ctual and moral greatness. This man is
Nathan Cook Meeker, the founder of the town of Greeley, Colorado; the
founder and for many years the editor of the Greeley "Tribune;" later
appointed by President Hayes, in a somewhat confidential capacity, the
Indian Commissioner at White River, where he died the death of a hero,
and where, marking the spot of the tragic massacre, the town of Meeker
now stands, among the mountains of the Snowy Range.

Mr. Meeker, who is one of the heroes of pioneer civilization, founded
this town in the very desert of sand and sage-brush. Its first inception
is a wonderful idyl of the extension of progress into the unknown West.
The vision of the bands of singing angels in the air that fell upon the
shepherds in the Judean plains was hardly more wonderful than the vision
out of which the town of Greeley arose from the desert. On a December
night in the late sixties Mr. Meeker found himself one evening standing
under the brilliant starry skies of Colorado near the foot of Pike's
Peak. The marvellous splendor of the scene filled his mind with sublime
picturings. In the very air before him he seemed to see a city arise in
the desert--a city of beautiful ideals, of high purposes, of temperance,
education, culture, and religion. The vision made upon him that
permanent impression which the heavenly vision, revealed for one instant
to a life, forever makes, however swiftly it may be withdrawn; however
deep and dark the eclipse into which it fades and seems forever lost.

To Mr. Meeker had been granted the angelic vision. The ideal had been
revealed, and it was revealed in order that it might be realized in the
outer and actual world. He felt the power, the nameless thrill of
enchantment that pervades this wonderful country. One who is a poet in
heart and soul has said of this Pike's Peak region:--

"Over the range is another world--a happy valley hundreds of miles
in extent, fenced in with beauty and joy; palisaded with God's own
temples; roofed with crystal and gold, and afloat in dream life;
perpetual youth in thought and growth--all of it life to the soul;
music and rapture to the weary traveller of earth. Oh, the leaping
ecstasy of it by day and by night, and at the dawn!"

This indescribable ecstasy of the Colorado air communicated itself to
Mr. Meeker. He went home to New York; he called a meeting in Cooper
Institute; Horace Greeley presided, and Mr. Meeker outlined