Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. - Various None (e book reader android txt) 📗
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Noted Rocky-Mountain Explorers, The Hospitalities Of The Old Fort. Many
Times Were Its Soft Walls Indented By The Arrows Of Besieging Indians,
But Its Bloodiest Tragedy Was Enacted In 1854, When The Utes Surprised
The Sleeping Company And Savagely Massacred All.
While These Events Were Transpiring At The Old Fort A Party Of Mexicans
Had Journeyed From The South, Crossed The Arkansas River And Formed A
Settlement On The East Side Of The Fontaine. A Characteristically
Squalid And Miserable Place It Was, With The Dwellings--They Scarce
Deserved The Name Of Houses--Built In The Side Of The Bluffs Very Much
As Animals Might Burrow In The Ground. Part Dug-Out And Part Adobe Were
Those Wretched Habitations, And The Shed-Like Parts Which Projected From
The Hill Were Composed Of All Conceivable And Inconceivable Kinds Of
Rubbish. Sticks, Stones, Bits Of Old Iron, Worn-Out Mattings And
Gunny-Sacks Entered More Or Less Into The Construction Of These Dens,
All Stuck Together With The Inevitable Adobe Mud. The Settlement
Extended Some Distance Along The Side Of The Bluff, And The Sloping
Plain In Front Was Dignified As The _Plaza_. Perhaps The Dark-Hued
Immigrants Expected A Large Town To Spring From These Unpromising
Beginnings, And Their Plaza To Take On Eventually All The Importance
Which A Place So Named Ever Deserves In The Spanish And Mexican Mind.
But The Pike'S Peak Excitement, Originating In 1852 With The Finding Of
Gold By A Party Of Cherokee Indians, And Reaching Its Culmination In
1859, Brought A Far Different Class Of People To Our Rocky-Mountain
Outpost, And A Civilization Was Inaugurated Which Speedily Compelled The
Ancient Mexican Methods To Go By The Board. Thus, Fontaine Was Soon
Absorbed By The Rising Town Of Pueblo, Though The Ancient Dug-Outs Still
Picturesquely Dot The Hillside, Inhabited By Much The Same Idle And
Vagabond Class From Which The Prosperous Ranchman Soon Learns To Guard
His Hen-Roost.
The Growth Of Any Of Our Far Western Towns Presents A Curious Study. In
These Latter Days It Frequently Requires But A Few Months, Or Even
Weeks, To Give Some New One A Fair Start Upon Its Prosperous Way.
Sometimes A Mineral Vein, Sometimes The Temporary "End Of The Track" Of
A Lengthening Railway, Forms The Nucleus, And Around It Are First Seen
The Tents Of The Advance-Guard. Before Many Weeks Have Elapsed Some
Enterprising Individual Has Succeeded, In The Face Of Infinite Toil And
Expense, In bringing A Sawmill Into Camp. Soon It Is Buzzing Away On The
Neighboring Hillside, And The Rough Pine Boards And Slabs Are Growing
Into Houses Of All Curious Sizes And Shapes, Irregularly Lining The Main
Street. Delightfully Free From Conventionality Are Matters In These New
Towns. Former Notions Of Things Go For Naught. Values Are In a
Highly-Disturbed State, And You Will Probably Be Charged More For The
Privilege Of Sleeping Somewhere On The Floor Than For All The Refined
Elegancies Of The Fifth Avenue. The Board-Walks Along The Street, Where
They Exist At All, Plainly Typify This Absence Of A Well-Defined Dead
Level Or Zero-Point In The Popular Sentiment; For The Various Sections
Are Built Each Upon The Same Eccentric Plan That Obtains In The
Corresponding House. The Result Is An Irregular Succession Of Steps
Equally Irregular, With Enough Literal Jumping-Off Places To Relieve Any
Possible Monotony Attending The Promenade. If The Growth Of The Town
Seems To Continue Satisfactory, Its Houses--At Least Those In Or Near
Its Central Portions--Begin Gradually To Pass Through The Next Stage In
Their Development. During This Interesting Period, Which Might Be Called
Their Chrysalid State, They Are Twisted And Turned, Sometimes Sawn
Asunder, Parts Lopped Off Here And Applied Elsewhere, And All Those
Radical Changes Made Which Would Utterly Destroy Anything Possessed Of
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 8Protean Possibilities Inferior To Those Of The Common Western Frame
House. But, As A Final Result Of This Treatment And Some Small Additions
Of New Material, At Last Emerges The Shapely And Often Artistic
Cottage, Resplendent In Paint, And Bearing Small Resemblance To The
Slab-Built Barn Which Forms Its Framework. If The Sometime Camp Becomes
A City--If Auraria Grows Into A Denver And Fontaine Develops Into
Pueblo--The Frame Houses Will Sooner Or Later Share A Common Fate, That
Of Being Mounted On Wheels Or Rollers For A Journey Suburbward, To Make
Room For The Substantial Blocks Of Brick Or Stone. By This Curious
Process Of Evolution Do Most Of Our Western Towns Rapidly Acquire More
Or Less Of A Metropolitan Appearance.
