E. H. Saltiel must have been very unhappy about the Tuska Report as he wrote a letter in response to it and now, he is writing a somewhat longer letter to the American Hebrew.
The American Hebrew (1879 - 1902); Oct 27, 1882
Mr. Saltiel and the Cotopaxi Colony: Cotopaxi Placer Mine Company
Saltiel, Emanuel H.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857 - 1922) pg 132
Cotopaxi, Colorado, Oct 19, 1882.
To the American Hebrew.
In your issue of October 4th, 1882 I find a publication purporting to be a “report” of Mr. Tuska, on the condition of the colony of Russian Refugees now here. The glaring falsehoods contained therein necessitate a reply, and as you have given publication to Mr. Tuska’s side, I must respectfully request that my side be given, and assure you that in every specific charge made, I hold substantial proof - both under proper oaths administered by proper officers or by letters written by persons in high repute.
In the commencement of the quotation from Mr. Tuska’s report, he states that “Immediately on my arrival, I called on Julius Schwartz, the General Manager of the Colony, whom I found master of the situation, and who willingly gave me all information required as to the doings of E. H. Saltiel in whose care the colony was intrusted.”
In this opening paragraph, the entire foundation for the falsehoods concerning my “doings” is laid bare, and the reason for the criminal libel, thereinafter perpetrated can be briefly shown.What criminal libel? Saltiel wrote this on Oct 19 and we need to remember that Saltiel went to prison in November 1882 as Hart had him arrested on libel. That appears to have started about the same time as this letter.
In the first place Schwartz, a relative of Mr. Tuska,no proof of this relationship
was employed at the office 15 State St, last April as a clerk at a salary of Ten dollars per week out of which he boarded himself, and was, after several conversations, between M. A. Kursheedt Esq. and myself, appointed, or hired, at a salary of Twenty dollars per week, he to find himself board and lodging, to go to Colorado as a clerk and interpreter to the colony.Schwartz was paid $20 per week yet Saltiel only paid the Colonists $1.50 per day to work in his mine.
I went to Colorado at my own expense and arranged for the building of a number of houses during the summer months, guarding as is usual, loss or delay to the Contractor from flood, fire or visitations of Providence. On the eighth day of May this contract was verbally agreed to, between the Contractor and myself and a memoranda agreement in writing was drawn up, but not signed on that day, but a short time afterwards the signatures of both parties were attached, and the houses proceeded with.This memoranda agreement was never recorded in Canon City yet Saltiel dutifully recorded hundreds of documents.
He "went to Colorado at his own expense" - confirmation that Saltiel was not residing in Cotopaxi when he arranged for the Colonists to go there.
The "contractor" was his cousin, E. S. Hart. Who was having him tossed in jail about the time this letter was written.
We now know that as of the end of July, the houses had not been completed.
There are records in the clerks office where Edward Jones had declared a mining site. Nothing showing that he surveyed the Colonists plots.
The Refugees arrived on May 9, the at Cotopaxi and on May 11th. I requested Mr. Schwartz to accompany a colored farmer, one Edward Jones, to Oak Grove Creek with a few of the colonists and stake out the bottom land under the farmer’s direction.
What is "bottom land" at an altitude of 8000'?
In the afternoon the whole of them returned, discontented, and reported a fierce quarrel had taken place between Schwartz and themselves, and they did not like the land.Anyone given this land to farm would be discontented and quarrelsome.
Quarrelling continued between Schwartz and the colonists at intervals, until early in the Morning of May 12th, when I was awoke by loud cries and shouts. I immediately partially dressed and started for the door of my house where I found Schwartz terribly excited, surrounded by a threatening mob of men and women. Not understanding their language, I at length by asking a few questions in Hebrew, got to understand that they had demanded their “declaration of citizenship” papers; and that Schwartz had refused to deliver them up.Why did they want their declaration papers? So they could leave? Why did Schwartz refuse to give them to them? There is no record of them being filed in Canon City, so they had to have been filed in NYC before they left and brought with them? Why was this even an issue? Why didn't the Colonists already have them in their possession? We may never have the answer to these questions.
I at once peremptorily ordered him to bring them to me, as the Colonists made themselves understood that they wished to leave Cotopaxi.So they did want to leave! They visited the land Saltiel had selected for them. Mind you, this land had not been surveyed - it had never been declared under the homestead act. Saltiel just took them to No surprise that they wanted to leave.
