Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-02-17

A NOTED WATERING PLACE-NEw AR
RANGEMENTS.
MIDDLETowN SPRINGS, !
Feb g. 1870. (

MIDDLETowN SPRINGS, }
Feb. 8, 1870. !
Those whose souvenirs of Vermont life
and scenery have been derived from a
summer sojourn among the mountains
and at the various watering resorts visited
in the periodical hunt for health and
pleasure, would find it difficult to realize
the contrast, by no means pleasing, now
presented in mid-winter.
The suow-encrusted earth, the frozen
streams, the leafess trees, and the chilling,
piercing Boreal gusts that sweep down
the hillsides and through the mountain
gorges are feeling reminders of the
changes wrought by few months to one
who carried away with him last season
pleasing memories of Spring and Summer
travel through the Green Mountain
State. No longer we encounter the en-
towering verdure of charming rural re-
treats, the limpid leaping waters of brook
and rivulet and river, the luxuriant foliage
of the grand old woods, and the bracing,
balmy mountain breezes that once gave a
poetical zest to outdoor recreations-these
have passed as bright dreams of Summer,
and Wintry dreariness succeeds.
In fact, due regard for ones physical
comfort and well-being precludes the idea
of rural explorations at this season of the
year, and we are constrained to prefer the
torpor of indoor seclusion to the rigors of
outdoor locomotion. Perhaps no place
looks more dreary, more desolate, and
more "like some bang net hall deserted
than fashionable watering resort, bereft
of its festive crowds, in midwinter. And
so it is here. The hotels are empty the
spring-houses deserted; the dippers that
conveyed medicinal waters alike to the
parched tongue of the robust guest and
the feeble invalid during the heated days
of summer now lie frozen in the drippings
that fall from occasional use and the
graveled walks and winding paths round
about are buried in snow to be resurrected
only some months hence.
The good people hereabouts, however,
seem to bear the dreariness of winter with
a stoioal indirereuUr, sustained doubt
by the consciousness of good time com
ing, when summer will have again rolled
around. Indeed from present indications
and the great preparations contemplated,
the next season at the Middletown Springs
promises to surpass in summer crowds
anv vet passed einoc their discovery some
years ago.
The two great rival companies whose
wranglings have not tended to enhance
the prospective prosperity of the Springs,
effected a consolidation last week, and are
now operating tremendously under the
common name of the Middletown Springs
Company. This re ,ult was COMMUNICATED
by grand mass meeting of the people of
the town and vicinity, ut which great en-
thusiasm prevailed, stirring speeches
were delivered and move ut once put OH
foot for the erection of large and mag
nifcent hotel for the accommodation of
the increasing tide of summer travel
hitherward. From fifty to sixty thousand
dollars will be raised in a short time for
that purpose, and the new hotel, with all
its splendid appointments, will be an ac-
complished fact before another season.
The water of the more prominent springs
here, like those of all ohaly beate springs,
owe their characteristic proprieties, both
chemical and medicinal, to an impregna-
ton of iron, i'll the state of an oxide, held
in solution by carbonic acid. They are
lnpid, almost inodorous, ana have pc
cuitr styptic taste, very pF0h0uAcedly
mineral. Exposed to the air they become
covered with an iridescent pellice and a
quantity Of ochrey matter subsidies, the
water at the same time losing its taste
As strong pure chaly perhaps these
springs are unsurpassed III the country,
and they ARE destined beyond ali question
to rank high III popular favor. their
virtues become more generally known.
The action ot The waters Is tonic, hperlrnt
and cooling; they strengthen muscular
action, aud are efficacious in Diseases pro-
ceeding from weakness and relaxation of
the tissues in Il word they are of eminent
service in all those chronic aft etions in
which cbaly beate medicines are employ ed.
With such tr0uCdiHe among them, the
people here think they can afford to en-
dure the torp0r and seclu%ion of the
weary months of winter, well known ing
summer will bring an abundant atone
ment in the restoration of business life
and activity, ~ we'll ~ in the multituaes
of tourists and health and pieasure-seek-
ers, who will make them gayer from the
fact of association, and richer the re-
suit of the necessary Influx al . r. e.,b,,,k
that characterizes their coming.
While l WRITE the snow is falling thick
and fast, and vague and cheerless pre-
sentiment starts up now aud then, init
mating the probability OF >u"w block
ade, preventing travel and protra"ting Il
stay, much longer than would be desir-
able, from the more comforting Surround
ings of metropolitan life. Yet few feet
of snow is considered mere trifle in this
frigid region, and sleighing is but just be-
ginning to be glorious" when motion
otherwise is impossible. CURRAN.