Semi-weekly herald., 1913-01-02

Is--~-'---
bothered TO build Troy, or Babylon,
or Paris, London or Vienna New
York wouldn't have been New York
or Venice wouldn't have been Venice
if certain men and groups of men had
not said in their hearts and meant it:
Here is the finest bit of ground in
the world on which to rear city" OF
course Venice wasn't, and there must
have been some mistake about Tyre,
Nineveh, and a few others that have
crumbled into dust after being great
cities and bossing great chunks of
the earth for centuries more or less.
Buncombe X. Hammer is one of the
earth's oldest inhabitants. He lived
for time in Nineveh, was once buried
in Babylon at the foot of a Lotta
fountain; they dropped him overheard
into the Adriatic from the prov of
the doge's galley; they burned him
in Athens, ducked him in the Tiber
at Rome and dropped him into the
quicksands of the Arne, off the bridge
of the jewellers at Florence (for he
was a handicap on trade then as now
He has succeeded in getting himself
reincarnated every time there was a
new world center to build, and that is
why only day or two ago it became
'Frisco's turn to pay him merited at
tention.
Sometimes Mr.. Hammer confines
himself to knocking, but at other
times Mr.. Buncombe X. takes an east
er way and contents himself with
merely wearing supercilious grin,
pretending to be in hearty accord with
every public movement.
None has yet determined in which
guise the enemy Of progress does his
most effective work. Many maintain
that good hearty knock may arouse
the real workers of city to proper
| action, whereas bland agreement
| with all they want to accomplish Can
attitude which neither opposes nor
helps, merely consents) may put the
workers to sleep and cause them to
| minimize their own efforts in the mis-
guided belief that, since Hammer is
not against them, he certainly must
be on their side.
Every city needs workers, fighters,
men with the, will to do. No city has
yet had enough of them; no city ever
will. Denver needs them today and
could trade a hundred Mr.. Buncombes
an dozen or so Mr.. Hammers for a
half dozen lamp-posts and be richer
for the swap. 1t has been taking care
of the knockers of late-toning them
dowr for their good-but it has an
unnecessary number of Buncombes
and mild hammered malcontents still
left upon. its hands.
There is lot of work for Denver
to do; it has its own share of this
| Frisco undertaking, and it isn't go.
ing to make much headway until il
succeeds in arousing that old get-there
spirit which imbued its pioneers and
set them to building here in desert
waste what is now one of the most
beautiful cities on the American con
tinent, famous the world around, and
needing only little more of the same
to double its population In the next
ten years. Mr.. Buncombe will never
help toward that consummation; nei-
ther will Mr. Hammer. There are
enough good men of the right sort to
make all dreams come true if they will
only get together, take hold of the
rope and pull.
] The Herald gives space to the above
editorial from the Denver Republican
trusting it will do a lot of good. Ev-
cry now and then we hear some one
say the town is no good, the country
is no good and the people are no
good. And still the ones who are
| saying this are remaining with us.
If we felt this way we would lose no
time in pulling up stakes and hiking
for some other place. Make up your
mind to be optimistic and put your
shoulder to the wheels of progress.
You will feel much better. The pessi-
mist is never happy. The state of
his mind will not permit him to be
happy. Then why pursue policy
that brings discomfort
Let Durango follow the example of
San Francisco-bury Mr.. Hammer
and if any of his offspring bobs up,
have another funeral. Let Durango
make this New Years resolution.
THE FISH INDUSTRY
ON THE PACIFIC COAST