18 NEW TRACKS IN NOBTH AMEEICA. 



of the line is only moved every two or tLree montlis ; and as 

 ricli valleys are far scarcer in tliis section of country than in 

 Kansas, the town -usually moves also, while nothing remains 

 to mark the spot where thousands lived, but a station, a name, 

 and a few acres of bare earth. Last winter, Cheyenne was 

 the terminal depot on this route, and increased in size to 5,000 

 inhabitants. A man I met at Denver, who had just conic 

 from Cheyenne, told me that while he was standing on the 

 railway platform, a long freight train arrived, laden witli 

 frame houses, boards, furniture, palings, old tents, and all the 

 rubbish which makes up one of these mushroom " cities. 

 The guard jumped off his van, and seeing some friends on the 

 platform, called out with a flourish, " Gentlemen, here's Jules- 

 burg." The next train probably brought some other " city, 

 to lose for ever its identity in the great Cheyenne. 



The men of Kansas have discovered in these towns as fine 

 a field for speculative amusement as the best managed 

 Hombiirg could offer. Thousands of dollars are daily won 

 and lost all along the line by speculating in town lots. A 

 spot is chosen in advance of the line, and is marked off mto 

 streets, blocks, and town lots, sometimes by the railway 

 company, sometimes by an independent land company. As 

 the rails approach it, the fun begins, and up goes the price oi 

 the lots, higher and higher. At last it becomes the ternimal 

 depot — the starting-point for the western trade — where tiie 

 goods are transferred from the freight vans to the ox trains, 

 and sent off to Denver, to Santa Fe, Fort Union, and other 

 points. It then presents a scene of great activity, an 

 quickly rises to the zenith of its glory. Town lots ^re 

 bought up on all sides to build accommodation for the 

 traders, teamsters, camp-followers, and "loafers," who seem 

 to drop from the skies. This state of things, however 



, lasts 



