compound name. It would be interesting to find the records of this old city government, but afterward the flood came, and we must await the resurrection of the city safe from the sands of turbulent Cherry Creek.

I have been told, (and I think it is correct,) that this legislature met and organized at the town of Arapahoe, which was about four miles below Golden, on the north bank of Clear Creek, where placer mining was carried on quite extensively in 1859 and early in 1860. After organizing

moved to Denver. In 1859 there was a large settlement at Arapahoe; but when I first saw it, the town was nearly deserted, and soon after it passed entirely out of existence, and its site is now part of a ranch, not a single house remaining.

All these various governments prepared the way for accepting the territorial form of government, provided for by act of Congress, approved February 28, 1861, called the Organic Act. During the following summer an election was held, and in the fall the legislature met and passed a full code of laws. The printed volume contains a preface, setting forth the advantages of the country. Regarding the gold product, it is said:

"First and foremost of the mineral resources of the mountains is gold. To the extraction of this metal the energies of the people have been most successfully directed. For the first year in which labor to this end was systematically applied, gold was

produced to the amount in round numbers of $5,000,000. During the succeeding year the sum of $8,000,oco was reached. And hereafter, as the art of saving the precious dust is better known and developed, and the amount of labor and capital increased, it may be safely estimated that at least $50,000,000 will be annually produced."

In regard to the laws it is said:

"Although justly subject to criticism as being imperfect in many respects, yet the history of the territories of the United States furnishes nowhere more complete, more practical, more liberal or more effective laws as the result of the first session of a legislature in a newly-organized community. The people of the territory can desire no better promise of their prosperity and greatness in the future; the volume itself is a triumphant proof, if any was needed, of the stability of republican institutions and the ability of the people to govern themselves."

In 1861 an act was passed to incorporate the city of Denver. This charter was similar to that of the provisional government of 1859, Provision is made for dividing the city into three wards by the former council, and validating all previous acts under the old charter.

Probably there was not as much to fight over then as now, and certainly there was not so much excitement or interest in who should be candidates as we are having in the city just now.

Of paupers in those early days, that is such as we now know so well, who are such by choice, there were none. Misfortunes and sickness came to some, but relief was ever ready. The miner's hand was hardened by honest toil, but his heart was softened by pity for the misfortunes of others. An application for help to send a sick or disabled man to his Eastern friendsto America, as it was called or to care for him until well, always met a hearty response. The necessary amount was raised at once. Every man was a member of the relief committee and a contributor to its fund. An associated society was not necessary. Such help-I do not call it charity was seldom misplaced. No questions were asked about the sufferer's family or church connections, or what caused him to need help. If he was in need, that was enough; the relief came.

The people came closer together in the mountains than elsewhere. Friendships were formed and cemented in those early days that still remain undimmed, often growing stronger as time goes on, and such as only death has severed or will sever. Did you ever see old timers meet on the street or elsewhere and notice the cordial manner in which they greet each other, often by their first names or some familiar nickname? Just why it is so, or how it is, I cannot tell you, but they know and feel it in a manner different from later associations. Their lot was not an easy one, I can assure you, and

there is something in hardships, mutually borne, that makes a bond of friendship that could never have existed under more favored conditions. A trip to this country, when it was first settled, was a very different matter from traversing the same route today. Such things often are most plainly shown by comparison.

Some weeks ago a friend and myself had some business which called us to Chicago. Saturday night at 9:15 we took a sleeper and started. Monday morning we took breakfast in Chicago. Monday and Tuesday were devoted to business until that was disposed of, and then to a considerable amount of sight-seeing. Tuesday evening at 6 o'clock we took the train for Omaha, where we arrived for dinner the next day, and had five hours for the transaction of business, giving us almost the whole of the business hours of the day there. We then took the overland train, and arrived in Denver for breakfast Thursday morning, having been. away just three business days. We had two full days for business in Chicago and one in Omaha.

March 3, 1860, we crossed the Mississippi river on the ferry from Rock Island. We had some trouble with one of our horses, and did not get away from Davenport, on this side of the river, until the 5th, as long as it now takes to go to Chicago. Before we got across the State of Iowa, we were compelled by the rain and mud to stop and wait for the roads to become passable. Near Lewis we

camped two weeks at one time. Omaha we were detained a few days by the sickness of one of our party. Omaha then was a frontier river town, and doing a good business with plainsmen, emigrants and freighters. While then, as it has proved to be since, progressive and enterprising, it was, in many respects, a rough place.

