THE THIRD NATIONAL IRRIGATION CONGRESS. 



will be indeed a memorable day in thehistory of 

 American irrigation. This occasion alone should at- 

 tract an immense gathering from all over the country. 



COST OF THE EXCURSIONS. 



The Denver Committee of Arrangements, of which 

 Hon. E. W. Merritt is chairman and Thos. L. Smith, 

 secretary, advises us that special arrangements have 

 been made with the railroads in order that these at- 

 tractive excursions may be placed within the reach 

 of all delegates, visitors and homeseekers. 



IV. DENVER. 



The city of the congress; the fascinating, surpris- 

 ing, and not-easy-to-depart-from city, the entire at- 

 tractions and merits of which we cannot hope to re- 

 hearse in one article. 



It has become a saying among women that it is 

 unsafe for men to leave the cars, or stop over at Den- 

 ver, as an irresistible charm is worked to create rest- 

 lessness and dissatisfaction elsewhere, and when the 

 entrancing city, with its " s.tony sponsors for the 

 passing years," the grand Rockies, standing as if to 

 guard it for 250 miles, and the long stretches of fine 

 avenues, are all familiar to us, we understand, we 

 feel, and yield to the spell. 



We read its history, and try to realize that we are 

 introduced to a city boasting only thirty-five years of 

 existence, but contradictions bewilder us, and we 

 dimly comprehend the marvels accomplished in that 

 short time. 



It was of this country that Daniel Webster said, on 

 the floor of the Senate in 1838, when a post-route 

 west from the Missouri was under discussion: 

 " What do we want with this vast, worthless area, 

 " this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, 

 " shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus 

 " and prairie dogs? To what use could we ever hope 



WINDSOR HOTEL, DENVER. 



" to put these great deserts, or those endless mount- 

 "ain ranges, impregnable and covered to their very 

 " base with eternal snow? * * * What use have 

 "we for such a country?" The answer was begun 

 twenty years later, when savages and beasts were 

 braved, when Denver had its beginning ; and since 

 irrigation has transformed these deserts into gardens, 

 and almost incomputable wealth has been wrested 

 from these mountains, we wonder where Webster 

 roams that he hears not the reply. 



The claims of this goodly place are not shifting as 

 its sands may have been, but urge themselves upon 

 us as most enduring ones. The almost perfect cli- 

 mate is too well advertised to mention, since Denver 

 has become one of the sanitariums of the world ; but 

 no visitor has ever been wholly prepared for the 

 beauty of the city in its splendid public and private 

 buildings; the halls and corridors of the former are 

 faced with exquisite marble or onyx, while scores of 

 homes are of finely cut stone, blue, red or brown. 

 There are hotels of beautiful pressed brick and terra 

 cotta, or of brown stone, cleverly finished in onyx, 

 marble or choice woods, while as a whole, in no com- 

 munity in the country of Denver's size do better 

 school houses stand. 



There are no tenement houses to work their harm 

 to health and happiness, but, according to the U. S. 

 census officials, Denver ranks first in the country in 

 the number of homes to her population, for the 

 humblest laborer occupies a separate little home, 

 with no meagre space about him. 



Denver is beautifully situated at the meeting point 

 of the plains and the foothills. One hundred and 

 seventy-five miles of boundless prairie surface away 

 from the State line on the east, and only twelve miles 

 westward to the actual mountains themselves. 



There is no city in the world that surpasses Denver 

 in its means of public transportation its rapid tran- 

 sit system astonishes everyone, even its own people, 

 accustomed to its increase and advantages. 



As a business and financial center Denver claims 

 as her kingdom the entire country between the Mis- 

 souri river and the Sierra Nevadas, and from the 

 Gulf to the British Provinces. The business men of 

 the city know that the prosperity of the country 

 tributary to it is necessary for its own best develop- 

 ment, and are ever ready to give time and money for 

 any enterprise tending to the building up of the 

 State, or to the improvement of economic conditions in 

 the West. The truth of this is proved by the work 

 Denver men are now doing for the coming congress. 

 Personally, the members of the local committee are 

 but slightly, if at all, interested in agricultural mat- 

 ters, or in irrigation, but to advance the cause of the 

 latter, which they hold next to silver in importance, a 



