DENVER THE BEAUTIFUL

Denver the Beautiful is the dynamo of Western civilization, and the keynote to the entire scale of life in Colorado. The atmosphere seems charged with high destiny. "I worship with wonder the great Fortune," said Emerson, using the term in the universal sense, "and find it none too large for use. My receptivity matches its greatness." The receptivity of the dwellers in this splendid environment seems to match its greatness, and expand with the increase of its vast resources. As Paris is France, so Denver is Colorado. Hardly any other commonwealth and its capital are in such close relation, unless it be that of Massachusetts and Boston. Colorado is a second Italy, rather than Switzerland, as it has been called. Over it bends the Italian sky; its luminous atmosphere is that of Dante's country; at night the stars hang low as they hang over the heights of San Miniato in fair Florence; the mountain coloring, when one has distance enough, has the soft melting purple and amethyst lights of the Apennines, and the courtesy of the people is not less marked than in the land of the olive and the myrtle. Then, too, the light—the resplendent and luminous effect of the atmosphere—is like that of no other state. The East is dark by comparison with this transparency of golden light.

As the metropolis of the great West between Chicago and the Pacific Coast, Denver has a continual procession of visitors from all countries, who pause in the overland journey to study the outlook of the most wonderful state in the Union,—that of the richest and most varied resources. To find within the limits of one state resources that include gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, coal, and tin mines; agriculture, horticulture, stock raising, manufactures, and oil wells, sounds like a fiction; yet this is literally true. Add to these some of the most beautiful and sublime scenery in the world, the best modern appliances, and the most intelligent and finely aspiring class of people, and one has an outline of the possibilities of the Centennial State.

Denver is, geographically, the central city of the country, equally accessible from both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts, from the North and the South. It has the finest climate of the continent; its winters are all sunshine and exhilaration, with few cloudy or stormy days; its summers are those in which oppressive heat is hardly known, and the nights are invariably cool. It is a great railroad centre; it has infinite space in which to extend itself in any direction; it has unsurpassed beauty of location. No city west of Chicago concentrates so many desirable features, for all this wealth of resource and loveliness of scenic setting is the theatre of noble energy and high achievement. Denver is only twenty-six hours from Chicago; it is but forty-five hours from New York. Although apparently a city of the plains, it is a mile above sea level, and is surrounded with more than two hundred miles of mountain ranges, whose changeful color, in royal purple, deep rose, amber, pale blue, gleams through the transparent air against the horizon. The business and hotel part of Denver lies on a lower level, while the Capitol, a superb building of Colorado marble, and all the best residential region, is on a higher plateau. The Capitol has the novel decoration of an electric flag, so arranged that through colored glass of red, white, and blue the intense light shines.

The Denver residential region is something unusual within general municipal possibilities, as it has unbounded territory over which to expand, thus permitting each home to have its own grounds, nearly all of which are spacious; and these, with the broad streets lined with trees, give to this part of the city the appearance of an enormous park. For miles these avenues and streets extend, all traversed by swift electric cars that so annihilate time and space that a man may live five, ten, or a dozen miles from his place of business and call it all joy. He insures himself pure air, beautiful views, and an abundance of ground. If the family desires to go into the city for evening lectures, concerts, or the theatre, the transit is swift and enjoyable. They control every convenience. These individual villas are all fire-proof. The municipal law requires the buildings to be of brick or stone, thus making Denver a practically fireproof city. Both the business blocks and the homes share the benefit of the improved modern taste in architecture. The city of Denver covers an area of eighty-nine square miles, and these limits are soon to be extended.

The Capitol has an enchanting mountain view; it also contains a fine museum of historic relics found in Colorado from cliff-dwellings and other points. A million dollars has been offered—and refused—for this state collection. The City Park, covering nearly four hundred acres, with its two lakes, its beds of flowers and groups of shrubbery; its casino, where an orchestra plays every afternoon in the summer, while dozens of carriages and motor cars with their tastefully dressed occupants draw up and listen to the music, is a centre of attraction to both residents and visitors. This park is to Denver as is the Pincian Hill to Rome, or as Hyde Park to London,—the fashionable drive and rendezvous. Great beds of scarlet geraniums contrast with the emerald green of the grass, while here and there a fountain throws its spray into the air. Far away on the horizon are the encircling mountains in view for over two hundred miles, the ranges taking on all the colors of fairyland, while a deep turquoise sky, soft and beautiful, bends over the entire panorama. From this plateau four great peaks are in view: Pike's Peak, seventy-five miles to the south; Long's, Gray's, and James's peaks, all distinctly silhouetted against the sky, rising from the serrated range which connects them. During these open-air concerts in the park there is a midsummer holiday air over the scene as if all the city were en fÊte.

