One of the prominent measures enacted by the Board of Trustees of Manitou in the early part of the present year was the enactment of a stringent liquor license ordinance designed to prevent the sale of liquor on Sunday, and the maintaining of wine rooms in connection with saloons.

The provisions of this ordinance especially intended to reach these evils were: (1) an unobstructed view of the interior of the premises on Sunday; (2) no connection with a restaurant or lunch counter by door or window and (3) no entrance from saloon or outside entrance to wine room where women are permitted to be or remain.

A requirement of the ordinance was a written application presented at a regular meeting of the Board which then had to lie over at least one week for any one to file his or her written protest against the issuance of the license-and if such protest was filed a hearing must be had upon notice.

To grant a license a vote of four members-being a majority of all elected-was required.

So well has this plan worked that up to this date Aug. 3, there have been no prosecutions of one of the saloon keepers.

One license application has been refused because the applicant declined to answer satisfactorily questions as to whether he would employ certain objectionable men.

Manitou owns and manages her own system of waterworks, which for the first time in many years is being managed successfully by the Board. Manitou is much in need of a complete sewerage system, only portions of the town now having connection with sewers, while the greater portion of the sewage is emptied into the open Fountain and Ruxton Creeks. Some work has been done by the present Board looking toward connections between small portions of the system. Sanitary conditions, to say nothing of the reasonable demands of tourists, will long before this century box shall be opened compel the Trustees of Manitou to make a perfect sewerage system connecting with that of Colorado Springs and Colorado City emptying the refuse of all three below Colorado Springs. The streets of our city have been well care for the present year.

Much stir was created in the early time of the present Board about the clock donated heretofore by J.B. Wheeler together with a public fountain. This clock had been very perverse about running for years.

Some citizens wanted to purchase a new clock from the Western Union Telegraph Co. for $250-while others wished the old clock repaired for a much less sum.

Much satire, irony and feeling was created and indulged in, but the repairers won-and so far it runs despite the predictions of its opponents.

Future citizens of the 21st Century-what of the clock?

Another matter which caused the present Board annoyance was the appointment of Marshal. The fight was bitter and somewhat prolonged, but finally Mr. Cree won. Another matter which caused some feeling was an ordinance compelling parties keeping burros for hire to take them outside the city limits during the nighttime so their braying would not annoy invalids and sensitive citizens and required the person wishing a license to sign a written agreement to this effect. One applicant refused to sign this form, but upon his license being refuse gave in and signed under protest.

The makeup of the Board, Town officers and appointees is as follows: Mayor, D.H. Rupp, manager of the Wheeler interests and a young man of much travel; Trustee and Mayor pro tem, F.M. Cooper, a physician and proprietor of the Ruxton Hotel; Trustee, W.A. Davis, manager of the Davis Jewelry and Curio Co. at the Soda Springs Pavilion, especially watchful of the streets and waterworks; Trustee, W.H. Rogers (the inflammable) proprietor of the Sunnyside Hotel; Trustee, William Long engaged in handling plumbers' supplies in Colorado Springs; Trustee A. Hutchinson of the firm of Hutchinson and Sawin-livery, coal and feed-Trustee A.M. Dagget, real estate. Chas A. Grant of Grants Curio is Recorder, Mrs. A.M. Frovine of the Manitou Journal, Treasurer, both elective; A.Cree, Marshal, H.S. Francisco, Police Magistrate, W.H. Pray, Street Commission, and the writer Town Attorney, Dr. Rich, Town Physician. All the above are Republicans save Trustee Rogers and the writer who are Peoples Party adherents.

One other matter of legislation of great importance to our citizens was the granting of a franchise to a competing light company reducing the price of electric lights to ½ or in some cases ¼ of former prices.

As an instance of the town being well managed our debt has already been reduced this year more than $1000-and instances of thievery and crime is rare.

As a prophecy, I believe that upon the opening of this the three cities will all be united under one government-that there will be no saloons in Manitou proper-that the people will come to know that such additions to a beautiful resort are a detriment and not an advantage-and may that day be hastened is my earnest wish.