[Illustration: Mexican Interior.]
Pueblo, While Not A Representative Western Town In These Respects, Yet
In Its Early Days Presented Some Curious Combinations, Most Of Them
Growing Out Of The Heterogeneous Human Mixture That Attempted To Form A
Settlement. The Famous Green-Russell Party, On Its Way From Georgia To
The Pike'S Peak Country, Had Passed Through Missouri And Kansas In 1858,
And There Found An Element Ripe For Any Daring And Adventurous Deeds In
Unknown Lands. Many Of The Border Desperadoes, Then Engaged In That
Hard-Fought Prelude To The Civil War, Found It Desirable And Expedient
To Leave A Place Where Their Violent Deeds Became Too Well Known; And
These, Together With Others Who Hoped To Find In a New Country Relief
From The Anarchy Which Reigned At Home, Fell Into The Wake Of The
Pioneers. Pueblo Received Its Full Share Of Kansas Outlaws About This
Time, And, What With Those It Already Contained, Even A Modicum Of Peace
Seemed Out Of The Question. Here, For Instance, Was Found Living With
The Mexicans By The Plaza A Quarrelsome Fellow Named Juan Trujillo,
Better Known By The Sobriquet Of Juan Chiquito Or "Little John," Which
His Diminutive Stature Had Earned For Him. This Worthy Is Represented As
A Constant Disturber Of The Peace, And He Met The Tragic Fate Which His
Reckless Life Had Invited. From Being A Trusted Friend He Had Incurred
The Enmitv Of A Noted Character Named Charley Antobees, Than Whom,
Perhaps, No One Has Had A More Varied Frontier Experience. Coming To The
Rocky Mountains In 1836 In The Employ Of The American Fur Company, He
Has Since Served As Hunter, Trapper, Indian-Fighter, Guide To Several
United States Exploring Expeditions, And Spy In The Mexican War As Well
As In The War Of The Rebellion. Antobees Still Lives On The Outskirts Of
Pueblo, And His Scarred And Bronzed Face, Framed By Flowing Locks Of
Jet-Black Hair, Is Familiar To All. The Frame That Has Endured So Much
Is Now Bent, And Health Is At Last Broken, And About A Year Since An
Effort Was Made By Judge Bradford And Others To Secure Him A Pension.
But Twenty Years Back He Was In His Full Vigor And Able To Maintain His
Own Against All Odds. Whether Or Not It Is True We Cannot Say, But
Certain It Is That He Is Credited With Causing The Death Of Juan
Chiquito. An Indian Called "Chickey" Actually Did The Deed, Lying In
Ambush For His Victim. Perhaps Few Were Sorry At The Mexican'S Sudden
Taking Off, And In a Country Where Judge Lynch Alone Executes The Laws
The Whole Transaction Was No Doubt Regarded As Eminently Proper.
