Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (have you read this book txt) 📖
- Author: Various None
Book online «Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (have you read this book txt) 📖». Author Various None
Represents A Component Part. The Hardware Clerk Displays A Tent And
Recommends A Fly As Forming A Desirable Addition To An Even Otherwise
"Swell Outfit." The Grocer Provides You With What He Modestly Terms A
"First-Class Outfit," Albeit His Cans Of Fruits, Vegetables And Meats
Are For The Delectation Of The Inner Man. Frying-Pans And Dutch-Ovens,
Camp-Stools And Trout-Scales, Receive The Same Designation. And Now
Comes The Crowning Triumph Of This Versatile Term, As Well As A Happy
Illustration Of What Might Be Called Its Agglutinative And Assimilating
Powers; For When Horses And Wagon Have Received Their Load Of Tent And
Equipments, And Father, Mother And The Babies Have Filled Up Every
Available Space, This Whole Establishment, This _Omnium Gatherum_ Of
Outfits, Becomes Neither More Nor Less Than An "Outfit."
The Last Five Years Have Witnessed A Wonderful Material Progress In The
Far West. The Mineral Wealth Discovered In colorado And New Mexico Has
Caused A Great Westward-Flowing Tide To Set In. The Nation Seems To Be
Possessed Of A Desire To Reclaim The Waste Places And To Explore The
Unknown. Cities That Were Founded By "Fifty-Niners," And After A Decade
Seemed To Reach The Limits Of Their Growth, Have Started On A New
Career. And For None Of These Does The Outlook Seem Brighter Than In The
Case Of The City Of Pueblo, The Old Outpost Whose Early History We Have
Attempted To Sketch. Its Growth Has All Along Been A Gradual One, And
Its Improvements Have Kept Pace With This Healthy Advance. Its Public
Schools, Like Those Of All Far Western Towns Which The Writer Has
Visited Are Model Institutions And An Honor To The Commonwealth. A
Handsome Brick Court-House, Situated On High Ground, Is An Ornament To
The City, And Differs Widely From That In Which Judge Bradford Held
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 13Court Eighteen Years Ago--The First Held In The Territory, And That,
Too, Under Military Protection. Pueblo'S Wealth Is Largely Derived From
The Stock-Raising Business, The Surrounding Country Being Well Adapted
To Cattle And Sheep. The _Rancheros_ Ride The Plains The Year Round, And
The Cattle Flourish Upon The Food Which Nature Provides--In The Summer
The Fresh Grass, And In The Winter The Same Converted Into Hay Which Has
Been Cured Upon The Ground. An Important Railway-Centre Is Pueblo, And
Iron Highways Radiate From It To The Four Cardinal Points. These
Advantages Of Location Should Procure It A Large Share Of The Flood Of
Prosperity That Is Sweeping Over The State. But Enterprises Are Now In
Progress Which Cannot Fail To Add Materially To Its Importance As A
Factor In The Development Of The Country. On The Highest Lift Of The
Mesa South Of The Town, And In a Most Commanding Position, It Has Been
Decided To Locate A Blast-Furnace Which Shall Have No Neighbor Within A
Radius Of Five Hundred Miles. With Iron Ore Of Finest Quality Easily
Accessible In The Neighboring Mountains, And Coal-Fields Of Unlimited
Extent Likewise Within Easy Reach, The Production Of Iron In The Rocky
Mountains Has Only Waited For The Growth Of A Demand. This The
Advancement And Prosperity Of The State Have Now Well Assured. Many
Kindred Industries Will Spring Up Around The Furnace, The Bessemer
Steel-Works And The Rail-Mills That Are Now Projected; And A Few Years
Will Suffice To Transform The Level Mesa, Upon Which For Untold
Centuries The Cactus And The Yucca-Lily Have Bloomed Undisturbed, Into A
Thriving Manufacturing City Whose Pulse Shall Be The Throb Of Steam
Through Iron Arms. The Onlooking Mountains, That Have Seen Strange
Sights About This Old Outpost, Are To See A Still Stranger--The
Ushering-In Of A New Civilization Which Now Begins Its March Into The
Land Of The Aztecs.
Perhaps These Thoughts Were Occupying Our Minds As We Climbed The
Bluffs For A Visit To This Incipient Pittsburg. The Equipage Did No
Credit To The Financial Status Of The Iron Company, As It Consisted Of
A Superannuated Express-Wagon Drawn By A Dyspeptic White Horse Which
The Boy Who Officiated As Driver Found No Difficulty In Restraining.
Two Gentlemen In charge Of The Constructions, Their Visitor And Two
Kegs Of Nails Comprised This Precious Load. The Day Was Cloudless And
Fine, Albeit A Colorado "Zephyr" Was Blowing, And The Party, With
Perhaps The Single Exception Of The Horse, Felt In Fine Spirits. The
Jolly Superintendent, Who Both In Face And Mien Reminded One Of The
Typical German Nobleman, Was Overflowing With Story, Joke And Witty
Repartee. The Site Of The Works Was Reached In The Course Of Time.
Excavations Were In Progress For The Blast-Furnace And Accessory
Buildings, And Developed A Strange Formation. The Entire Mesa Seems
Built Up Of Boulders Packed Together With A Sort Of Alkali Clay, Dry
And Hard As Stone, And Looking, As Our _Distingue_ Guide Remarked, As
Though Not A Drop Of Water Had Penetrated Five Feet From The Surface
Since The Time Of The Flood. Two Blast-Furnaces, Each With A Capacity
Of Five Hundred Tons, Will Be Speedily Built, To Be Followed By
Rail-Mills, A Bessemer Steel-Plant And All The Accessories Of Vast
Iron-And Steel-Works. With The Patronage Of Several Thousand Miles Of
Railway Already Assured, And Its Duplication In The Near Future
Apparently Beyond Doubt, The Success Of This Daring Frontier Enterprise
Seems Far Removed From The Domain Of Conjecture.