Greetings fraternal to you citizens of the 21st Century with the hope and belief that our work here and now has not been in vain for the up-building of good government.

John W. Kriger
Town Attorney


Manitou Colorado
August fourth Nineteen-hundred-one

To write a message that may be of interest to people whose grand-parents are yet unborn pre-supposes the writer to be possessed of a knowledge of human-nature.

Being a woman, I will suppose that these yet undreamed of people whom I am addressing, will feel some curiosity about the writer, who I am, what I am and why I was asked to be one of those who are writing letters for this Century box.

Firstly then I am the youngest daughter of Jonathan Nutten and only child of his second wife Sarah Jennings Nutten, born at Moscow Hills, Dale County, Michigan, thirty years ago. In 1890 I was married to Charles Harold Frowine, editor and proprietor of the Manitou Springs Journal.

Here it is that my letter gets away from the necessary ego embodied in the introduction and begins to assume a more impersonal character.

Of my husband, his ability in business, his courage under conviction and his loyalty to the welfare of his town, more will be found in any history of Manitou, since he was one of the town's history-makers. Briefly then, for whole worlds of heartache we compressed into a few words now as surely as they will be one hundred years from now, my husband worked heroically to the end that the saloons and gambling houses of one beautiful resort might be brought under the control of the law. For his work he was attacked by unknown men one night in August, 1897, receiving injuries from which he died about two months later. A man who as surely gave his life for his town as any soldier who falls in battle gives his for his country.

After his death I found myself confronted by a vast deal of business and about six months later having sold a half interest in the paper to Lyman B. Grafton, I went into the journal office and as rapidly as possible made myself familiar with all save the mechanical part of the paper. My partner devoting himself to school work, I have assumed management of the paper and my hard work has been rewarded with a fair degree of success.

It is for this reason I suppose that I have been asked to write this letter and have been betrayed into what seems to me an unwanted and unavoidable account of egotism.

I wish it was possible to leave to the future an adequate picture of Manitou as it has been this season. The rugged mountain sides with their jagged, gaping wounds made by pre-historic upheavals, have worn a more generous mantle of green than is their custom and the town has been thronged with tourists.

Manitou has a resident population of nearly 1,500 people; the tourists who have visited the town this year must number nearly 50,000. These visitors come chiefly from Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Texas. Some remain for but a few days while others stay for months.

Of hotels the largest is the Cliff which accommodates 250 guests. EE Nichols and son are proprietors. Next in size is The Barker, Hon. C.W. Barker proprietor; Mansions and Manitou, D.K. Torrey, Prop.; Sunny Side, Capt. N.H. Rogers; Ruxton, Dr. F.M. Cooper. Also numerous smaller hotels and boarding houses.

The following clipping will give some idea of the volume of business in the post office, the statistics being tabulated by Hon. H.H. Grafton, post master.

[printed clipping]
Receipts of Postoffice.
The best index of the business done is the postoffice receipts. Below we print the receips [sic] of the Manitou office since 1892. It will be seen that the receipts for the year 1901 are far in excess of the receipts of any previous year. This speaks well for the amount of business doing in Manitou.

1892 $776 15
1893 614 39
1894 638 25
1895 934 37
1896 775 52
1897 985 86
1898 867 29
1899 1020 24
1900 1063 76
1901 1368 88
[end of clipping]

The Manitou Journal is the only paper published in the town and it is recognized throughout the country as the handsomest resort paper published. Enclosed is a copy which contains much matter concerning the town and a description of one form of distribution.

Of our municipal officers, D.H. Rupp is mayor, W.A. Davis, W.H. Rogers, A.M. Daggeth, F.M. Cooper, A. Hutchinson, and N.M. Long trustees, C.A. Grant is recorder and I am myself serving my fourth term as treasurer, being, I believe, the first woman ever elected to such a position.

Dr. William F. Rich is town physician and J.W. Kriger (who has written a letter more fully covering the municipal affairs) is town attorney.

What message - what greeting can I give to you - you dear unknown people of an unknown future? Nothing better perhaps than the prayer of Dickens' Tiny Tim- "God bless us everyone.

Aileen Nutten Frowine