Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1869-07-28
LETTER FROM SARATOGA SPRINGS.
The Daily Reutiae-How aud when
People DRINK. Eat. Dance and Sleep
Testing Many Waters-Ths Fashionable
Drives-Hot-I Life at Nisht-The Sew
Congress Hall-Minor Matters, Etc

Ine DAILY routine OF an fole life IN Saratoga
while possessing much sameness 70 the fashion
able element, who do nothing bat eat, dance
and sleep, has many attractions for those who
are fond OF walking, riding, pIC.niciug and
fishing-in fact, for all rho seek health and real
pleasure, rather than the snobby gentIlity and
brilliant splendor OF the great over crowded
hotels. However, the days pleasures open
tor all alike. BY a. IN. all Saratoga, perms-
nent and temporary. are awake, aud at that
hour the crowd around the Congress Spring
is so large thar six boys, dipping AZ once twen-
~ glasses of this famed "a harttc water cannot
supply the demand. BY o'clock the colon.
made around the Spring is easier of approac D.
and all find themselves supplied. The profes.
sional drinkers of the water first take Two
glasses and then move of in brisk walk or
dog-trot through the Park. This Is kept up for
ten or fifteen riinutes, when they return and
lake from ONT to three glasses more. ac-
cordng 10 tha condition of the system
and then 60 TO breakfast. Those who prefer
"A milder cathartie, drink the Excelsior before
breakfast or the High Rock, the latter being a
cathartic and dIuretic before the morning meal
and n tonic during the day. The Excelsior
Spring is ab0ut a mile and half from The
town, but the company who own 1T supply toe
hotels and boarding houses gratuitously with
large, well-flied cans. The strongest cathartIc
water is the new Hathorn Spring, discovered
this season in digging fer a foundation for IN >
Congress Hall ballroom. l. appears 20 the
old drinkers OF the Congress 20 contain more
chloride OF sodium and blcarbonate of mag
nesia but the expression of this opinion brings
down on oEe's head good deal of Indignation
from the Congress Spring Company. 1, is but
justice 10 say, however, that the stories that
the Congress Spring is giving ont, or that l.
doctored, are simply untrue. While the
water has not that strong chloride taste that Il
possessed twenty years, or even five years
ago. its effects on the system are JUST yigor-
Gus as ever. Buta do not continuously drink
the cathartic waters. Those who suffer from
general debility, liver, kidney and cu,aueous
diseases, etc, first cleanse the system with
Congress water, aud then change 10 the
iron and iodine or sulphur springs. Ii
located AT the south end Of the town, The
Columbian and Washington springs fur
EIsh strong impreSnation OF iTon--so strong
that 1t deposits a rust GA The boards anu glasses
used near them. II stay ing IN he norl n end OF
Saratoga, the magnificent Empire and Star
Springs furnish the proper toaics, and ,astify
every day TO the wonderful cures thy have
wrought. Scattered through the 20 WI and be-
tween the points named, are the Pavilion
Putnam, Hamilton, SsitZer, Ellis and other
ties. The High Rock, Columbian, and Empire
springs bubble and boil, while the surface OF
the others, save The sulphur springs, are un-
disturbed except by slight escapes of carbonic
acid gas. The Sulphur springs are two miles
from town; are only year old, but are prov
ing great success. Fifty bath houses nave
eeen erected this season, and sulphur water
and sulphur batn can be had IN prOfusion.
Omnibus lines connect these springs with the
town. Perhaps the location of these -uIphu-
springs best illustrate the wonderful strat.
underlying this Saratoga valley. Not more
than five rods from where a spring deposits the
pure white sulphur, Is the handsome Eureka
spring, which is composed of iron and masne.
sia and exactly opposite in taste and effec. OF
the sulphur spring. All of the springs are
visited, more or less, from a. m. 10 : D. IN
ard many visitors foolishly go from one to an.
other tasting and drinking, sometimes from a
dozen different ones in a single day. The effec:
Is almost as bad as il you 60 into 4 drug store
and sip from the various bottles on the shelves
Breakfast over, the grand equipages Of the
fashionable roll up in front OF the Congress
Union, and Clarendon Hotels, ana from 9 TO
II m. tsere is no end 10 the going and coming,
no end TO the styles OF the carriages, to the
horses that draw them, nor 10 the folly and
furbelow OF the people who occupy them. Cane
phaetons, with a huge white umbrella rising
from standard in the centre Of the seat, are
among the novelties in which young ladies
drive around. The ride to Saratoga lake over
the various fine roads leading thitner is tha
principal point for q drive. 1t 10 but five
miles distant, and has three good hotels, where
trout breakfasts, lunches. etc, are served mn
with the famous cOrnucopias OF tried potatoes
A sail in the yacthes on the lake. or in the little
steamer Silver Moon, or a 70 wing or q fishing
"TRIP, or game AT ten pins, or match 10 the
shooting alleys, Visit to the frog and trout
ponds, and a view Of the Green Mountains
piled up in the ETHEREAL distan &c, are the pleas
ures before the return TO Saratoga for dinner.
The latter 10 the ladies is, however, the grea,
event. The dining rooms of the principal
hotels are from two 10 three hundred feet
long, and are spacious enough, therefore,
for the exhibition OF the most elaborat..
toilettes. To-day nine hundred per.
sons were at one time in the Congress Hall
dining.room, seven hundred in the U.iou,
and probably three hundred in the Clarendon.
The styles are duplicated at a dozen lesser
houses. Dinner lasts from to Up. m. Tn.
guests then adjourn to the piazzas and corn.
dors and spend an hour in listening To the
music OF the bands. The evening rides ana
walks succeed the music till p. m, when the
hotels are again in blaze OF glory, every wo
man endeavoring to outshine her sister In looks
ana dress. BY 9p. m. the hops and prom.
enades are going on. These last two or three
hours, so that 1t Is a m. before quietness set.
ties down, only to be broken by the merry
tramp at in the morning OF the visitors TO the
Springs OF course there are other attractions
besides those mentioned. Hundreds visit the
Indian encampment, which has been here for
thirty years, and indulge 10 rides on the circu.
lar railway, or participate in the innumerable
games there offered, or 60 TO the SARATOGA
battle ground, the Race. grounds, the Archery
nill, etc. The air is most always bright and
cool and the drives and walks are charming
and numerous.
The New Congress Hall.
Congress Hall, erected . year or two since
Oh the site of the old hotel burned in l-6o IL
the largest watering. place hotel, II, indeed, y |
is not the largest hotel in this country. Ii is
built Of pressed brick, h from ii We to seven
stories in height, and surmoQnted by a Man
sard roof. The rooms are all large, the corri
dors and halls are from to fifteen and thirty
feet wide: there are nearly half a mile Of piaz.
zas, and the house, unlike any other in Sara.
toea, contains all the modern improvements OF
gas, baths and water, and Includes new ana
spacious eley a,or from the lower 70 the inner
floors. There are two hundred miles of hell
wire, and forty tons Of rails were used in con.
ST, ucting the wood work. 1t can accommodate