Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-01-30

CARTERSNlLLE,G Ga, Jan. ~ IS0z.
~ ARRIVED home Saturday morn
ing from "trip through Colorado.
spent two days at Cripple Creek.
the great mining camp of the Unit
ed States.
This city stands at a level of 1880
feet above the level of the sea. A TEL
lows heart beats about 30 more II
seems to me to the minute, and the
atmosphere is so rare and light that 1t
does not seem good for breathing pur-
poses. liked everything about Cripple
Creek better than ! did the atmos-
phere, though you could get up on
mountain and see a hundred miles
through the bright, clear atmosphere
around you. The trip made from Colo
RADIO Springs to Cripple Creek is over
the new railroad. The first 20 miles
rises 400 feet, a uniform grade Of 200
feet to the mile. The trains moved as
smoothly and the ride was as pleasant
as any ride on the New York Central.
The scenery worthy of the imagination
of the poet, the powers of the philos-
opher, che memories or the historian,
and the brush of the painter and the
chisel of the sculptor. No grander or
more imposing sights were ever looked
upon by mortal eye. The distance from
Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek is
As miles by rail- and about 20 miles on
an air line found Cripple Creek, in
stead of a little shanty. mining town, a
beautiful city of 1900 OF 1900 peo-
pie, with Victor and other beautiful
towns around near by. / met up with
some old friends there who were ION
to it," and spent the morning and af-
ternoon of one day going through the
Ell1ton and the Mary Mckinney gold
= -
which moves like the elevator in the
Empire building in Atlanta, we de-
seended 200 feet, and then got out of
the elevator and walked the tunnels.
I saw more gold than ever saw be-
fore or since. In the Mary Mckinney
mine there seemed to be, by the Judg-'
ment of experts who were with me,
four millions of dollars Of gold in sight
The Ellxton also was loaded down with
the rich, metal. The blasting, the,
drilling, the tram cars, the immense
machinery, all busy drawing out rocks
from the ore mines, whose value was
from SIS to $4,000 per ton.
I have had but little conception OF a
great gold mine After this 1 will
know what gold mine is. One of the
proprietors of the Mary Mckinney
gold mine went through the mines
with us, Mr.. George L. Keener. / asked
him why he did not hurry and get all
the gold ore out. He said in, reply:
Had we not better keep it here? Is
It not safer here than in the bank? >
We get out all we want to and bank
the rest right here. This is Gods
bank" he said ''This sort of bank
don't break" Judge Albert Frost was
one Of the company. Mr.. d. NJ. Gray,
an assayist, was valuable company
along with us So also was Mr.. r. c.
Getch, an old-time friend of mine from
West Virginia.
1 shall never forget the hours spent
with these splendid gentlemen in the
Mary Mckinney mine. l walked out
of that mine feeling like a poor man,
but glad in my heart that Gods hanks
were so great and gold was so plenti-
full.
Another thing 1 found at Cripple
Creek was good order. splendid citl-
zenship. good hotels. beautiful resi-
dences, magnificent stores. 1 have not
visited a more orderly town anywhere.
Labor there is all union labor and the
minimum wage for anybody VINO
works is three dollars a day. and
ranges UP 70 five and six, and eight
hours IS a days work. The railroad
brakemen running into that town get
three dollars a uay. street car con-
ductors three dollars day, motormen
the same Even track hands get three
dollars a day. Those wages were sur
prising to a southern man. Then,
again, 1 found living not near so dear
there as I had expected. Railroad
rates are cheap, and man can live as