Colorado, quite irrespective of party, is all aglow with the name of Alva Adams. Good Republicans have long been greatly perplexed over the fact that the man they most desire to vote for, the man to whose guidance they would most willingly commit the affairs of state, is a Democrat. The ability, the unquestioned integrity, the fidelity to lofty ideals, and the great administrative power of Governor Adams inspire the almost universal enthusiasm of Colorado irrespective of party lines.
No son of the Centennial State is more in sympathy with its individual problems. Born in Wisconsin (some fifty-five years ago), Governor Adams was about to enter the Ann Arbor Law School when the illness of a brother brought him in his earliest youth to Colorado. Its beauty, its rich possibilities, enchanted him. Here he married a very cultivated and beautiful young woman, whose parents came in her early girlhood to Colorado, and whose sympathetic and perfect companionship has been the unfailing source of his noblest inspiration.
In an address on "Pathfinders and Pioneers," given before an irrigation congress at Colorado Springs, we find Governor Adams saying:
"What a sublime moment when the explorer realizes the fruition of his dream! What fateful hours upon the dial of human progress when Columbus saw a new world emerge from the sea, when Balboa stood 'silent upon a peak in Darien,' when Lewis and Clark upon the continent's crest saw the waters of the rivulet run toward the West! Such events compensate great souls, and their spirits defy hardship, ingratitude, chains, dungeons, and the axe. The curtain has been run down upon the careers of those brave men whose praise we sing. Their race is run. The explorer, priest, trapper, and pioneer have vanished.
"'Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last.'
"Would it be a daring assumption to consider the irrigated regions of America as the arena in which the fifth act, time's noblest offspring, is to perfect and complete the drama of civilization?
"Irrigated lands were the cradle of the race. The first canals were run from the four rivers of Paradise. May not the fruition of mankind seek the same conditions amid which it was born? Providence has kept fallow this new land until man was fitted to enter and possess it.
"'Hid in the West through centuries,
Till men, through countless tyrannies, could understand
The priceless worth of freedom.'"
"I would not decry culture and refinement," said ex-Governor Adams in this address; "they are the charm and beauty of modern life, the music and art of the social commerce of the age; but in their acquirement I would not give up the robust, vigorous, daring qualities of the pioneer."
"They had blood and iron in their heart, they had the nerve to dare, the strength to do. I do not believe in battle for battle's sake; but I never want to see our people when they are not willing to fight, and able to fight. The only guarantee of peace and liberty is the ability and willingness to do battle for your rights. Refinement alone is not strength, culture alone is not virtue. Absalom, Alcibiades, and Burr stand in history as the most polished, cultured men of three ages, yet they were more a menace than a brace to the liberties of their time. In stress, the world calls upon the Calvins, the Cromwells, the Jacksons, Browns, and Lincolns. They were stalwart, strenuous, courageous men; not cultured and refined, but rich in royalty and daring. It is the rugged and the strong, and not the gentle and the wise, who gather in their hands the reins of fate and plough deep furrows in the fields of human events. It is they who have driven the car of progress and have woven the deepest colors in the fabric of human happiness. It is true that some of our Western torch-bearers were not perfect; none of them were ever anointed with the oil of consecration; around them surged the temptations of a wild and boisterous age; through their hearts and souls there swept the impulses and passions of the strong; if they sinned, it was against themselves, not their country. Let their frailties be forgotten, and their good cherished. Often rough and defiant of the conventionalities, they were ever true and loyal, and most of these empire builders can stand before the great white throne with open hearts. They were the architects, the Hiram Abifs of these Western empires. They laid the foundations in courage and liberty."
Let no one fancy that Pueblo is a primitive Western city devoid of electricity, telephones, motor cars, or even Marconigrams. Let no one fancy it is too far from Paris to have the latest French fashions. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that it demands the best and the most up-to-date ideas of the Eastern cities to be at all eligible in these Colorado towns. Pueblo has a most delightful club-house on the edge of a lake—the lake is artificially created, and being made to order, is, of course, exactly the kind of lake that is desired, the water being conducted from the mountains into a large natural depression—where great open fires in every room greet the daily visitor; where there are large reading-rooms, a dining-room, and a ball-room; no intoxicating beverages of any kind are allowed to be sold, so that youths and maidens may at any time enjoy the club with no insidious dangers to their moral welfare.
There are many centres of social life; and if Pueblo people have any other conceivable occupation than to give dinner parties at night and go motoring in the morning, with endless receptions of the Daughters of the Revolution and other clubs, organizations, or purely private card receptions invading the afternoons, the visitor hardly realizes it. The dinners given are often as elaborate as in the large Eastern cities, as one, for instance, given by Mr. and Mrs. Mahlon D. Thatcher at their stately home "Hillcrest," where the decorations were all in rich rose red, a most brilliant effect, and the souvenirs were India ink reproductions of old castles on white satin. The dinner cards held each a quotation from the poets.