Green was sent out by Stout at the request of the Tristate people. Before leaving, Stout gave his student one parting piece of advice that has made Green one of the foremost engineers in the land today. Stout said: "Remember, Green, you are going out there to build a big ditch. You will find all kinds of reasons for slowing down, for stopping the work from time to time, but that is not what you are there to do. The measure of your success will be the rapidity with which you proceed, and the completion of the canal."

Green proceeded, and revolutionized the work. He drove the force account department into camp, and stored the machinery. The management found objection and Green offered his resignation, but it was not accepted. He put on smaller divisions of contractors, and tore about the country in that little old Stanley steamer (one of the first automobiles) like a wild tornado. Where there was danger of going to jail for trespass on land where right-ofway questions had not been settled, he took the chance, and won.

Help was brought from Denver, from anywhere it could be gotten. Some of the camps were entirely of negroes, and the first requisite with them seemed to be a gun and a razor. Frequently one would come to town slashed up, or with a wound of some sort, and require the attention of the doctor. Each of the negro camps held some of the female variety, and these were eternally at war. More wounds were made by the one-fourth female population, and upon one another, than there were in the three-fourths male population.