"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.