Among Those Who Came To Pueblo With The Influx Of 1858 Were Two Brothers
From Ohio, Josiah And Stephen Smith. Stalwart Young Men Were These, Of A
Different Type From The Kansans And Missourians, Yet Not Of The Sort To
Be Imposed Upon. They Were Crack Rifle-Shots, And Even Then Held Decided
Opinions On The Indian Question--Opinions Which Subsequent Experiences
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 9Have Served To Emphasize, But Not Change. And What With Constant
Troubles With The Savages, As Well As With The Scarcely Less Intractable
Kansans, Their First Years In The Far West Could Not Be Called
Altogether Pleasant. Many A Time Have Their Lives Been In danger From
Bands Of Outlaw Immigrants, Who, Dissatisfied With Not Finding Gold
Lying About As They Had Expected, Sought To Revenge Themselves Upon The
Settlers, Whom They Considered In Fault For Having Led The Way. Their
Personal Bravery Went Far Toward Bringing To A Close This Reign Of
Terror And Transforming The Lawless Settlement Into A Permanent And
Prosperous Town. Still In The Prime Of Life, They Look Back With
Pleasure Over Their Most Hazardous Experiences, For Time Has Softened
The Dangers And Cast Over Them The Glow Of Romance. And While None Are
More Familiar With Everything Concerning The Early History Of Pueblo, It
Is Equally True That None Are More Ready To Gratify An Appreciative
Listener, And The Writer Is Indebted For Much That Follows To Their
Inimitable Recitals.
About The First Work Of Any Note Undertaken In connection With The New
Town Was The Building Of A Bridge Across The Arkansas. This Was
Accomplished In 1860, When A Charter Was Obtained From Kansas And A
Structure Of Six Spans Thrown Across The River. It Was A Toll-Bridge,
And Every Crossing Team Put At Least One Dollar Into The Pockets Of Its
Owners. But Trouble Soon Overtook The Management. While One Of The
Proprietors Was In New Mexico, Building A Mill For Maxwell Upon His
Famous Estate, The Other Was So Unfortunate As To Kill Three Men, And
Was Obliged, As Steph Smith Felicitously Expressed It, To "Skip Out."
Thus The Bridge Passed Into Other Hands, Where It Remained Till It Was
Partly Washed Away In 1863. The Following Little Matter Of History
Connected With Its Palmy Days Will Be Best Given In The Narrator'S Own
Words: "We Had A Blacksmith Who Misused His Wife. The Citizens Took Him
Down To The Bridge, Tied A Rope Around His Body And Threw Him Into The
River. They Kept Up Their Lick Until They Nearly Drowned The Poor Cuss,
Then Whispered To Him To Be Good To His Wife Or His Time Would Be Short.
He Took The Hint, Used His Wife Well, And Everything Was Lovely. That
Was The First Cold-Water Cure In Pueblo, And I Ain'T Sure But The Last."
This Incident Serves To Illustrate The Inherent Character Of American
Gallantry, For, However Wild Or In Most Respects Uncivilized Men May
Appear To Become Under The Influence Of Frontier Life, Instances Are
Rare In Which Women Are Not Treated With All The Honor And Respect Due
Them. Indeed, I Have Sometimes Thought That The General Sentiment
Concerning Woman Is More Refined And Reverential Among The Bronzed
Pioneers At The Outposts Than Under The Influence Of A Higher
Civilization.
The Arkansas, Ever Changing Its Winding Course After The Manner Of
Prairie-Rivers, Has Long Since Shifted Its Bed Some Distance To The
South, Leaving Only A Portion Of The Old Bridge To Span What In High
Water Becomes An Arm Of The River, But Which Ordinarily Serves To Convey
The Water From A Neighboring Mill. We Lean Upon Its Guard-Rail While
Fancy Is Busy With The Past. We Picture The Prairie-Schooners Winding
Around The Mesas
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