Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-09-14
Colorado Metropolis Is Al
! ways Crowded With Tour
ists-WeaIthieSt People
Started as LaborerS
BY w. III. PORTERFIELD

BY w. III. PORTERFIELD
On the western periphery Of that
great circle which frames the
mighty valley of the Mississippi
sits Denver, Queen City Of the
Plains"-a mile above and more
than 1900 miles distant from the
nearest sea, one Of the great noun
tain metropoli Of all time.
Beautiful for situation" the
snow-capped Rockies at her back
and thousand miles Of fertile
plain stretching eastward from her
feet, Denver is rightly the goal
Of him who longs to breathe deep
ly, see far, renew his youth and
lie down at night under the pines.
Born in that romantic decade i'm
mediately following the discovery
of California gold, when every pros
pector's pan and pick were carried
by potential millionaire, and
where wealth untold might lie just
beneath the roadside rock, Denver
became the Mecca in those days of
the SOS and 70's for adventures
of every kind and sort without re-
gard to sex, creed, color or appare..
Those were the days when any
thing seemed possible and almost
anything likely.
Up and Down
Millionaires of today were the
penniless laborers or adventures OF
yesterday, but many who went up
like rockets came down like sticks
among the spectacular early Den
verites, the name of Horace Austin
Warner Tabor looms large.
Tabor was a Vermont Yankee,
stonecutter by trade, a wanderer
on the face of the earth by choice
He came to Denver when he was
20 and Denver was one year. old
viz, in so, but soon after hiked
to Leadville, another mile nearer
the sky, where he prospected and
played seven-up, and generally en-
joyed himself in the well-earned OBJ
security Of a wild mining camp H.,
900 feet in the air.
Then Tabor struck q vein Of silver
big enough to sink a battleship, ano
his troubles begin. Selling out fol
a million, he began a wild career OF
speculation and found he just
couldn't lose. Ten years later he
was mayor Of Leadville and worth
| $10,000,000. He gave Leadville g
100000 opera house--which has
since burned down, believe-an6
scattered his dough in every direc
ton, finally becoming lieutenant
governor of Colorado. In February
Of '85 he got the appointment Of
| United States senator, which he held
for month, till the regularly elect
ed H. M. Teller got on the job.
$1,000 for Nighties
Being senator seemed too much
| for Tabor. It is said he spent ST.,
600 for a flock Of wonderful night
| gowns. Anyhow, he lost all his
money faster than he made it, and
died broke in '99, while his widow
her mind clouded, is a hopeless in
valid, dependent upon public charity
They don't all go up SO fast or
come down SO suddenly as Senator y
Tabor, but the early story Of mining
regions is pretty much the samoa
little group of big-hearted free
| spending, ostentatious multi-million'
aires and a vast horde of folks
| dreaming of rich strike.
No kind of precious. metal mining
tends to make homes upon the soil
and if Colorado had possessed nc
asset but gold, silver. lead and
copper, she would today be another
even il more Observation-Disclosures
Lode" of Nevada, a region of tin
cans and buried hopes.
| But Colorado has something else
far greater than ell her mines, al
though they produce $60,000,000 an
| nually in precious and semi-precious
metals. She has something far less
romantic than frontier gold camp
or even vein of silver and lead
but something infinitely greater and
more valuab1e-the Platte river
You wouldn't think much Of the
Platte il you first saw it merely
as q stream of water, for as Horace
| Greedy said Of some newspapers
which have great circulation AND
mighty little influence, the Platte is
a mile wide and a foot deep.
The Glorious Platte
|
as eastern Colorado is a stream Of
purest gold, which means homes Of
comfort and even luxury for the
people, schools and churches ant
clubs and baseball parks and uplift
societies and pool halls and Fords
at every crossroads.
Left in it's original bed, the Platte
would never have added much tt
the landscape other than brighten
ing the lives of a few hybrid will
lows. Taken out by diverting dam:
and conduits, it produces annually
Sis, 100000 worth Of beet sugar ant
alfalfa, all of which stays right OF
the land in one form or another
feeding, clothing and educating thou
sands of people and making then
good citizens; and that's more thar
all the gold mines from Golconda tt
Cripple Creek have ever done!
And so I say that the creates