On obtaining their papers from my hands with the exclamation “go in peace! God be with you,” they quieted down,
He is upset with Schwartz because his management position of the Colony had been taken away from him and given to a man half his age.
until Schwartz turned on them with a hateful look and made use of some angry expression in German, that I did not understand.If Saltiel did not understand the expression, how can he write about it?
Whatever it was, it had a similar effect to throwing oil on fire, and a regular mutiny broke out;"mutiny" -what Saltiel was charged with at Ft Laramie.
so much danger did I consider him in that I called to a couple of men and had rifles loaded to protect him if it should have become necessary.Evidence this happened in town as there were others around.
During this time, the colonists were comfortably housed in a long house that I had brought for them and in two log houses that I owned and had hitherto used for several of my miners.The Colonists were housed in the now vacant buildings that we found in the 1880 census that housed the men brought in to build the railroad. Those 2 buildings were built by the railroad. Once the track was laid, those workers moved on to other parts and the buildings would have been vacant. Saltiel did not bring them in. And there would be nothing "comfortable" about 70 Colonists residing in these limited facilities.
Detailed accounts of the tribulations of the colonists were sent to the Secretary and L. Gershel Esq. to New York;These reports have never been located. Do they exist? Or is Saltiel just saying this? HEAS closed in 1883. Saltiel filed everything in Canon City. Copies of items from other counties. Why didn't he file copies of these reports?
and all of which are set forth in full in my report now only awaiting a settlement with the Society to complete.Settlement? He was paid before the Colonists ever left to go to Cotopaxi.
For about four weeks after his arrival, Schwartz worked hard, and being a young man, entirely ignorant of everything pertaining to either pioneer life or methodical business, did really well, and his efforts to overcome the novelty of his position, received from me warm praise.This would be from May 9 to June 9. The first 4 weeks the Colonists were at Cotopaxi.
On May 27th I went with Schwartz and another man into the Wet Mountain Valley, and selected a corner to start a survey line, and gave directions to run from that point as a centre and take up Two thousand acres of the best land.Surveys were never filed. Only the declarations made by the Colonists. But nothing on the 2000 acres. Definitely not the "best land"
I drove three stakes into the land and directed Schwartz to tell the colonists that ploughing must commence on the following day. One team of good horses and two ploughs had already been provided from funds sent to me by M. A Kursheedt for that purpose.So here Saltiel admits that out of thousands of dollars HEAS gave him, he bought one team of horses and 2 ploughs for 17 families (70 people) to use to plant food.
Several of the colonists had applied to me to give them lots to build on, upon the town site of Cotopaxi, of which I am the largest owner. I agreed to grant them a forty-nine year lease
Saltiel had declared a claim of 160 acres in Cotopaxi. This is in the clerk's office. He filed under the homestead act. He then sold all but 5 acres to his company, the Cotopaxi Coal & Iron Company. He did not have the right to do that as he had not farmed the land under the homestead act for 5 years. He did not have the right to lease this land to the Colonists. He was in violation of the law.
—and under certain restrictions permit them to take the water from the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company ditches of which ? I was President.These ditches were on the land that Saltiel filed under the homestead act. He made his claim in 1879. This was 1882. He had not been there 5 years.
Two families only, out of the twelve here, appeared settled and willing to work the land with a determination to succeed. To these two families, I apportioned two building lots each and ordered the Deputy County Surveyor to run certain lines across my lands to enable the houses to front what will at an early day, be a business street.Nudelman and Shuteran. Saltiel did not have the right to have his land resurveyed and these surveys were never filed at the recorder's office, nor were they filed at the Land office in Pueblo.
This Deputy Surveyor Freeman, had already been engaged by me to lay out and survey the lands for the colony and it took him about two and a half days to run the lines across my lands for the benefit of these two deserving families. That has been the only cost that the Society has been at in the matter.Freeman is in the clerk's records and his residence was Cotopaxi. No evidence of these surveys in the recorder's office.
Because he had not been paid.
About the end of the fourth week after arrival here, I found that Mr. Schwartz began to grow somewhat discontented at not having received his salary
and as he had learned through letters received by him from New York that Mr. Kursheedt had either resigned or that a change was about to take place,HEAS was in great financial problems. I will post those articles sometime in the near future. June, 1882, HEAS made a decision to stop funding any of the existing colonies (including Cotopaxi) and in June, 1883, they closed their doors.
he urged me to go to New York and see if I could obtain some further aid to guard these people during the coming winter and especially to look after his own salary. On my asking how much was due him, he replied that some six week’s salary was due and after I had figured it up at twenty dollars per week, he demanded that his board should be added to it.He had no income, no way to pay his board.