The architectural scheme of Denver's residential region harmonizes with the landscape. The houses are not the palaces of upper Fifth Avenue and Riverside drive, or of Massachusetts or Connecticut avenues in Washington; but there is hardly an individual residence that has not legitimate claim to beauty. The tower, the oriel window, and the broad balcony are much in evidence; and the piazza, with its swinging seat, its easy chairs, and table disposed on a bright rug, suggest a charm of vie intime that appeals to the passer-by. Books, papers, and magazines are scattered over the table: the home has the unmistakable air of being lived in and enjoyed; of being the centre of a happy, intelligent life, buoyant with enterprise and energy, and identified with the social progress of the day. On the greenest of lawn a jet of water or, in many cases, a fountain plays, the advantage of an irrigated country being that the householder creates and controls his own climatic conditions. The rain,—it raineth every day when irrigation determines the shower; roses grow in riotous profusion on the lawn, and the crimson "rambler" climbs the portico; lilies nod in the luminous gold of the sunshine, and all kinds of foliage plants lend their rich color to these beautiful grounds that surround every home. To the children growing up in Denver the spectacle of dreary streets would be as much of a novelty as the ruins of Karnak. The line that divides the past from the present is not only very definite, but also very recent, as is indicated by the question of a five-year-old lad who wonderingly asked: "Mamma, did they ever have horses draw the trolley cars?" The mastodon is not more remote in antiquity to the man or woman of to-day than was the idea of horses drawing a car to this child. Between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries the gulf of demarcation is almost as wide as between the fifteenth and the nineteenth.

The streets of Denver are very broad, usually planted with trees, and the smooth roads offer an earthly paradise to the motor-car transit that abounds in Denver. One of the happy excursions is that of motoring to Colorado Springs, seventy-five miles distant, a constant entertainment. With the splendid electric-transit system, annihilating distance; with the broad streets paved after the best modern methods; with the wide and smooth sidewalks of Colorado stone and the almost celestial charm of the view, city life is transformed. Telephonic service is practically universal; electric lighting and an admirable water system are among the easy conveniences of this section, which is not yet suburban because of its complete identification with all other parts of the city.

The universality of telephonic intercourse in Colorado would go far to support the theory of Dr. Edward Everett Hale that the time will come when writing will be a lost art, and will be considered, at best, as a clumsy and laborious means of communication in much the same manner that the late centuries regard the production of the manuscript book before the invention of the art of printing. In few cities is the telephone service carried out to such constant colloquial use as in Denver. The traveller finds in his room a telephone as a matter of course, and there are very few quarters of an hour when the bell does not summon him to chat with a friend, from one on the same floor of the hotel to one who is miles away in the city, or even fifty or a hundred miles distant, as at Greeley, Colorado Springs, or Pueblo.

"How are you to-day?" questions the friendly voice. "Did you see so-and-so in the morning papers? And what do you think about it? and can you be ready at eleven to go to hear Mrs. —— lecture? and at one will you lunch with Mrs. ——? the entire conversation to be in Italian? and could you go at about four this afternoon to a tea to meet an Oriental Princess who will discuss the laws of reincarnation? and will you also dine with us at seven, and go later to the Woman's Municipal Club that holds a conference to-night?" All those lovely things fall upon one with apparently no thought of its being an unusual day—this is Denver! This is twentieth-century life. This is an illustration of what can be done when the non-essential is eliminated from the days and that which is essential is felicitously pursued.

When the Denver woman remarked to the Eastern woman sojourner within the gates that she was unable to be away that autumn on any extended absence, as the campaign was to be more than usually important, the wanderer from the Atlantic shore irreverently laughed. Her hostess endeavored (unsuccessfully) not to seem shocked by this levity regarding serious subjects. She remembered that there were extenuating circumstances, and that the Eastern women had really never had a fair chance in life. Their part, she reflected, consisted in obeying laws and abiding by whatever was decreed, with no voice allowed to express their own preferences or convictions. She remembered that a proportion of the feminine New England intellect consecrates its powers and its time to extended researches in the Boston Public Library and in the venerable records of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in a perpetual quest of information regarding its ancestors, who are worshipped with the zeal and fervor of the Japanese. The Boston woman, indeed, may have only the most vague ideas regarding the rate bill, the problem of the Philippines, the Panama Canal, or the next Governor of Massachusetts; but she is thoroughly conversant with all the details of the Mayflower and her own ancestral dignities. Recognizing the New England passion for its ancestry, a leading Boston journal offers a page, weekly, to open correspondence on the momentous question as to whether Winthrop Bellingham married Priscilla Patience Mather in 1699 or in 1700, and a multitude of similar questions concerning the vanished centuries. The Denver woman realized all this and was discreetly charitable in her judgment of her friend's failure to recognize the significant side of the political enfranchisement of women in Colorado. For despite some actual disadvantages and defects of woman suffrage in the centennial state, and a vast amount of exaggerated criticism on these defects, it is yet a benefit to the four states that enjoy it,—Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming.

