The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-05-05
EUROPEAN BLUE BLOOD IN COLO
RADIO

RADIO.
Eastern people have little idea of the
great number of younger sons of Brit
ish and European noblemen who have
come to this part of the state either to
seek their fortunes or avoid the igno-
miny their poverty might bring upon
them in their native land, or escape the
| consequences of youthful indiscretions
to which the sons of great foreign fami-
lies seem to be prone.
Down at the entrance to Cheyenne
! Canyon, three miles from the lonely
spot where Helen Hunt Jackson was
buried, there is an estate of hundreds of
acres owned by Count Pourtales, Ger
man. He came here to increase a
fortune which was beginning to dwin-
die in the old country and to improve
| his health. He brought with him his
| pretty young wife. She had been
| leader in the most fashionable society
| in Germany and was noted for her
| beauty, but here she went into compar-
ative retirement. There were plenty of
social functions at the Springs, but they
did not interest her. Her husband, in
| company with several business men,
! built the big BrOadmoor Casino on his
domains, and attached to it a gorgeous
restaurant, parlors, dancing-h halls and
| barroom. 1t was a magnificent build
ing, built entirely of wood, with broad
porches along the front and rear. He
built little artificial lake in the shad-
oW of the mountains, and the white
capped peaks were reelected in it's wa
ters. He ran an electrician line out
past it. and he hired a German band to
play on it's banks. People could sit on
the porches of the Casino and listen to
the music and watch the boats on the
lake. 1t was delightful place. Then,
after it was all completed, he admitted
the public at fifty cents a head and
made money. But he was more shrewd,
energetic, far sighted and fortunate
than most of the noble foreigners. He
was only one out of one hundred of
them or their sons or relatives who at
tanned much success financially.
In Colorado Springs there are two or
three baronets in pretty poor circum-
stances. They usually do not wish to
be known as having titles. One of
them, at least, is known only to very
few people as nobleman. They live
quietly and economically and pass their
time away playing polo.
| But the spot where the impoverished
noblemen or their sons or second sons
are most numerous is a few miles
above here in Wet Mountain Valley.
Of late years it has been called the
I Valley of the Second Sons. 1T is literal
ly filled with degenerate noblemen and
their sons and relatives. Only the
poorest of them have come to this val
ley. Some Of them have bought land,
on which they have built themselves
little homes. They live the same kind
of lives as the ranchmen round about
them, chop their own wood, milk their
cows and raise their own vegetables.
They have parted with all the luxuries
of civilization. They wear old clothes
and big sombreros, and it is hard to tell
some of them from the ordinary I'M
couth mountaineer. A stranger goes
into the valley sometimes and meets
one Of these second sons, or, it may be,
a nobleman himself, and, after making
his acquaintance and treating him in
the same informal way with which he
might treat any of the ranchmen there
abouts, is greatly surprised to learn in
some roundabout way that his new
friend is a person Of such distinction.
1t has become quite common thing
for impoverished noble families in Eng
land to send all the sons but the heir to
many of them here already that it
must seem most like home to them.
They are a pleasant lot of men, and
they enjoy life. Most of them are hav-
ing a much better time in the lonely
spot in the mountains than they ever
had before in their lives One of them,
in conversation with the writer, once
said: This is the best thing in the
world that could happen to us. If we
had stayed in the old country we would
never have amounted to anything any
way, and we wouldn't have had half as
good time. It's a perpetual vacation
for US here Some of us are making
money and are in a fair way to be
pretty well to do in q few years. There
are a great many opportunities for
speculation here that we would never
: have found in England. I, myself, have
made little fortune of twenty thou
sand dollars since coming here a few
J., years ago. 7 had only three hundred
5 dollars in my pocket when I got here
and an allowance of thirty dollars a
month from home. I think 1 am safe in
saying that there is not single Eng
lishman in this valley, no matter what
sort of life he has left behind him, who
is not glad he's here."-Florissant (Col.)
Correspondence of the Buffalo Express