I was so astounded at the proposition that I determined to simply hand him twenty dollars on account, pay his board bill and leave to the Society to settle up with him.
Did Saltiel actually pay Schwartz? He put everything into writing, but not this.
I said nothing at the time to Schwartz but found that my business was suffering from the time and attention that I had given to the colony, for which I neither received nor asked any compensation;There was no agreement between Saltiel and HEAS that Saltiel would receive money other than the initial lump sum.
but as I had performed much work for which Schwartz claimed both pay for and the merit of doing, I determined to have him earn, if I could, his full wages in the future.Saltiel is a disgruntled former manager who is upset that his job is now in the hands of a man half his age.
By my direction the horses of the colony were carefully stabled in a neighboring barn, neither Mr. Schwartz nor the field foreman Tobias paying much attention to them, I had my son and another lad take them up nearly every night.Evidence that John T. Saltiel stayed in Cotopaxi when his mother left to go to NYC. John would have been 11 or 12 at this point.
By terribly hard usage, the horses became slightly disabled.One team of horses for 70 people! Very hard usage.
I ordered them carefully taken care of for a few days by Edward Jones, and as soon as they had recovered admonished Schwartz of the necessity of caring for the horses better.Saltiel had thousands of dollars yet he only provided one team of horses. There were 70 colonists who needed to plant enough crops to provide for themselves and to make a living. This is high plateau, rocky, hard soil. Saltiel should have known that only one team of horses could not do this job. Again, was he wanting them to fail in order to force them to work in his mines?
So neglectful had Schwartz become, that on the 15th day of June I felt compelled to tell him that he had neglected his work.Schwartz had not been paid for 4 to 6 weeks, yet Saltiel expected him to continue to work at his normal pace.
I at once noticed his suppressed anger, but never imagined that it would lead him either of his own accord or by conspiring with others to attempt to defame my fair name.Saltiel is accusing Schwartz of the same thing he was accused of in Ft Laramie.
In the mean time two houses had been completed and occupied by the Nudelman and Chutman families,This was a "double" house in Cotopaxi. Two houses attached to each other, sharing a common wall.
notwithstanding Mr. Tuska’s report that “Saltiel had failed to build the houses,”Nudelman was a carpenter. Did he build his own house? This accounts for 2 houses. What about homes for the other 11 families?
and forty thousand feet of lumber, a large quantity of nails, doors, windows, spikes and material purchased to build other houses, the greater part of which had been delivered on the ground near the railroad depot.But how was it to be transported 8 miles up a 2000' incline? The same team of horses?
In addition to the building material, six out of twelve No. 8 western cooking ranges, costing in Canon City $25 each had been delivered, as well as stove pipe and cooking utensils.What about the other six cooking ranges?
On June 21st, it became necessary for me to employ a lawyer on behalf of the colonists, as Mr. Schwartz had reported to me that an attempt had been made to illegally take away two parcels of land that the colonists had located upon. I paid for that purpose $25 as a retainer, and to have the matter looked into.There are no records of this in the clerk's office in Canon City. And because the "2000 acres" that Saltiel said he had declared, had never been recorded in Canon, how could he claim someone else was taking it away illegally? Only the 17 plots that we have found recorded by the Colonists and there is no record of anyone doing this in 1882.
What had Saltiel done with the thousands of dollars already given to him by HEAS?
Having found that the funds on hand were insufficient to both complete houses, buy wire fence, cots, etc., that were necessary,
I reluctantly left my business and started for New York, to lay before the Society the exact condition of affairs. In the meantime I requested the then contractor, Mr. Hart, to continue building the houses steadily on the farms until my return, and ordered ploughing to be continued and a turnip crop be planted early in July.Saltiel was out of money. Who was going to pay Hart for his work?
Planting anything in July would be too late for an early harvest required by mountain temperatures.
About fourteen thousand of seed potatoes had been sowed prior to the 21st of June, and a supply of seed for later planting, such as turnips, etc., that are planted always in July in this part of Colorado.Is Saltiel a person who talks with a lot of authority, but has no proof?
Colorado was "open range". Cattle must be fenced out. There were thousands of cattle in this area at that time. Lots of cattle rustling. Cows would eat any seedlings coming up out of the ground that was not fenced in.