In a majority of the states of the entire nation there is a conviction (and one not without its claims) that women are adequately represented and protected in all their rights, as things are, and that it is superfluous to increase the vote.

The anti-suffrage argument suggests many reflections whose truth must be admitted, and this side of the controversy is espoused and led by some proportion of men and women whose names inspire profound respect, if not conviction, with their belief. Still, the fact remains that when woman suffrage is subjected to the practical test of experience, the advantages are so obvious, its efficacy for good so momentous, that their realization fairly compels acceptance. In the entire nation there has never been a man or a woman whose clearness and profundity of intellect, moral greatness, and sympathetic insight into the very springs of national and individual life exceeded those of Lucy Stone, the remarkable pioneer in the political emancipation of women, whose logical eloquence and winning, beautiful personality was the early focus of this movement. Mrs. Stone surrounded herself with a noble group,—Mary A. Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and others whose names readily suggest themselves, and with whom, in the complete companionship and sympathy of her husband, Dr. Henry B. Blackwell, she successfully worked, even though the final success has not yet been achieved. Other great and noble women—Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton—consecrated their entire lives and remarkable powers to the early championship of woman suffrage. The present ranks of women workers—the younger women—are so numerous, and they include so large a proportion of the most notable women of both the East and the West, that volumes would not afford sufficient room for adequate allusion. In Denver the leading people are fully convinced of the responsibility of women in politics. Although the ballot has not been generally granted to women, the very movement toward it has resulted in their higher education and their larger freedom in all ways. The situation reminds one of the "subtle ways" of Emerson's Brahma:

Apparently, the principle of woman suffrage has "subtle ways" in which "to pass and turn again." It has recently turned in a manner to compel a new and more profound revision of all opinion and argument.

Colorado presents a most interesting field for the study of woman suffrage, and from any fair and adequate review of its workings and results there could hardly fail to be but one conclusion,—that of its signal value and importance as a factor in human progress. One of its special claims is of a nature not down on the bills,—the fact of the great intellectual enlargement and stimulus,—aside from its results, which the very exercise of political power gives to the women of the state. It is seen in the higher quality of conversational tone and the tendency to eliminate the inconsequential and the inane because great matters of universal interest were thus brought home to women in connection with their power to decide on these matters. This result is perhaps equally seen among the women who rejoice and the women who regret the fact of their political enfranchisement. For in Colorado, as well as in other states, there is a proportion of women who do not believe in the desirability of the ballot for themselves. They sincerely regret that it has been "forced," as they say, upon them. This proportion in Colorado is not a large one, but it includes some of the most intelligent and cultured women, just as an enthusiastic acceptance of the ballot includes a much larger proportion of this higher order of women. However, welcome or unwelcome, desired or not desired, the ballot is there, and so the women who regret this fact yet realize its responsibility and feel it a moral duty to use it wisely as well. And so they, too, study great questions, and discuss them, and fit themselves to use the power that is conferred upon them. All this reacts on the general tone of society, and the quality of conversation at ladies' lunches, at teas, and at clubs, is of a far higher order than is often found in other states among the more purely feminine gatherings.

Among the women who have successfully administered public office in Colorado was the late Mrs. Helen Grenfell, whose record as State Superintendent of Public Instruction was so remarkable that both political parties supported her. A Denver journal said of her:

"Mrs. Grenfell's term has lasted six years, the last two years having been under a Republican administration, although Mrs. Grenfell is a Democrat. Her most notable achievement has been in her conduct of the school lands of the state, making them valuable sources of revenue. Her policy from the first was against the sale of the school lands, which comprise some three million acres. The income from such sales had been limited, as the investments were prescribed, and the interest rate rather low, as Western interest goes. The leasing system was inaugurated under Mrs. Grenfell's direction, and the result was an increase of school revenues of nearly two hundred thousand dollars a year, with no decrease in the capital. The Land Department of the state shares the credit with the state superintendent of public instruction, as they have administered her policy wisely, but the policy was hers alone."

Judge Lindsay of Denver, giving an official opinion as to the desirability of woman suffrage for Colorado, said:

"Woman suffrage in Colorado for over ten years has more than demonstrated its justice. No one would dare to propose its repeal; and, if left to the men of the state, any proposition to revoke the right bestowed upon women would be overwhelmingly defeated.

"Many good laws have been obtained in Colorado which would not have been secured but for the power and influence of women.

"At some of the elections in Denver frauds have been committed. Ninety-nine per cent of these frauds were committed by men, without any connivance or assistance, direct or indirect, from women; but because one per cent were committed by women, there are ignorant or careless-minded people in other states who actually argue that this is a reason for denying women the right to vote. If it were a just reason for denying suffrage to women, it would be a ten times greater reason for denying it to men.

