The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-23
a CITY OF "LUNGERS"
Pursuit. OF Pleasure and Speculation
Keep Colorado Springs Busy

Colorado Springs, COL, Sept. 21.-A city.
Of "lungers' whose principal industries
are the pursuit of pleasure and gambling
IN mining stocks-that is Colorado
Springs. The man who meets you Is
from the east-"just out here for my
lungs for few months" he explains.
"This lung" he continues in strong. res
onant tones, sis all right" Then shifting
his hand to the other side Of his chest,
and altering his voice to hoarse whis-
per- 'this one is quite bad
Brilliant sunshine, the blue mountains
just over there, and city laid out like
park, Is the sum Of the first impress
s1ons. 1t never rains, but along the gut
ter is a busy ditch filled with muddy
water, and the never failing hose keeps
the smooth lawns like emeralds A glis-
tening white hotel looms up in the midst
of an open square
There is nothing in Colorado Springs
but money. When the party of twenty
five Washington correspondents dropped
in the other day in pursuit Of their 1rri-
cation Investigations, nothing was easier
than to muster fifteen touring car auto
mobiles to rush them around the town.
If thirty had been needed they would have
been provided. The mayor extended the
welcome and suspended the speed or
dinance, to the joy Of the owners Of the
devil wagons, and the imminent peril
Of the humble guests.
In Colorado Springs they talk in mill
lions. The place Is tributary to the Grip
pie Creek gold camp. and everybody plays
at business by dabbling in the gold stocks
Aside from any inherent values repre-
sented by the latter, the certificates have
a fictitious and speculative value, based
upon confidence, hope and those ingre-
dents which go to make up ''booms,"
and the owners are one day millionaires
on paper, and the next day have to draw
on their bank accounts, and the rent
rolls Of their eastern properties. Just
now the boom is ''off' Cripple Creek
Not but what the real mining properties
in that wonderful city are as rich as ever
and turning out the same amount of gold
not that there Is any less prosperity in
the Cripple Creek district but the stock
which was issued on the strength of a
ten-foot hole in the ground, and the story
of some pro oector, does not happen to be
in SO great demand at present. But all
the good people here have bales Of it
stored away and it is to them what a.
ticket in the Louisiana lottery was to
those who used to patronize that indus
try. It Is q chance in thousand that
something will be found that will make
the holders Of that stock many times mil
lionaires
Colorado Springs is an excellent Mlustra-
ton Of a strictly prohibition town which
does not prohibit. No liquor may be sold
anywhere on any condition, and even the
real estate deeds contain the prohibitive
clauses. But nobody goes thirsty. Cock
tails for banquet Of hundred plates
can be had on doctors prescription. There
are three or four country clubs and golf
clubs, and there are no better appointed
ones in any city in the country. There
is good theater, and the best companies
drop in on their way from Denver to the
east. In short, Colorado Springs has all
the Injuries Of home
Altogether, the exiled Hunger who is
doomed to Colorado Springs requires no
vast amount Of sympathy.