My orders before leaving here were to push forward the building of houses vigorously upon all the farms selected by the colony, and particularly to take good care of the horses. Several coils of wire fence I purchased, so as to start fencing in the most exposed places,
and requested Schwartz to set that the men cut sufficient posts and have them set in the ground ready to receive the wire as soon as the Society should have supplied sufficient funds to obtain it.Saltiel was given sufficient funds already. Did he use this money for his own good? In the mines? To pay off lawsuits he was involved in?
Mr. Schwartz gave me profuse promise that these instructions would be carried out, and the man Tobias, who acted as field man, well understood my directions. I placed great confidence in Schwartz, so much so that, at that time he passed his time almost entirely with me—slept in the same bed and actually became a confidant of my social secrets.If you read older posts, you will see that Saltiel's wife had an affair and he sent her to NYC the year before. And we know that he married Fannie only 4 months after he wrote this letter.
No proof of any letters.
While absent in New York trying to aid these people I received several letters, now in my possession from Schwartz, urging me to try to procure for his father a position in the Society, on account of his father’s financial condition, and also urging me to have his salary paid at $27 per week. This, I afterwards learned was all that he had done during my absence of over three weeks in New York.
On my return to Cotopaxi I found the horses dead—owing to the two men Schwartz and Tobias, not taking proper care to have them stabled at night. They were run over by passing trains on on the railroad.Schwartz and Tobias were responsible to stable the horses each night. Yet the horses were used on the farms 8 miles south of town. Who took them to the farms? Who brought them back? Why did Saltiel blame Schwartz?
The few rolls of wire fence remained where I had left them; and no fence posts of any consequence had been set in the ground. It was reported to me, that Schwartz had not visited the Wet Mountain Valley settlements during my entire absence.Schwartz had not been paid since he arrived in Cotopaxi. Why was he expected to work at all?
The colonists crowded round me, on my return, with complaints and lamentations. I told them that I could no understand much that they said, but that if they had any real grievances to set them down in writing, and I would consider them. Tobias heard me tell them, it was the duty of Schwartz, the salaried man, to have taken care of them.That salaried man wasn't getting a salary!
Schwartz knowing the fact also, immediately set to work, change his entire behavior towards me, and commenced the preparation of a Jesuitical plan to circumvent what he readily understood must be my action, namely, a demand for his instant recall from the position that he had of late so poorly filled.
I telegraphed on the 17th, 19th, 20th and 21st to H. S. Henry that either Schwartz leaves or I erase my connection with the Society. I was ignorant at that time of the fact the he, Schwartz, was a relative of Mr. Tuska.Must be July 17, 19, 20 and 21st.
Mr Tuska arrived on July 30th and left on the 31st. It will be perceived that there was a motive to shield Schwartz, or why did Tuska go to the salaried clerk of the colony instead of the Trustee and General Manger, who gave his time and labors gratuitously.The Colonists had sent letters to HEAS complaining about their treatment. Schwartz is an employee of HEAS. Saltiel is not. Tuska went to Schwartz, not Saltiel.
In my letter of instructions from M. A. Kutsheedt, Esq., no mention was made of Schwartz as a manager— he simply came here as an interpreter and clerk, or so I was informed.What letter? If they existed, why weren't they published?
It must be plain to every intelligent person that a green student, only eighteen months in America, and never without a guardian, far away from his parents, could successfully plant a pioneer colony in one of the wildest parts of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado,Saltiel is calling Cotopaxi "one of the wildest parts of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado". Saltiel knew this was not a suitable place for farming.
Saltiel is trying to make Schwartz look bad. In that process, he has confirmed that he knew all along this was a bad place to bring Colonists to farm.
and without any previous training; whilst I, who have lived here eighteen years,This is an outright lie. Saltiel had not lived in Colorado for 18 years.
mined successfully and brought hundreds of men to the mountains, and am personally known to all the leading men of Colorado, from the Governor down to the County Clerk of my County for the past sixteen years, could make a rank failure of the Refugees Colony.Schwartz had little to do with the failure. It was the location and the land that Saltiel offered. Nothing else.
The article published in the New York Hearald during the last days of my personal supervision, and written without my knowledge by Mr. Schwartz, gives the lie direct to the report made by Mr. Tuska on his visit a couple of weeks later.The utter absurdity of Mr. Tuska and his impudence in attempting to make our co-religionists believe in what he has called a report, is best exposed to the scorn it meritsSaltiel's true personality is showing up with these comments. Why would Schwartz need permission from Saltiel to write a report? Why would Tuska? There are more similar reports that I will post in the future.
by quoting one of his own paragraphs, in which he absurdly states:—Here, Saltiel truly embarrasses himself. Everyone knows the hierarchy of needs. First is food, water, sleep. Then shelter. Then they could go to work. Yet these Colonists were forced to work first before their basic need of food was provided for.
“Cabbages, pears, beans, cucumbers, beets, turnips, etc., have been sowed, but owing to slowness with which the houses have been built or, better said, owing to their not having been built at all, most of the garden stuff was destroyed by grazing cattle, etc.”
Mr. Tuska first stated that Mr. Saltiel did not give Mr. Schwartz funds to purchase potatoes and other seed. Mr. Schwartz never asked nor had he any authority or reason to ask for such funds, as I had ordered and paid Mr. Hart for such seed, potatoes and other seed that he, Hart, had procured and delivered according to orders, and which my bills previously sent in fully exhibit. Mr. Tuska then goes on to state that because the houses were being “slowly built”, or as he would probably have like to have had them “not built at all,” crops would not grow. It is the first time in my life of experience in the mountains and valleys of the Far West, that I have ever heard of “cucumbers, peas, beans, cabbages, beets and turnips” requiring “houses” to make them grow or to shelter them.
Saltiel is getting more desperate with each paragraph to condemn Schwartz.
The proposition only tends to further show that Mr. Tuska is as ignorant of the subject that he essays to write or report upon as his nephew is boastful of his integrity and ability to manage colonists in Colorado.Schwarz was not Tuska's nephew.
I regret to be compelled to take up so much of your valuable space in defending myself against the malicious attack that your columns have been made the channel of procedure, but I cannot close without stating the actual facts of the case, which are as follows:—Saltiel was in a position in the winter of 1881/2 where he desperately needed money. He also needed men to work in his mines. Reluctant or eager?
In the winter of 1881 and 2, I was urged by several of the directors of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society of America to visit the office at 15 State street. I reluctantly consented to do so, and one day in company with Uriah Herrmann, Esq, I went there, and was told of sending off of emigrants to Louisiana and other southern States.
I was asked my opinion, and freely gave it, to the effect that the peculiar training of Israelites and their wants would of themselves be sufficient to cause failure, when brought into competition with the half-starved half-clothed negro of the South, or the cheap pork and corn eater of Missouri or Arkansas, and I therefore recommended the rich phosphate soil of Colorado,Earlier in this same letter he stated that this was one of the wildest parts of the Rocky Mountains when he was putting down Schwartz. Now he is stating that it is a good place?
and the speedy growing and hardy vegetables as the most likely crop to have them succeed in raising. After many subsequent interviews with M. A Kursheedt, Esq., Hon. M. S. Isaacs, L. Gershel, Esq. and Uriah Herrmann, Esq., I consented to look after the colony, as far as my mine-operating business would permit, and by request made a proposition and estimate which upon deliberation by the Committee was accepted,why didn't he mention here how much money he received?
and I selected a number of families for a colony,later in this letter we will see that he denies this.
that, with no change in the management, would have been a success today instead of a failure,He is proclaiming Cotopaxi a failure in October, 1882?
excepting for the aid extended by myself and the railroad company in the shape of daily work for which they are paid actually more than they can earn when compared with the muscular Christian laborer.Saltiel's plan all along? But by having the management of the Colony turned over to Schwartz, then Saltiel had to see to it that Schwartz failed in order to get the Colonists to turn back to him and work in his mines?
At the time of Mr. Tuska’s arrival, the potatoe crop was several inches above the ground—thousands of cabbage plants were growing and all other seed plants were growing, and all other seed planted.With the use of just one team and 2 plows? No wonder the horses walked in front of the trains!
Similar imaginary complaints, such as is heard every day in New York City from the refugees whenever a prominent Israelite comes near them, was repeated to Mr. Tuska. What Schwartz in an attempt to obtain revenge for my requesting his dismissal may have tried to have coached them in, is unknown to me, although I am informed that he acted as prompter to them to air their new found grievances to his relative for nearly two hours.Schwartz had returned to NYC by October 1882.
The whole burden of the complaint appears to have been and yet is “the houses are not being built quick enough.”The Colonists had been promised farms when they arrived. And now we know that as of the end of July, their homes had not been built. They had every right to complain.
Mr. Hart explained to me that a great flood had come about twelve days after my departure for New York, and washed away both wagon and railroad bridges, and thus prevented him from building as quickly as he could have desired.We can date this flood to some time in June, 1882. I have other documents that show the Colonists build a bridge - most likely one over Oak Grove Creek, not the Arkansas River.
This and other reasons equal legitimate, prevented the houses that would have been built in the Wet Mountain Valley from being rapidly constructed.Saltiel just doesn't get it, does he? The houses were to be done by May 9. He did not even contract for them to start until May 8. It is 100% his fault - yet he is pointing his finger at everyone else. And we find that he does that over and over throughout his entire life.
Much more to come on the finances of Saltiel and Cotopaxi, and the feud between Saltiel and Hart which was ongoing at this time (remember, Saltiel will be in jail in Denver in a week from this letter!) Did Saltiel ever paid any of his bills?
After Mr. Tuska had left, and as I had been pleased to learn, requested Schwartz to look after the colonists, what really was the duty for which he had been salaried. I talked with Mr. Hart and got him to turn over the building contract to me and such building material as he had on hand, and permitted him to apply the various sums of money that I had paid to him to my credit for other matters that I might require,
excepting five hundred dollars for the reception house, which I had already turned over to the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company,again - illegal dealings as this is homestead land that he sold to his own company.
and I personally assumed the responsibility of building the houses, and have since that time quietly proceeded with them with two carpenters. I have given some of the men of the colony frequent employment, and have two families yet in my log houses, burning my timber, and using a stove free of charge.He makes this sound so charitable, yet he refuses to admit they are still there due to his lack of doing what he had promised he would do.
Heresay only - no evidence of this.
At the time of Tuska’s flying visit, he expressed himself pleased with everything excepting the slowness of house building. He even went so far as to talk of uniting a certain smelting works works that he owned with one of my mines and asked me if Schwartz would not make a good Secretary.
Other incidents occurred that lead me to the belief that Mr. Tuska has been somewhat imposed upon, otherwise a man of his standing would not have risked a heavy lawsuit for criminal libel.What libel? Tuska was making a report to HEAS - what he was hired to do.
In regard to Friedman the Shochet, he arrived after I had ceased controlling the colony, but I contributed $10 to his aid. Schwartz prevented his remaining.Saltiel said earlier that he selected all the members of the colony. Tuska confirmed this. Saltiel denies it here?
So far as the colony is concerned today, the majority of them are on my lands gratuitously leased to them,illegally
at their earnest solicitation, and are sincerely happy for being thereby enabled to keep their religious services in sight of the protection thrown around them by being near and in sight of my mountain home.Saltiel had sold this home at this point.
They are not living on the imaginary crops raised by the vivid imagination of Schwartz, but upon the proceeds of their labor done for the railroad company and in my mines.Saltiel stops paying them for work in his mines. More evidence that Saltiel was in deep financial trouble? Or that he wasn't present?
What a blatant lie! And I'm pretty sure Saltiel knew it - he just wanted someone else to blame for his own miserable failure.
What was the actual cause of the failure of their crops? Nothing more nor less than the unnecessary time consumed in the preparation for every little religious feast and fast, engagement and marriage celebration.
Schwartz, by pandering to these superstitious ceremonies,Why is Saltiel calling Jewish traditions superstitious?
obtained a mastery over their minds, and encouraged superstition and bigotry, and when one little man, Snyder, with more manhood than the balance, had the temerity to tell Schwartz and Tobias of their miserable actions and called them rascals, they had him formal excommunicated, and actually prevented him and his family from being employed and making a living.The Snyders did leave in the fall of 1882 and relocate to Denver.
The incapacity of Mr. Schwartz is not in itself blameable, as experience was lacking; but his persistent attempts to destroy the good name that I have earned by nearly eighteen years of hard and generally successful work in this State, is what I condemn, as sooner of later the truth must come out.Saltiel spent a good deal of time schmoozing other people in this state. And I will prove that he had not lived in this state for 18 years by 1882. He was a good liar.
I will, Mr. Editor, before closing hereby declare that I can take this colony of Russians, and without a dollar from the Society, make them Sow their crops in the Spring of 1883, and without a calamitous visitation from Providence, put every family in a good position by the fall of the year with abundance to live on and to spare.Why did he write this when he has already declared the Colony a failure? He has already witnessed a flood in June, 1882 - why would he presume there would be none the next year. Further evidence that he had not lived in Colorado for 18 years - he did not know the mountain weather patterns.
Emanuel H. Saltiel.
History tells us that there was another flood that wiped out everything in 1883. This letter is evidence that Saltiel pointed his finger at everyone except himself. Yet he was the only one to blame.
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