"In Colorado it has never made women any the less womanly or any the less motherly, or interfered with their duties in the home, that they have been given the right to participate in the affairs of state.

"Many a time I have heard the 'boss' in the political caucus object to the nomination of some candidate because of his bad moral character, with the mere explanation that if the women found him out it might hurt the whole ticket. While many bad men have been nominated and elected to office in spite of woman suffrage, they have not been nominated and elected because of woman suffrage. If the women alone had a right to vote, it would result in a class of men in public office whose character for morality, honesty, and courage would be of a much higher order....

"People have no right to judge woman suffrage in Colorado by the election frauds in a few precincts. The election frauds in Philadelphia, where women do not vote, were never used as a reason why suffrage should be denied to men....

"With women, as with men, it requires more or less public sentiment to arouse them to their civic duties; but when aroused, as they frequently are, their power for good cannot be overestimated. Again, the very fact that the women have such a power is a wonderful reserve force in the cause of righteousness in Colorado, and has been a powerful deterrent in anticipating and opposing the forces of evil.

"It does not take any mother from her home duties or cares to spend ten minutes in going to the polling place and casting her vote and returning to the bosom of her home; but in that ten minutes she wields a power that is doing more to protect that home now, and will do more to protect it in the future, and to protect all other homes, than any power or influence in Colorado.

"I know that the great majority of people in Colorado favor woman suffrage, after more than a decade of practical experience,—first, because it is fair, just, and decent; and secondly, because its influence has been good rather than evil in our political affairs."

Judge Lindsay's words represent the general attitude of the representative people of the state.The Hon. Henry M. Teller, senior senator of Colorado, is one of the most interesting men in the Centennial State, and the traveller who may meet and talk with him is impressed with his quiet sincerity, with the sense of reserved power with which he seems endowed, and the refinement and directness of his methods. He is by birth an Eastern man, and a graduate of Harvard; but his mature life has been passed in Colorado. As a lawyer his law office claims much of his time and thought, even with all the great tide of national interests with which he is identified. He is a thorough and, indeed, an astute politician; not in the "machine" sense, but with a very clear and comprehensive grasp of the situation and a large infusion of practical sagacity. Senator Teller is in no sense an enthusiast. He is responsive to high aims and high ideals; he knows what they are, so to speak; he recognizes them on sight; he never falls into the error of under-valuing them; but he is not a man to be carried away by an ecstatic vision, and he would have no use for wings at all where he had feet. He would regard the solid earth as a better foundation, on the whole, than the air, and one more suited to existing conditions.

Senator Teller has had more than a quarter of a century's experience in political life and in statesmanship. For two years he was a member of the Cabinet. For twenty-seven years he has been in the Senate, where, with Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, he shared the highest honor, and the most absolute confidence, in both his flawless integrity and conspicuous ability, that the Senate, and the nation as well, can give to him.

Senator Patterson, the junior senator from Colorado, is a man whom, if he encounters an obstacle does not grant it the dignity of recognition. He instantly discovers the end,—the desired result,—and declares, per saltum, "It is right; it should be done,—it shall be done." Senator Patterson is a man of very keen perceptions and one with whom it is easy to come into touch instantly; he is responsive, sympathetic, full of faith that the thing that ought to be accomplished can be accomplished, and therefore that it shall be. Senator Patterson has the typical American experience of successful men lying behind him. He was on familiar terms with the intricacies of a newspaper office in his youth; he studied in an Indiana college without an annual expenditure of that twenty thousand dollars which some of the latter-day Harvard undergraduates find indispensable to the process of securing their "B. A.," and tradition records, indeed, that the junior Colorado senator, in the prehistoric days of his youth, set out for the fountain of learning with a capital of forty dollars; that he frugally walked from Crawfordsville to Indianapolis that he might not deplete his financial estate which was destined to buy a scholarship, and that in this unrecorded tour in the too, too truly rural region of his early life, he cleaned two clocks on the way in payment for lodging, and that he cleaned them uncommonly well. Of all this traditionary history who shall say? Senator Patterson is a man who would always keep faith with his aims and convictions. He is sunny and full of wit, and full of faith in the ultimate triumph of good things in general, and is, all in all, one of the most genial and delightful of men—and senators.