We really left the settlements the first day out from Omaha, and within two or three days came into the country of the Pawnee Indians. These Indians were then scattered along the Platte from Omaha to Fort Kearney. While many of them were well developed physically, they were as a whole the most degraded people I ever saw. As usual, they had imbibed all the vices of the whites to the fullest extent, but had wholly failed to take any of their virtues. For days they lined the road, men, women and children, partly or wholly naked, begging for anything and everything they could get. The men, especially, usually putting their requests in this orderwhisky, tobacco, matches, biscuit. A great deal was given them, and a great deal more in the way of small items they borrowed when the owners were not looking.

Two or three days' travel below Fort Kearney we crossed the Platte at Shinn's Ferry. It was a difficult crossing and we felt very much relieved when we made it. It took us all day waiting and getting across. Arriving at Kearney we found a military post with the usual legend: "No

camping allowed within one mile of these grounds." Besides the post there were two or three rough saloons and gambling halls, general store and blacksmith shop. The buildings were constructed of adobe and cottonwood logs. This was the first adobe I had ever seen, and was a great curiosity.

Soon after leaving Kearney we came into the country of the Sioux, Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians, and continued to see them almost or quite daily until we were nearly to the mountains. The military post at Kearney was useful in keeping the Pawnees below and these western Indians apart. They were, and for years had been, at war. Sometimes they would pass the soldiers and have a fight, and we were told that the result was generally in favor of the Pawnees, forces being equal. These Western Indians begged what they could get, but otherwise gave us no trouble.

In crossing the plains by team in this slow manner for the first time there is something in the change to the dry atmospmere of the "arid region," as it is often called, that is very peculiar but very pleasant. We knew nothing about it until we realized it. None of our party of four knew anything about the road or country; it was all new and a revelation to us. Our team was heavily loaded, and while one drove the other three walked. One of our party being or thinking he was an invalid rode more than the rest of us, so I walked much

twenty years old. In this expedition he doubtless displayed more than the ordinary amount of military ability, for a commission was offered him in the royal service when the troops came marching home without any glory. Young Clark declined, because, no doubt, he was disgusted with British tactics in fighting the Indians, and because he wanted to see what would come from the disputes between the Colonies and King George. His bold, intrepid spirit could not confine itself to the formal methods of civilized warfare. He was too full of the love of adventure to be a subordinate in the

army. He was an adventurer by nature, a soldier by chance at first, then by choice, the choice resulting from a belief that war would gratify his ambition soonest. Kentucky was attracting the daring young men of Virginia, and thither Clark went on a trip of exploration in 1775; the settlers made him commander, and in that capacity he spent the summer, becoming thoroughly acquainted with the country, and returning to Virginia in the fall. The spring of 1776 found him again in Kentucky.

One who studies the life of Clark is impressed at once with one fact; namely, that he was a consummate master of the arts of intrigue. By nature he was a schemer, a wire-puller, and training seems never to have improved him in these tricks. He looked upon Kentucky and saw what a chance there was for a leader. Resolving to be that leader, he called the people

Kentucky as

to meet at Harrodstown, June 6, 1776, without stating the purpose of the meeting. His intention was to have agents chosen with power to negotiate with Virginia for the organization of Kentucky as a county, and in case the desires of the agents were not granted to organize the people of Kentucky into a separate state. Mr. Clark arrived late at Harrodstown, and found that the settlers had partly understood his purpose, and had chosen him and Gabriel Jones delegates to the Virginia Legislature. It is darkly suggestive of Cæsar saying he would rather be first man in a certain dirty village than second in Rome, to see Major Clark leaving Virginia when the Revolution was fairly begun to become a delegate for the scattered hunters of Kentucky. Scheming was his delight, but his artifices prior to 1787, were directed to the benefit of the nation. Το lead was natural; to follow was an awkward piece of work. Against Indians and detached British posts he was uniformly successful, until after his thirtieth year.

When delegates Clark and Jones arrived in Virginia, the Legislature had adjourned, and, Mr. Jones going to the Holston settlements, Major Clark went to see Governor Patrick Henry, who was sick at Hanover. The Governor heard Clark's plans, approved them, and recommended Clark to the executive council. The councillors were pleased with the Kentucky idea, but refused to furnish the powder asked or unless Clark would be responsible