Backiocwds March. 347 



broad and four inches in thickness. The weight was 128 pounds, and the 

 metal was so pure as to rate at $20.65 per ounce, making the value of the 

 brick about $45,000. 



Such things are mere trifles around the Argo; and the Grant works 

 are only second in their output. In either you may see a trough full of 

 pure silver-sponge, as big as a good-sized manger in a barn. I think that 

 the ores which are worked in these great establishments are, as a rule, very 

 refractory ; and their treatment requires the greatest pains and the best 

 watchcare of scientific skill. 



I was delighted with the character of the Denver people. The news- 

 papers are of a high grade; and every public aspect of civic life indicates, 

 unmistakably, the presence and endeavor of a high-minded and vigorous 

 community. There is in Denver a considerable aggregation of distinguished 

 men, and they exhibit a public spirit worthy of the highest commendation. 

 I am constrained to say that of all the considerable cities which my winter 

 tours of some ten thousand miles have brought me to, I think I should on 

 the whole prefer Denver. I hope you will not repeat this statement to Los 

 Angeles, for she would be indignant, you know, and declare that the writer 

 is a Denver real estate speculator, which I would he were ! Nevertheless, he 

 sticks to his assertion. The solid brick houses of Denver city, her fine pub- 

 lic buildings, her magnificent schools, at the very head and front of any with 

 which I am acquainted, and many other elements of human happiness and 

 progress, constrain him to believe that the rational man would prefer this 

 Rocky Mountain Queen to almost any other divinity of the times. 



For a full week I stayed in Denver, and familiarized myself, as much as 

 I could, with her nature and variety. There is nothing stale in these brill- 

 iant precincts. Much there is, doubtless, which might be fitly defined as 

 reckless. But beauty is prevalent over ugliness, and worth has a clear vic- 

 tory over worthlessness. I found the bar of Denver to be a body of men 

 peculiarly able, scholarly, and eloquent. I should be unworthy of the many 

 favors which I received at his hands if I did not especially acknowledge my 

 indebtedness to my host, Judge 0. B. Liddell, a well-tried Hoosier of old 

 days, who, from his pleasant home on Grant avenue, looks out each morn- 

 ing on the city of his choice. To Madame, also, and Olivia, I send a poor re- 

 turn of grateful thanks. Nameless, I suppose, must be the accomplished 

 ladies of the public schools whose delightful society I enjoyed for brief 

 periods during my stay; but not nameless my friend Superintendent Gove, 

 of the city schools, and Chancellor More, of Denver University. 



Of one thing I satisfied myself, while tarrying in the city, and that is 

 that the supposed benefit, aye, the actual, undeniable benefit, to persons 

 laboring under pulmonary disease, by residence in this fine, dry, highlj' 

 electrified air, is in no sense medicinal, but a purely mechanical matter. 

 The atmosphere is so light that much more is required to satisfy the de- 

 mands of the system for a current supply of oxygen than is demanded at a 

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