It is related that Senator Patterson first dawned upon Denver in its primeval period of 1872, when its municipal affairs were conducted by two prominent—if not eminent—gentlemen, one of whom was the champion gambler, and the other the champion brewer of the metropolis. There were eleven thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight other citizens in this municipality besides the brewer and the gambler (and the population was said to have been twelve thousand in all), and the eleven thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight, like "The Ten" of early Florentine history, decided that would "reform the town." Their united effort was to elect Mr. Patterson as Mayor. And a good one he proved; and he has gone on and on, in the minds as well as in the hearts of his fellow-citizens, until now he is the colleague of Senator Teller, and he offers another typical illustration of true American integrity and honorable ambition and success. Personally, Senator Patterson is one of the most winning men in the world, and one delights in his success and the high estimation in which he is held.The development of Colorado and other parts of the great Southwest during the past half-century has created a new order of employment in that of the government expert,—the specialist in upland or hydraulic irrigation, in engineering and mining problems. The government surveying work has also increased largely, both in extent and in the greater number of specialties now required. The Geological Survey and the Agricultural Department, both included under the Department of the Interior, are rapidly multiplying branches of work that require both the skilled training and ability for original research and accomplishment. These positions, which command government salaries at from some eighteen to twenty-five hundred dollars a year, afford such opportunity for the expert to reveal his value that private corporations and business houses continually draw on the ranks of the government employees. Of late years the demand for the expert irrigation engineer has been so great in Colorado as to seriously embarrass the government forces by drawing some of the best men for private service. Denver is an especial centre for these enterprises, as being the natural metropolis for the vast inter-mountain region and the plains country of the Missouri River. This vast territory will support many millions more of population. In fact, the dwellers within this described territory at this day are but pioneers on the frontier to what the future will develop, although they already enjoy all the benefits of the older states, with countless advantages beside which they cannot enjoy.

The smelteries in Denver, of which the Grant is the largest, treat millions of pounds of copper and lead, and great quantities of silver and gold, while there are also extensive ones in Pueblo, Leadville, Durango, and other places. There is also a good proportion of Colorado ore which is not treated at all at smelteries, but is of a free-milling order. The revenue from mining has exceeded fifty millions of dollars annually of late years, but the revenue from agriculture exceeds that of the mines, and to these must be added some twenty millions a year from live stock during the past two or three years. In the aggregate, Colorado has an internal revenue of hardly less than one hundred millions a year, and this largely passes through Denver as the distributing point, constituting the Capital one of the most prosperous of young cities. Denver stands alone in a rich region. One thousand miles from Chicago, six hundred miles from Kansas City, and four hundred miles from Salt Lake City, Denver holds its place without any rival.

The ideal conditions of living have never been entirely combined in any one locality on this sublunary planet, so far as human history reveals; and with all the scenic charm, the rich and varied resources, and the phenomenal development of Colorado, no one could truthfully describe it as Utopia. There is no royal road to high achievement in any line. Difficulties and obstacles are "a part of the play," and he alone is wise who, by his own determination, faith, and persistence of energy, transforms his very obstacles into stepping-stones and thus gains the strength of that which he overcomes.

Northern Colorado has great resources even beyond the coal fields that will make it the power centre; with its prestige of Denver, and such surrounding towns as Greeley, Boulder, Fort Collins, Golden, and others, all of which fall within a group of social and commercial centres that will soon be interconnected by a network of electric trolley lines. For the electric road between Greeley and Denver Mr. J. D. Houseman has secured a right of way one hundred and fifty feet wide, the rails being midway between the Union Pacific and the Burlington lines. Mr. Houseman is one of the noted financiers of the East who came to Denver to incorporate and build this road, and his is only one of three companies that are now in consultation with the power company negotiating for the supplies which will enable them to build the proposed new roads.

The Seeman Tunnel, which is to be constructed near Idaho Springs, at a distance of fifty miles from Denver, and which is to be twelve miles in length, although at an elevation of eighty-five hundred feet, is yet to extend under Fall River and the Yankee, Alice, and the Lombard mining districts. It will be one of the marvels of the state, and will penetrate a thousand mining veins. The Continental Mines, Power and Reduction Company, recently incorporated with a capital of three millions, of which Captain Seeman is the president, owns many of the mining veins which will be touched by this tunnel. Many of the veins to which this tunnel will afford approach have not been accessible heretofore for more than four or five months in the year. For the remaining six or seven months travel is practically impossible in these mountains; the "claims" cannot be reached, as they lie in the region of perpetual snow. When the Seeman Tunnel is completed the owner of any claim that is tapped by it can, by paying a certain royalty per ton for each ton of ore mined, obtain the right to work it in the tunnel, thus being able to proceed through the entire year and at a far less cost in production than at present. Regarding this gigantic enterprise, Captain Seeman said, in June of 1906, that the work would be pushed as rapidly as men, money, and machinery could advance it, and, he added: "I consider it one of the greatest tunnels ever attempted, and one that will hold the record for mining tunnels. I am confident that we will strike enough ore within the first two or three miles to keep us busy for years." The Leviathan is one of the first veins that the tunnel is expected to tap,—a vein three hundred feet wide on the surface,—and while already traced for more than three miles, it holds every promise for as yet uncalculated extension. The Lombard is another vein of leading importance which promises to be a bonanza. Gold is the principal mineral that appears in these veins, although silver, lead, and copper are found. Another ore, tungsten, used for hardening in armor plates, large guns, and the best mechanical implements,—an ore valued at six hundred dollars per ton,—has been discovered in these veins. The Seeman Tunnel is located directly under James's Peak.

