The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1908-07-03
WHERE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION as
SEMBLES NEXT WEEK
No Longer a Frontier Town, But a
Beautiful BuStling City
enver Correspondence N. Y. Evening Post

be during the day, and it is always q
perfectly dry heat, the delegates will
sleep under blankets at night. They
can sit outside their hotels and put VI
Jobs and swap stories until nine or ten
o'clock. but after that they will begin
to feel chilly, for they are then on
level with the highest peaks OF the
Adriondecks, although they haven't
vet reached even the foothills OF the
Rocky Mountains. A1s
If any of them gets up early IN the
morning, let him not throw out his
chest md start for before-breakfast
saunter to these foothills. Many
visitor to Denver has done that. The
hills look so enticing, only a few
blocks further than the end of the
street Wonder. That is a trick of the
atmosphere. The nearest foothills are
fourteen miles from the outskirts OF
the city. Eariy in the morning, when
there is no simmer in the air, and lit
tie smoke around the city, the lure OF
tie aills is remarkably deceptive
The Arid Platte.
The Platte River-riyer bed it should
really be cGlled--is a bit of riddle
ltSSIL. II IL, %lSO IhC uCoPo'i VI h"A
se.pe artists and bridge engineers
1t runs through rift in the rolling
prairie not far from the railroads as
they converge to the Union Depot
and for neG rly all the year can boast
of the noble depth of about four
inches. Here AMI there piles of tin
cans add to ifs backyard beauty. 1t
has a shifting bed from which a good
deal of gold was tcXen out in the
early days, and it trickles out of town
over quicksands and refuse and
meanders along into Nebraska and
adds yellow to tie grimy flow
of big Muddy" Once every very long
while some one tries to navigate it in
a canoe, for want of something better
to do. There is no use trying to coax
the Platte into any semblance of q
reasonable stream of water, for this
Is what happens:
Two black clouds float lazily toward
each other in the varying air currents
Of different attitudes above the foot
hills. 1t rarely rains in Colorado, yet
he State has one of the heaviest rain
'all averages in the Union, and the
small black clouds are the trouble.
Suddenly they come together. There
8 a roar and flash and those clouds
simply collapse. They come down in
sheets of water like thinnest window
,lass. Every brook in the hills begins
o sing and tumble. There Is a roar
ng in the canons. There are wash
outs and stalled trains. The old Plat
e starts living in its stagnant pools.
IN a couple of hours or so it becomes
, river with vicious current. In an
,ther it is half a mile wide and tear
ng along, mud, tin cans, old shoes,
lebris of all kinds, just racing east.
are swept away and
.restles go like matches. For about
/ day and a half the Platte has con-
5ulsion of nobility, becomes, In fact,
l dangerous paranoiac. Then 1t
sinks back, almost as quickly, into its
1ormal appearance OF imbecility. ,
A Gorgeous Panorama.
There have been many big gather
ngs of various kinds there In recent
years, and Denver has attractions that
are likely to make it popular con-
vention city. Where else can one sit
at breakfast on the top floor OF a
hotel which is plastered high with
slabs of gorgeous onyx and look ont
on panorama of more than 120 miles
Of mountains? Imagine getting up on
a midsummer morning to see many
Of the Hottest ranges in America, ap-
parently nearby, glistening white from
a stray snowfall! Ninety miles to
the south stands old Pixies Peak,
along the bottom slopes of which ran
one of the old Leadville trails, on
which men and women sank from
privation and hardship while their
mules and horses literally kicked gold
dust off their shoes at every step while
plodding over the ground where the
first Cripple Creek trenches made men
rich "at grass roots" One can take
in the whole panorama at a glance,
from Pixies Peak almost to the Wy
oming line on the north, with $4,000
foot "hogbacks" and $4,000 foot crags
all the way along, or he can watch a
single monarch or single gulch by
the hour, noting the blending OF colors
and the play of shadows.
Originally, the site of the city was
an arid plane, but now, where the
business streets end and the residence
section begins, on the rising prairie
to the south of the town, the place is
almost reminiscent 81 some of the
wonderful southern California towns
This Transformation was accomplish
ed with the help of the cotton tree
much turing of lawns, and a capital
irrigation system connected with foot
hill reservoirs The cotton tree grows
at great rate, land in four or five years
gives a handsome circle of green and
a grateful shade. They are planted
for miles on both sides of the streets
with bitches at their roots, and late in
the evening the sluice gates are open
ed above the city and the waters come
gurgling down beside the sidewalks
with g refreshing lullaby. On the
lawns the revolving MOBILES swing
their tiny cascades around all summer
long to keep the green from burning
brown. Some times an Fastener
will complain of the eternal sunshine
He will long for a shower, for a gray
day, with all the forcible backsliding
of perverse human nature.
Fifty Years Old.
Fifty years is little enough in which
to build up a real city-and Denver is
just that age this year-but it is
enough to leave behind many touches
of the frontier days, when the PONY
Express used to gallop down Holla
day street with or without news o.
hostile Indians. Such days did the
owner of the Rocky Mountain News
SUGGESTIVE one who preceded tai
present owners he stood in thu
ctront of the entrance to his Office