promises
to be at least one-third larger than that
of 1895, and now the hills on every side
are loneycombed with hoes. You could
not chase 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 con-
tanned the wonderful lamp. The hills are
covered with rocks, nearly all of which
contain a. small proportion Of gold and
the very streets of the town are underlaid
built upon the rocks, and the stony
~ ~ L.
told, worth from $5 TO $40 per cubic yard
II the processes of reducing low-grade
gold continues to improve, the town may
sometime have to be moved for the gold
upon which it stands. A friend OF urine
took me behind a building in the heart, OF
the city the other day, and in the wall Of
the excavation showed me strata of
light color running through the darker
rock
..That," said he, Contains gold. and it
would pay to mine it. You can follow the
vein and see how it crops out here in the
alley behind ~
That same afternoon met Mr.. Frances,
the, editor Of the Cripple Greek Mining
Journal. He took me- through the little
pine building in which his paper is got
ten ont and then showed me in his back
yard shaft, about which there was a
pile of dirt.
.'That shaft said he. marks pros
poet which our newspaper company
owns. Some Of The rock mas assayed 500
q ton, and it may be very rich lower
down.
The town of Cripple Greek is wonder.
1t is les than five years Old, but it con-
tains j12 900 people. 1t was burned down
three months ago, but it is now fast be-
IAS lCUNllL. EOIlC nc14 Us VI IL die US.lls5
substantially constructed, and the peo-
pie are evidently here to stay. Today it
is a hodge-podge Of a town. 1t has all
kinds of buildings, made. of all sorts of
materials, thrown together in Ill sorts Of
shapes. The town lies on the sidesiof the
hills 1t is laid out along streets which are
filed with dust i'll 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 OH the sidewalk
and almost reach over the roofs Others
are substantial tWo-story brick buildings,
and All excavation is now being made for
a hotel which will cost over s1OO, 900 to
build. The cellar has to be dug out with,
blasting powder, and every foot of the
rock is drilled and blown out with dyna-
mite There is gold in the granite that is
thrown out, 1t is true, but it is Of too low
la grade to pay for smelling 1t. A little
further on rock has been blasted out: for
a, mining exchange, and good buildings
are. going up in every part Of The town.
ALI of the main streets have wide board
walks, which are filled with men from
daylight s. unit midnight, and along
" Whichg you may see many peop.e moving
during the wee small hours Of thesmor
Ing. What a cosmopo,if tan crowd at,is that
walks these Streets: here are French
men, Germans, Eng glish and AmeIicansi !
cowboys from the Yest and tenderfeet
from ths East moving a,ong to and fro.
trying toskeep sollt of the dust. There are