Another of the remarkable engineering marvels that mark the progress of Colorado is the Moffat road, the new railroad between Denver and Salt Lake City, now open as far as Kremling, which initiated its passenger service in the late June of 1906 with daily excursions, in solid vestibuled trains, making the round trip between Denver and Tolland, Corona (the region of perpetual snow) and Arrow, on the Pacific slope of the Continental Divide, in one day. This vast enterprise is due to the genius and the prophetic vision of President David H. Moffat of the First National Bank in Denver, one of the leaders in all that makes for the best interests and the advancement of the Centennial State, and of the future of Denver the Beautiful. Mr. Moffat says:

"Denver's population is growing steadily and naturally. Some time ago I made the prediction that Denver would have three hundred thousand inhabitants within five years. I see no reason for changing my estimate. Rather, I might increase it, but I will be conservative."The things that build up a city's wealth and population are 'round about Denver in prodigal quantities. If Denver had only the state of Colorado from which to draw, her future would be absolutely assured. But consider the vast territory that is tributary to this city. It stretches away to the east, west, north, and south, an area quite one-third of the whole country, and quite the richest in all natural resources. Denver is the geographical hub of this territory."

The Moffat road will climb the ramparts formed by the main range of the Rocky Mountains west of Denver and run directly westward, passing through one of the most fertile sections of the state. The road ascends to an altitude of eleven thousand six hundred feet, running through a region rich in minerals, and especially in coal. The sublime scenery along the route has already made it most popular for excursions, which draw a vast tourist travel continually. President Moffat's road has brought Routt County into such prominence that investors from the East are being attracted to this region, a notable one among these being the Eastern capitalist, C. B. Knox, who proposes to invest in copper, coal, and iron in Routt County, which he regards as the richest section in Colorado. Mr. Knox engaged the services of several experts to examine and report to him upon this region. To a press correspondent who inquired of Mr. Knox his views regarding Colorado, he said:

"I believe that there is wealth unmeasured in Routt County, and I am out here to put some money in there. I am sure that this section of the state is one of the richest territories in the country. How I became interested is a long story,—too long to tell. But it is sufficient to say that I have heard of Routt County for so long, and from so many different people in whose judgment I have the utmost faith, that I have come out here to invest some money. I believe thoroughly that money put into Routt County will within a few years bring handsome returns. If I did not believe that I should not be here looking for a place in which to invest money.

"I have been to Steamboat Springs myself, and I am thoroughly of the opinion that it is going to be one of the big towns of your state. The fact is, I have never seen a better looking proposition in my life than investing money in Routt County. Already I have purchased some land, and I am going to get more. It is this iron proposition that I am having investigated the most completely. The iron to be found in Routt County looks awfully good to me, and there is no question in my mind that Routt County is the place to put capital.

"I cannot, of course, at this time say just what properties I have in view,—that would not be good business; but I have under investigation locations of mineral property near Steamboat and north and south of there. I have decided on nothing definite; that is, as to just what ores I will endeavor to exploit, for the whole proposition looks so good to me that I am going to purchase probably several different kinds of propositions. As I say, though, I am most interested in the iron ore, as that seems to present the greatest opportunities."

These views are significant not only as those of an experienced financier who has unbounded faith in the future of Colorado, but also as typical of the wide range of vision which is open to the trained eye of the capitalist and the organizer of great enterprises. The spellbinder may work his will in Colorado. It is the land of infinite opportunity. It offers resources totally unsurpassed in the entire world for unlimited development, and these resources await the recognition of those whose vision is sufficiently true to discern the psychological moment.

The first railroad reached Denver thirty-six years ago, and the city has now sixteen railroad lines. It has a population of over two hundred and twenty-five thousand. It is a geographical centre, which assures its permanent importance as a distributing point. With two hundred and twenty-five miles of street railway, with seventy-five miles of paved streets, and a taxable property estimated at one hundred and two and a third millions, Denver holds unquestionable commercial importance.

When, on the evening of July Fourth, 1906, the splendid electric flag, with the national colors intensified a thousand fold in brilliancy by the electrical lights, floated in the air from the dome of the Capitol on its commanding eminence, and the new city Arch, a veritable Arc de Triomphe, flashed its "Welcome" in electrical light to eager throngs, the moment was one which might well have been fixed on the sensitive plate of the camera of the future as typical of the entire horoscope of Denver the Beautiful. On that day had been unveiled this triumphal arch, placed at the Seventeenth Street entrance to the city from the Union Depot, which, in its sixteen hundred electric lights, flashes its legend upon the vision of every one entering Denver. This arch, weighing seventy tons, eighty feet in length, and with a central height of fifty-nine feet, is constructed from a combination of metals so united as to give the best results in strength, durability, and beauty, and thus to stand as a symbol of the composite life of the nation. Over the entire surface has been placed a plating of bronze finished with verde antique, to thus give it the aspect of ancient bronze. It is built at a cost of twenty-two thousand dollars, and the originator of the idea, Mr. William Maher of Denver, received the entire subscriptions for it within one day. The design is that of a Denver girl, Miss Marie Woodson, whose name must always be immortalized in connection with this beautiful achievement which typifies the spirit of the city. Constructed by one of the city manufactories, the design and the execution are thus exclusively of Denver. In his address at the unveiling of the arch, Chancellor Buchtel said:

