There is a free school system, with an enrolment of nearly four thousand pupils, with a hundred and eighteen teachers under a superintendent with an assistant. There are thirty-four churches, representing almost every variety of faith.
VIEW FROM BULL HILL, RICHEST GULCH IN THE WORLD
Cripple Creek, the largest of these, lies in a hollow of the mountains, whose surrounding ranges are a thousand feet above the town. It consists mostly of one long street, with minor cross-streets, and there are little shops with chiffons, "smart" ribbons and laces, and all sorts of articles of dress making gay the show windows, and one sees women and children in all their pretty and stylish summer attire. There are two daily papers and an "opera house." Cripple Creek is a rather favorite point with dramatic companies, as the entire town, the entire district, turns out, and the audiences do not lack in either enthusiasm or numbers.
Mr. William Caruthers, the district superintendent, estimates that this region has become one of the greatest gold-producing regions in the world; and in rapid development, and in the richness of its ores, nothing like it has ever been known before. In fifteen years the cattle ranges have been transformed into a populous district with fifty thousand people, and with all the modern conveniences of Eastern cities.
The electric trolley system connects all the towns in Cripple Creek district and passes near all the large mines. This trolley line is owned and controlled by the "Short Line," and is greatly sought for pleasure excursions both by visitors and residents.
Electric cars convey the miners up and down the hills to their respective mines. The class of laborers is said to be greatly improved of late years, and Mr. Caruthers informs the questioner that no problematic characters are longer tolerated in Cripple Creek. It has ceased to be the paradise of those who, for various unspecified personal reasons, were unable to keep their residence in other cities, or had left their own particular country for their country's good. When such characters appear, Mr. Caruthers and his staff guide them with unerring certainty to the railroad track, with the assurance that these intruders are wanted in Colorado Springs, and that, although there may be no parlor-car train, with all luxuries warranted, leaving at that moment for their migrating convenience, yet the steel track is before them, and it leads directly to Pike's Peak Avenue (the leading business street of Colorado Springs), and they are advised at once to fare forth on this mountain thoroughfare. The persuasion given by Mr. Caruthers and his assistants is of such an order that it is usually accepted without remonstrance, and the objectionable specimens of humanity realize that their climb of several thousand feet up to the famous gold camps was by way of being a superfluous expenditure of energy on their part.
The special entertainment in Cripple Creek is to make the electric circle tour, on electric trolley cars, between Cripple Creek and Victor, going on the "low line" one way, and the "high line" the other. The high line is almost even with the summit of Pike's Peak, that looms up within neighborly distance, and the splendor of the Sangre de Cristo range adds a bewildering beauty to the matchless panorama. On this round trip—a trolley ride probably not equalled in the entire world—one gets quite near many of the famous mines, whose machinery offers a curious feature in the landscape.
Taking the trip in the late brilliant afternoon sunshine along this mountain crest, offers the spectacle of an entire landscape all in a deep rose-pink, gleaming, in contrast with the dark green of the cedar forests, like a transformation scene on a stage.
The tourist who regards this life as a probationary period, to be employed, as largely as possible, in festas and entertaining experiences, may add a unique one to his repertoire, should he be so favored by the gods; and sojourning in neighborly proximity to the "Garden of the Gods," why should they not bestir themselves in his favor? At all events, if he has contrived to invoke their interest, and finds himself invited by Mr. MacWatters (the courteous and vigilant General Passenger Agent of the "Short Line") to make the return journey from Cripple Creek, down below the clouds to Colorado Springs in a hand car, he will enjoy an experience to be treasured forever. For the hand car runs down of its own accord, by the law of gravitation, and is provided with an air-brake to regulate its momentum. To complete the enchantment of conditions,—and it need not be said that in a Land of Enchantment conditions conform to the prevailing spirit and of course are enchanting,—to complete these, let it be a partie carrée, with Mrs. MacWatters, and with Ellis Meredith, the well-known Colorado author, to make up the number; for the keenest political writer in Colorado is a woman, and this woman is Ellis Meredith. It is a name partly real, partly a literary nom-de-plume, and which is the one and the other need not be chronicled here. The name of Ellis Meredith has flown widely on the wings of fame as the author of a most interesting story, "The Master-Knot of Human Fate," which made an unusual impression on critical readers. "The Master-Knot" is an imaginative romance, whose scene is laid on one of the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. It presupposes an extraordinary if not an impossible situation, and on this builds up a story, brilliant, thoughtful, tantalizing in its undercurrent of suggestive interest, and altogether unique.