Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-09-24
Curious Cripple Greek.
EDITOR WHITE DESCRIBES THIS
WONDERFUL WESTERN
MINING CAMP.
Five Years Ago 1t Was q Cattle Ranch
Some Facts About Denvsr-How
the Women Dabble in Poll
tics in Colorado.
itorial Correspondence of the Ledger.

Editorial Correspondence Of the Ledger.
CRIPPLE CREEK, Colo, Sept. 15.-
There are so many pla ,es worthy of q
visit in Colorado that it keeps the
writer hustling to make connections.
Travel in the night and sight see in
the daylight is the way to economic
your time. Everybody who comes to
Colorado takes in Cripple Greek and
it is wonderful little city.
1t is gold field second to none in
the world. Discoveries are made here
every day that make poor men rich;
but if the visitor expects to see the
old miner "bearded like a pard," !"
feasting his eyes on nuggets of gold,
he will look in vain; and if he expects
to see the revolver, the bowie knife
and the Winchester, as furnishings for
men, he will be disappointed. The
Cripple Greek crowd might have wan
dered out of Chicago for all its dress
and manners tell of it. 1t is hust-
ling crowd, and all sorts of old friends
are in it. The faces in the hurrying
throng are clean and quick the clothes
are well cut and well set. The stage
settings are sometimes rude. The
seamy side of many pine structure
is visible to the naked eye. But the
actors themselves, like the dukes and
ladies who stalk across the boards
where "Uncle Tom" hobbled the night
before, are SO we'll kept that the con-
trast is distinctly apparent.
The town is equipped with water
works, electric light and sewers. A
street car line has been surveyed, and
cottages, with all the comforts that
plumbing can bring, are going up
every day. The hotels and restau-
rants spread as tempting tables as
those of any place in the Mississippi
Valley. Venison, Holsters, pheasants
and quail land fresh mushrooms, straw
berries and tomatoes are among the
delicacies that lie in the windows of
the markets. The old-time "grub' of
the mining camp is not heard of in
Cripple Creek. The town is up-to-
date. There are two daily papers. A
telephone system and the two COM
n1ercial telegraph companies connect
the district with the outer world. Two
book stores sell the latest Fantasies
in decadent art and literature. The
dry goods stores have "linen saleso
and 'ssilk saies'' every week. The
bargain counter greets the economical
family man who thought he was fee
ing to "some vast wilderness"
The man who comes to Cripple
Greek looking for the picturesque,
will have to look beneath the surface.
The most picturesque sight in Cripple
Creek is the sweet thing in corduroys,
leather leggings, white hat and hunt
ing jacket, and immaculate linen,
stumbling down the street, reading
the uncut magazine, and jostling
against the crowd. That is the short
of it all. There is no frontier. The
railway has abolished it. Cripple Greek
is as civilized as towns whcreon the
moss of centuries has gathered. Yet
where the town of Cripple Greek now
lies crumpled in a pocket of the
mountains, a cattle ranch, five years
ago, occupied the land. For twenty
years the ranch was undisturbed in
possession, save when the Mount Pis-
gah boom Ca salted BOOM broke the
solitude for two days in 1884. In 1889
an occasional prospector, with pick
and drill, strayed into the camp. For
years Robert Womack had been dig
ging holes all over the ranch looking
for mineral. But no one paid any at
tention to him. AS the other pros
pectors kept coming in SO many holes
went down that cattle fell in, and the
cattle upon that creek were shipped
to market manned and crippled. From
this circumstance, it is said, the name
tCripple Creek" was derived. To
keep out prospectors the cattle men
laid off the place into town lots, which
they put on the market at $50 apiece,
as prohibitory price. The prospect
ors gobbled up the lots and called for
more.
From 1891 the district may be said
to have a place in mining history, but
not until 1892 was the output sufficient
to be recorded. Then 1t amounted to
$500, 200. In 1895 1t was ss, ,000, 900.
1t is proper to state that a specula-
tive boom is under way in Cripple
Greek mining stocks. No one pre-
tends that this boom win last forever,
but the success of Cripple Greek does
not depend upon the market price of
its stocks. The existence of phe-
nomenal deposit of gold has been con-
clusively established. The fact that
there may be worthless Cripple Creek
stocks in eastern markets has no bear
ing on the actual and permanent val
ues of the numerous rich strikes.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of
outside capital are being sent to Colo
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