The Climate Of Colorado Is Considered The Finest In North
America, And Consumptives, Asthmatics, Dyspeptics, And Sufferers
From Nervous Diseases, Are Here In Hundreds And Thousands, Either
Trying The "Camp Cure" For Three Or Four Months, Or Settling Here
Permanently.
People can safely sleep out of doors for six months
of the year.
The plains are from 4,000 to 6,000 feet high, and
some of the settled "parks," or mountain valleys, are from 8,000
to 10,000. The air, besides being much rarefied, is very dry.
The rainfall is far below the average, dews are rare, and fogs
nearly unknown. The sunshine is bright and almost constant, and
three-fourths of the days are cloudless. The milk, beef, and
bread are good. The climate is neither so hot in summer nor so
cold in winter as that of the States, and when the days are hot
the nights are cool. Snow rarely lies on the lower ranges, and
horses and cattle don't require to be either fed or housed during
the winter. Of course the rarefied air quickens respiration.
All this is from hearsay.[8] I am not under favorable
circumstances, either for mind or body, and at present I feel a
singular lassitude and difficulty in taking exercise, but this is
said to be the milder form of the affliction known on higher
altitudes as soroche, or "mountain sickness," and is only
temporary. I am forming a plan for getting farther into the
mountains, and hope that my next letter will be more lively. I
killed a rattlesnake this morning close to the cabin, and have
taken its rattle, which has eleven joints. My life is embittered
by the abundance of these reptiles - rattlesnakes and moccasin
snakes, both deadly, carpet snakes and "green racers," reputed
dangerous, water snakes, tree snakes, and mouse snakes, harmless
but abominable. Seven rattlesnakes have been killed just outside
the cabin since I came. A snake, three feet long, was coiled
under the pillow of the sick woman. I see snakes in all withered
twigs, and am ready to flee at "the sound of a shaken leaf." And
besides snakes, the earth and air are alive and noisy with forms
of insect life, large and small, stinging, humming, buzzing,
striking, rasping, devouring!
[8] The curative effect of the climate of Colorado can hardly be
exaggerated. In traveling extensively through the Territory
afterwards I found that nine out of every ten settlers were cured
invalids. Statistics and medical workers on the climate of the
State(as it now is) represent Colorado as the most remarkable
sanatorium in the world.
I. L. B.
Letter V
A dateless day - "Those hands of yours" - A Puritan - Persevering
shiftlessness - The house-mother - Family worship - A grim Sunday - A
"thick-skulled Englishman" - A morning call - Another
atmosphere - The Great Lone Land - "Ill found" - A log camp - Bad
footing for horses - Accidents - Disappointment.
CANYON, September.
The absence of a date shows my predicament. THEY have no
newspaper; _I_ have no almanack; the father is away for the day,
and none of the others can help me, and they look contemptuously
upon my desire for information on the subject. The monotony will
come to an end to-morrow, for Chalmers offers to be my guide over
the mountains to Estes Park, and has persuaded his wife "for once
to go for a frolic"; and with much reluctance, many growls at the
waste of time, and many apprehensions of danger and loss, she has
consented to accompany him. My life has grown less dull from
their having become more interesting to me, and as I have "made
myself agreeable," we are on fairly friendly terms. My first
move in the direction of fraternizing was, however, snubbed. A
few days ago, having finished my own work, I offered to wash up
the plates, but Mrs. C., with a look which conveyed more than
words, a curl of her nose, and a sneer in her twang, said "Guess
you'll make more work nor you'll do. Those hands of yours" (very
brown and coarse they were) "ain't no good; never done nothing, I
guess." Then to her awkward daughter: "This woman says she'll
wash up! Ha! ha! look at her arms and hands!" This was the
nearest approach to a laugh I have heard, and have never seen
even a tendency towards a smile. Since then I have risen in
their estimation by improvizing a lamp - Hawaiian fashion - by
putting a wisp of rag into a tin of fat. They have actually
condescended to sit up till the stars come out since. Another
advance was made by means of the shell-pattern quilt I am
knitting for you. There has been a tendency towards approving of
it, and a few days since the girl snatched it out of my hand,
saying, "I want this," and apparently took it to the camp. This
has resulted in my having a knitting class, with the woman, her
married daughter, and a woman from the camp, as pupils. Then I
have gained ground with the man by being able to catch and saddle
a horse. I am often reminded of my favorite couplet, -
Beware of desperate steps; the darkest day,
Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.
But oh! what a hard, narrow life it is with which I am now in
contact! A narrow and unattractive religion, which I believe
still to be genuine, and an intense but narrow patriotism, are
the only higher influences. Chalmers came from Illinois nine
years ago, pronounced by the doctors to be far gone in
consumption, and in two years he was strong. They are a queer
family; somewhere in the remote Highlands I have seen such
another. Its head is tall, gaunt, lean, and ragged, and has
lost one eye. On an English road one would think him a starving
or a dangerous beggar. He is slightly intelligent, very
opinionated, and wishes to be thought well informed, which he is
not.
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