Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/109

Rh railroad enterprise has been active in Colorado. The territory contained on Jan. 1, 1872, 392 m. of completed railroads. The lines in operation are as follows: the Denver Pacific, from Cheyenne, Wyoming territory, to Denver, 106 m.; the Kansas Pacific, from Kansas City, Mo., to Denver, 639 m.; the Denver and Boulder Valley, from Hughes, on the Denver Pacific, 18 m. from Denver, to Erie (to be extended to Boulder City, 16 m. further); the Colorado Central, which will open a line of communication between Denver and the mountain towns and cities (completed to Black Hawk, 38 m., with branches from Fork's Creek to Floyd Hill, 4 m., and from Golden City to Longmont, 41 m.); the Arkansas Valley, from Kit Carson on the Kansas Pacific to Pueblo (completed to West Las Animas); and the Denver and Rio Grande railroad, which will connect Denver with El Paso in Mexico (completed to Pueblo, 118 m., with a branch to Coal Banks, 38 m.). The following table shows the length of railroads in operation in the territory in 1873, with the capital stock and cost of construction of the entire lines so far as ascertainable:

The Denver and Rio Grande was the first narrow-gauge railroad built in the United States. The gauge is 3 ft., the rails weighing only 30 lbs. to the yard. The maximum curvature is 6° in 100 ft., and the maximum grade 75 ft. to the mile. The use of this gauge has proved very successful, both from its effects in cheapening transportation, and its practicability over routes presenting insuperable obstacles to the construction of a wider road bed. A line of telegraph from Denver connects with the transcontinental line at Julesburg, Nebraska, and another connects Denver with Santa Fé, New Mexico. The entire length of telegraph lines in operation, Jan. 1, 1873, was 862 m. Colorado contains 6 national banks, with an aggregate capital of $575,000, of which 3, with a capital of $400,000, are in Denver; and 27 fire, 12 life, and 2 accident insurance companies have agencies in Colorado.—The government is similar to that of the other territories. The legislature consists of a council of 13 and a house of representatives of 26 members; its sessions are biennial. The election is held on the first Tuesday in October. The executive power is vested in a governor, secretary, treasurer, auditor, adjutant general, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, and secretary of the board of agriculture. The salary of the governor is $2,500; secretary, $1,800; treasurer, $700; auditor, $1,000. The judicial power is vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts, and justices of the peace. The supreme court is composed of a chief justice and two associates, one of whom holds a district court in each of the three judicial districts into which the territory is divided. The supreme and district courts have general jurisdiction in law and equity. The salary of each judge is $4,500. The principal executive and judicial officers are appointed for four years by the president of the United States. The territory is entitled to one delegate in congress. There is no territorial debt. In 1870 the county debts amounted to $678,829, for which bonds had been issued to the amount of $620,000; town, city, &amp;c., debts, $2,329. The total taxation not national was $362,197, of which $63,425 was territorial, $267,207 county, and $31,571 town, city, &amp;c. In 1871 the internal revenue collections amounted to $69,993. In 1870 the assessed value of real estate was $8,840,811, personal $8,497,290; total assessed value, $17,338,101; true value of real and personal property, $20,243,303.—Colorado has a good school system, administered by a territorial superintendent and a county superintendent for each county, who are elected biennially by the people. There are also three directors for each of the districts into which each county is divided, elected annually. In 1872 the number of public schools was 175; teachers, 230; pupils, 5,640; value of school buildings, $180,645; amount of school fund, $121,372. The total expenditure for school purposes in 1871 was $98,105, of which $45,250 were for teachers' wages. High schools have been organized in a number of the chief towns. According to the census of 1870, there were 18 private schools, with 32 teachers and 516 pupils. There were 175 libraries of all classes, with 39,344 volumes; of these 30, containing 11,385 volumes, were public, of which 2 (2,000 vols.) were school libraries, and 22 (5,685 vols.) were connected with Sunday schools. The territorial library at Denver, which also contains a valuable collection of mineral specimens, had 2,600 volumes. There were 14 newspapers and periodicals, issuing 1,190,600 copies annually, and having an average circulation of 12,750. Of these 4 were daily, circulation 2,200; 9 weekly, circulation 9,550; and 1 monthly, circulation 1,000. The number of church organizations was 55; of church edifices, 47; sittings, 17,495; value of church property, $207,230. The principal religious denominations were: