On October 3, 1899, Paul Laurence Dunbar was in Denver, Colorado, with his wife Alice and mother Matilda. Following the advice of doctors, Paul went to the Rocky Mountains seeking relief from tuberculosis. He made a rent payment of $15 to Ed Gene Arnold, a school principal in Denver.
School District Number One
Arapahoe County ColoradoEbert School
E. G. Arnold, Principal
DenverOctober 3, 1899
Received of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Fifteen Dollars ($15) as rent for month of October 1899.
Rent receipt, October 3, 1899. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 2).
A few days later, a Washington, D. C., newspaper mentioned Paul's retreat to Colorado.
Paul Laurence Dunbar will spend the winter at Colorado Springs, Colo., and has decided to make no engagements for readings before next spring. This winter he will do some literary work for the Boston Post, and a few of the magazines, but is advised by his physician to be careful not to overtax his, as yet, small margin of strength.
"Among Bookmakers and Paragraphers." The Colored American (Washington, D. C.). October 7, 1899. Page 6.
While the Dunbars were in Denver, an enormous celebration called the Festival of Mountain and Plain took place.
Carnival week opened today with favorable weather. An attendance of 100,000 visitors is anticipated. An enormous grandstand, said to be the largest temporary structure of the kind ever erected in this country, has been provided, from which the various parades and exhibitions can be seen to best advantage. The city is gaily decorated with the carnival colors, yellow and white.
"Colorado's Carnival." Los Angeles Daily Times (Los Angeles, California). September 26, 1899. Page 3.
A Denver newspaper published an article coauthored by Paul and Alice that made a somewhat condescending comparison between the festival in Denver and Mardi Gras in New Orleans (Alice's hometown). It mildly criticized the festival for its commercialism, since it included displays of agricultural and industrial equipment.
Some shade of plausibility may be given to the claim of commerciality in the Denver carnival by their choice of colors -- white and yellow, signifying the gold and silver industries of the state, while the colors of the other festival have no such industrial significance. The two meetings are alike, chiefly in the irresponsible joyousness of the people, and yet this carnival of the mountain and plain has about it a Western hilarity which is all its own. Confetti sounds incongruous in Denver, and yet it is thrown with the spirit and insistence of the Paolis. If the act be a little rude, it is, at least, as honest and as well meaning. Denver is young; New Orleans is old and it means no disparagement of the former when one says that with greater age she will have a more graceful, more tactful, even though she cannot have a more spirited carnival.
"The Mardi Gras and Denver's Festival Contrasted," by Paul and Alice Dunbar. The Denver Evening Post (Denver, Colorado). September 30, 1899. Page 6.