"To all men who stand for honesty, for industry, for justice, for reverence for law, for reverence for life, for education, for self-reliance, for individual initiative, for independence, and for sound character, the city of Denver speaks only one word, and the state of Colorado speaks only one word, and that word we have emblazoned on this glorious Arch,—the word 'Welcome.'"

Dean Hart, offering the Invocation, referred to the scriptural fact that God had instructed his leaders to build monuments that they might bear witness to some act or covenant, and it was right that the people of Denver should raise this similar monument to their ideals of peace and happiness and truth and justice. Mayor Speer, accepting the gift on behalf of the city, emphasized the fact that the arch was to stand in its place for ages as the expression of the attitude of the citizens to the strangers who enter their gates. "It is intended to reflect our hospitality," said Mayor Speer, "on a traveller's arrival and on his departure. It is more than a thing of beauty; it is the type of the new spirit in Denver, an awakening of civic pride that is sure to be followed by much that is artistic and beautiful in our beloved city."

The spirit of Denver the Beautiful is finely interpreted in these words by representative citizens. It is the spirit of generous and cordial hospitality to all who are prepared to enter into and to contribute to its high standards of life. It is the spirit of continually forging ahead to accomplish things; of that irresistible energy, combined with the eternal vigilance, which is not only the price of liberty, but the price of almost everything worth having. With this zeal for the great achievements,—carrying railroads through the mountains, opening the inexhaustible treasures of mines, bringing the snow of mountain peaks to irrigate the arid plains, establishing electric transit for fifty miles about, and telephonic connection that brings an area of hundreds of miles into instant speaking range with Denver,—with all the zeal for these executive accomplishments, the spirit of Denver is focussed on that social progress which is aided and fostered by all modern mechanical facilities. Education, culture, and religion are nowhere more held as the essentials of social progress than in Denver. Something of the nature of the problems of civilization that confronted the early pathfinders in Colorado may be inferred from the words of Major Long,—whose name is now perpetuated by the mountain peak that bears it,—when, in 1862, he stated, in an official report to the government:

"This region, according to the best intelligence that can be had, is thoroughly uninhabitable by a people depending on agriculture for their subsistence, but, viewed as a frontier, may prove of infinite importance to the United States, inasmuch as it is calculated to serve as a barrier to prevent too great an extension of our population westward and secure us against the machinations or incursions of an enemy that might otherwise be disposed to annoy us in that quarter."

Less than sixty-five years have passed since the region of which Denver is the great centre was thus pronounced useless except as a frontier to serve as protection from an enemy, and this judgment reminds one of a keen insight into the evolutionary progress of life expressed by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe when she remarked that "Every generation makes a fool of the one that went before it." Colorado, pronounced "thoroughly uninhabitable" in 1842, was organized as a territory in 1861 and in 1876 admitted as a state.

Darwin, who regarded "climate and the affections" as the only absolute necessities of terrestrial existence, should have lived in Denver, for of all the beautiful climates is that in which revels the capital of Colorado. The air is all liquid gold from sunrise till sunset; the mountains swim in a sea of azure blue; the ground is bare and dry in winter, affording the best of walking, and there are few cities where the general municipal management exceeds or is, perhaps, even as good as that of Denver. The electric street-car service is on schedule time, and the two hundred and twenty-five miles of its extent already, with increase in the near future, is certainly an achievement for a young city. Nature is a potent factor in this excellent service, as there is no blocking by heavy snowstorms and blizzards, as in the Middle West and the East.

The gazer in the magic mirror of the future requires little aid from the imagination to see, in the growth and development of Denver, an impressive illustration of the significance of the name of the state of which it is the capital and the keynote. With what felicitous destiny is the name invested in the old Castilian phrase, "A Dios con le Colorado" (Go thou merrily with God),—a parting salutation and benediction. Denver is, indeed, more than a state capital; it is the epitome of the great onward march of civilization, and it must always be considered in its wide relations to all the great Southwest as well as in respect to its own municipal individuality.