[Illustration: Old Si Smith.]
All This Was Glowingly Set Forth By The Courtly Superintendent, Who,
Though But Three Months In The Country, Is Already At Heart A Coloradan
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 14That There Are Some Things About Frontier Life Which He Likes Better
Than Others He Is Free To Admit. Among The Few Matters He Would Have
Otherwise He Gives The First Place To The Tough "Range" Or "Snow-Fed"
Beef Upon Which The Dwellers In This Favored Land Must Needs Subsist. "I
Heard A Story Once," Said He, "About A Young Man, A Tenderfoot, Who,
After Long Wondering What Made The Beef So Fearfully Tough, At Length
Arrived At The Solution, As He Thought, And That Quite By Accident. He
Was Riding Out With A Friend, An Old Resident, When They Chanced To Come
Upon A Bunch Of Cattle. The Young Man'S Attention Seemed To Be
Attracted, And As The Idea Began To Dawn Upon Him He Faced His
Companion, And, Pointing To An Animal Which Bore The Brand "B.C. 45,"
Savagely Exclaimed, 'Look There! How Can You Expect Those Antediluvians
To Be Anything But Tough? Why Don'T You Kill Your Cattle Before They Get
Two Or Three Times As Old As Methuselah?'"
We Took A Long Ride That Afternoon Under A Peerless Sky, With Blue
Mountain-Ranges On One Hand, Whose Ridges, Covered With Snow, Seemed
Like Folds Of Satin, And On The Other The Great Billowy Plains, Bare And
Brown And Smooth As A Carpet. The White Horse, Relieved Of The Kegs Of
Nails, Really Performed Prodigies Of Travel, All The More Appreciated
Because Unexpected. A Stone-Quarry For Which We Were Searching Was Not
Found, But A Teamster Was, Who, While Everything Solemnly Stood Still
And Waited, And Amid The Agonies Of An Indescribable Stutter, Finally
Managed To Enlighten Us Somewhat As To Its Whereabouts. These Adventures
Served To Put Us In excellent Humor, So That When The Road Was Found
Barricaded By A Barbed Wire Fence, It Only Served To Give One Of The
Party An Opportunity To Air His Views Upon The Subject--To Argue, In
Fact, That The Barbed Wire Fence Had Been An Important Factor In
Building Up The Agricultural Greatness Of The West. "For What
Inducements," He Exclaims, "Does The Top Rail Of Such A Fence Offer To
The Contemplative Farmer? None, Sir! His Traditional Laziness Has Been
Broken Up, And Great Material Prosperity Is The Result."
Whatever Causes Have Operated To Produce The Effect, Certain It Is That
The West Is Eminently Prosperous To-Day. Everywhere Are Seen Growth,
Enterprise And An Aggressiveness That Stops At No Obstacles. Immigration
Is Pouring Into Colorado Alone At The Rate Of Several Thousands Per
Week. The Government Lands Are Being Rapidly Taken Up, And The Stable
Industries Of Stock-Raising And Farming Correspondingly Extended.
Manufacturing, Too, Is Acquiring A Foothold, And Many Of The Necessaries
Of Life, Which Now Must Be Obtained In The East, Will Soon Be Produced
At Home. The Mountains Are Revealing Untold Treasures Of Silver And
Gold, And The Possibilities Which May Lie Hid In The Yet Unexplored
Regions Act As A Stimulus To Crowds Of Hopeful Prospectors. But While
Colorado Is Receiving Her Full Share Of The Influx, A Tide Seems To Be
Setting In Toward The Old Empire Of The Aztecs, And Flowing Through The
Natural Gateway, Our Old Rocky-Mountain Outpost. It Is Beginning To Be
Found Out That The Legends Of Fabulous Wealth Which Have Come Down To Us
From The Olden Time Have Much Of Truth In Them, And Mines That Were
Worked Successively By Franciscan Monks, Pueblo Indians, Jesuit Priests
And Mexicans, And Had Suffered Filling Up And Obliteration With Every
Change Of Proprietorship, Are Now Being Reopened; And That, Too, Under A
New Dispensation Which Will Ensure Prosperity To The Enterprise.
Spaniard And Priest Have Long Since Abandoned Their Claim To The Rich
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 15Possessions, And Their Doubtful Sway, Ever Upon The Verge Of Revolution
And Offering No Incentive To Enterprise, Has Given Place To One Of A
Different Character. Under The Protection Of Beneficent And Fostering
Laws This Oldest Portion Of Our Union May Now Be Expected To Reveal Its
Wealth Of Resources To Energy And Intelligent Labor. And It May
Confidently Be Predicted That American Enterprise Will Not Halt Till It
Has Built Up The Waste Places Of Our Land, And In This Case Literally
Made The Desert To Blossom As The Rose. Thus Gloriously Does Our New
Civilization Reclaim The Errors Of The Past, Building Upon Ancient Ruins
The Enlightened Institutions Of To-Day, And Grafting Fresh Vigor Upon
Effete Races And Nationalities. And Now, At Last, The Spanish Peaks,
Those Mighty Ancient Sentinels Whose Twin Spires, Like Eyes, Have
Watched The Slow Rise And Fall Of Stately But Tottering Dynasties In The
Long Ago, Are To Look Out Upon A Different Scene--A New Race Come In The
Might Of Its Freedom And With Almost The Glory Of A Conquering Host To
Redeem A Waiting Land From The Outcome Of Centuries Of Avaricious And
Bigoted Misrule, And Even From The Thraldom Of Decay.
George Rex Buckman.
[Illustration]
Lost.
I.
I
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