THE POPULATION OF COLORADO 219 
the hidden treasures of the mountains does not develop that patience and 
contentment necessary to him whose industry will yield but small returns. 
Colorado began her life in the first flushes of a gold fever. By 1870 
depression was on in the territory, and great numbers returned to the 
East. In the late seventies another mining fever and another rush to 
the mountains. In the period following 1890 another depression more 
severe than any that had gone before; but soon followed by rich strikes 
in the Cripple Creek district. A population exposed to these changes 
and possibilities does not accustom itself readily to those industries 
yielding small returns. It has been filled with the notion that somehow 
it is possible to amass a fortune rapidly. Hence, the enormous 
amount of energy devoted to finding methods whereby this can be done. 
While it is true that the allurements of mining do not appeal to the youth 
of the West at the present time as they did to his father at an earlier day, 
nevertheless, having been reared in a community where there live a 
number of men who have “‘struck it rich,” he thinks of large profits and 
a comparatively few years as the time necessarily needed to amass 
wealth. He is therefore attracted to speculative undertakings, and not 
enthusiastic for manufacturing or other enterprises that do not promise 
speedily a large return. 