No citizen of Denver has contributed more to the moral and intellectual quality of the city as one of the conductors of great enterprises held amenable to the higher ideals of citizenship, than has Mr. S. K. Hooper of the Denver and Rio Grande, which is one of the marvels of the West in scenic glory. From May till October pleasure tourists throng this marvellous route through the Royal Gorge, through mysterious caÑons and across the Divide. For it must always be remembered that Denver is a great city for tourists and season visitors, and the floating population exceeds a hundred thousand annually. Beautiful as it is in the winter, Denver is also essentially a summer city. There is not a night in the summer when the wind, cool, refreshing, exhilarating, does not blow from the great rampart of the snow-clad, encircling mountains. There is not a morning when the wind does not come again, sending the blood leaping through the veins, while the sun rides across the heavens in a glory of brilliancy, and the great range rears its white head to the cloudless blue sky.

The Denver Art League is a flourishing association that has under its auspices classes in drawing, water colors, and sculpture. Already many artists of Colorado are winning a name. A new Public Library is now in process of erection, and the Chamber of Commerce also maintains a free library of some twenty-five thousand volumes, the reading-room open every day in the year. The city appropriates six thousand dollars a year for the expenses of this institution.

The educational standards of Denver are high. Drawing, music, and German are included among the studies of the grammar schools, and physical culture is introduced in each grade. The high school building cost a quarter of a million dollars, and stands second in the entire country in point of architectural beauty and admirable arrangements. Besides the splendid public-school system there is the University of Denver, a few miles from the city; St. Mary's (Catholic) Academy, and two large (Episcopal) schools for girls and boys, respectively,—"Wolfe Hall" and St. John's College. The Woman's College and Westminster University complete this large group of educational institutions which centre in Denver. There is also the University of Colorado at Boulder, which has established a record for success under the able administration of Dr. James H. Baker, who, in January of 1892, was called to the presidency after having served as principal of the Denver High School for seventeen years. President Baker is well known in educational circles in the United States as a scholarly man and a capable college president. He has been offered the presidency of other State universities from time to time, but has preferred to remain in Boulder and to concentrate his efforts toward making this institution one of the largest and best of the state universities. He has always been active in the State Teachers' Association and the National Council of Education.

For three years past the University of Colorado has held a summer school with a large attendance of teachers and college students. In this past season of 1906, Professor Paul Hanus of Harvard University gave a valuable course of lectures on education, and Professor Hart, also of Harvard, conducted a course in history.

Over a hundred and fifteen thousand pupils are enrolled in the public schools of Denver, including all grades, from the primary to the high school. The latter offers the full equivalent of a college education freely to all.

The churches of Denver are numerous, and include many fine edifices besides the large granite Methodist Church that cost over a quarter of a million dollars. It is not, however, only the church structures that are noble and impressive, but the preaching in them is of an unusually high order of both intellectual power and spiritual aspiration. The keen, critical life of Colorado's capital demands the best thought of the day. The wonderful exhilaration of the atmosphere seems to exert its influence on all life as a universal inspiration.

The new building for the Denver Public Library is under process of construction, an appropriation of a quarter of a million dollars having been made for the edifice, which will stand in a small triangular park, insuring air and light, and giving to its approach a stately and beautiful dignity.

The Colorado capital is tending to fulfil the poet's ideal of affording

"room in the streets for the soul."

The life is most delightful. Without any undue and commonplace formalities, yet always within that fine etiquette which is the unconscious result of good breeding, the meeting and mingling has a cordial and sincere basis that lends significance to social life. The numerous clubs, and the associations for art and music, for Italian, French, and German readings, are all vital and prominent in the city, and the political equality of woman imparts to conversation a tone of wider thought and higher importance than is elsewhere invariably found.

Denver, which should be the capital city of the United States, is pre-eminently the convention city. Even with all the beauty of Washington and the vast sums that have been expended within the past fifteen years in the incomparable structure for the Library of Congress, and in other fine public buildings, and the splendor of the private residence region,—even with all this, and the fact that the Capitol itself is one of the notable architectural creations of the world, the nation is great enough and rich enough to found a new capital which should far surpass the present one, however fine that present one may be. However great are the treasures of art and architecture in Washington, the change could be, even now, made with the greatest advantage for the future. Within a quarter of a century all that invests Washington with such charm in architectural beauty and in art could be more than duplicated in Denver. The nation has wealth enough, and the most modern ideas and inspirations in these lines surpass those of any previous age or decade. The present is "the heir of all the ages."

No one need marvel that Denver ranks as the western metropolis of the Union, with its delightful climate, its infinite interests, its centre as a point for charming excursions, and its sixteen railroad lines.

In this atmosphere of opportunity and privilege there is, indeed, "room for the soul" and all that the poet's phrase suggests. There is room for all noble and generous development; for the expansion of the spirit to express itself in all loveliness of life, all splendid energy of achievement; and in all that makes for the supreme aim of a nation,—that of a Christian civilization,—no city can offer greater scope than does Denver the Beautiful.

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