The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-08-03
RICHFIELD SPRINGS.
Experiences Of Correspondent in Search Of
an Anticipated Watering Place.
He Does Not Find One in RichAeld Springs
salubrity Of the Village Under Its New System
Of sewerage-oad Age the Only Local Dis
ease-sulphur as Panacea for Gout and
Rheumatism-Wh the People Are That En-
gage Rooms Ono Year in Advance.

gage Rooms One Year in Advance.
RICHFIELD SPRINGS, N. Y, August l, 1879
The search for an antiquated watering place is
not always successful. expected to find Richheld
Springs a sort OF st. Romans Well, pleasing mix
ture OF old dowagers. spteful spinsters, decayed
gentlemen, crippled nvalids and dilapidated no
tells. I expected to find In the waters that sub
dued and melancholy aspect which Autumn
forest wears after of the later gales has swept
over 1t and left 1t bleak and bare. Ii was to be a
place where the doors had no atches, the handles
would not turn and the windows would not raise
1t was to be melancholy as the moated grange
and as cadaverous as Poets raven All this my
Imagination pictured it. In fancy's eye saw
troops of rickety invads trundled in chairs TO the
sulphur baths, delivered over to the charge Of mute
and solemn attendants, and conducted in slckly
back to their hotels pass the grooming day
In bed Whence this idea was acquired cannot
tell, but it was there, deeply rooted. Richfield
Springs was to be the paradise of doctors and
undertakers, the forlorn hope OF the chronic SUI
ferer. Invalids went there with death upon their
track, and hoped to escape him by hiding
their heads In sulphur. IL was place delivered
over to the recollections OF bygone genJility,
when knee oreeches hoop pettcoats and periwigs
were In vogue and maintained In iull force the
picturesque fashions bequedthed US by our British
ferefathers. Every other corner had It's venerable
| tradition, and modern fashion made desperate
but futile effort to make herself lelt. The man OF
! progress felt IN walking there much as he might
| feel IN treading among the ruins Of Hercuianeum
| or Pompei, fol he stepped amsng the ashes OF a
! civilization passed away. Such Is the impression
| had Of Richneld Springs. Disguise Is useless Good
taste, not less than frank feeling counses me &c
! conceal nothing OF my ignorance and prejudice.
Judge, then, OF my surprise at discovering that
| Richfeld Springs Is a live place, with Ill its organs
| in full energy, and bent upon making itself heard
! In the world. 1t IL about two hours ride from
! Utica-tself one OF the hvelest, prettiest and
| most progressive little cities or the Union-and
abounds with evidences OF self adOrnment and
prosperity. When you step from the you are
saluted with chorus OF coachmen that New
York ferry dock might envy, and are in imminent
danger OF being waited away against your Will
amid a cloud of stages and omnibuses Reaching
Main street, the only objection to which Is Its
name, sayoring. as it does, Of uninventiveness on
the part of those who bestowed it. you lind your
self at the head Of q long line OF hotels, TO say
nothing OF boarding houses and private cottages
| where boarders are received: Net much OF the
| Long Branch itself is hardly more alert. Ruined
| walls and dilapidated dowagers Not onei did
| not see one old lady who was not exasperatingly
buxon, and the walls were all not in good repair
! they were too new to be In repair ut an
K,chded Springs has been watering
1
years, ana now 1t Is more of "A watering place than
! ever with the bloom Of youth thick upon 1t and
! than OF one the seeds OF which we're first planted
! about one hundred years ago. There Is a blending
profusion OF white houses and green shutters, ana
every house and every shutter looks as though
] they had just been painted. There is an ample
road, clean enough 60 have been under charge OF
that ideal street commissioner Tor whose advent
! every New Yorker fondfy prays, without any pres
ent prospect OF having his prayers fulfilled. There
| are the American and the Spring House, two form
SIDES OF Main street, and each setting forth peculiar
tlona' the Central, the National the Davenport,
the Jewell the Derthick the Hosford, runni-
CHI House and Tunnichh Cottage to choose
from, besides any number OF smaller houses
! dedicated to all varieties OF bed and
| board. There is the ola Rich1eld Hotel,
cover once the resort OF fashion and gentiity.
the abode Of transfers and coachmen. 1t has the
which some OF the more pretentous houses are
without. But 1t not place to sentuentalize
You cannot sentmentalize at Richheld springs;
You may compassionate the invaIds, II you ind
any, you may satirize. as they return despond-
emily rem the baths, the monomaniacs who i'm
agine they are the victims OF the govt and rheuna-
tIsm; or, being in robust health yourself, you may
sip the waters and try TO Imagine that the recol-
lection your palate retains OF supplemented hydro
you map calculate how many i've cent pieces the
urchin who draws the water ior you at the spring
as he is uDon gratuities; or you may take one OF
the many lovely drives IN the neighborhood, and
which inspired the cheerful author or "rhe Pleas
ures oil Hope;" but pure sentimentalizing s quite
out OF place at Richdeld Springs, unless you are
the point OF leaving IL without the hope Of soon
turning.
WHOM HAVE WE HERE9
The curiosity inherent IN every reader OF the
HERALD Ia curiosity winch. 1t Is TO be admitted,
the HERALD does everything to ENCOURAGE will
naturally prompt you TO inquire who Ia a. Richdeld
Springs at present, and what class OF people 20
there. Patron Is not q word which takes up It's
abode kindly among American institutions. 1t Jars
against the sentiment OF personal Independence,
But there is high and unserve sense IN which 1t
can be used and this application can be made OF IL
70 Ricnneld Springs. The place has enjoyed uniform
and consistent patronage almost ever since the
dow OF sulphur was discovered there. The genera
ton who first took 1t under their care have died or
sequently, We md the same families going there TO-
day who went there twenty-five years ago. Rooms
are often engages twelvem0nth in advance and
the same people meet each other under the same
roof year alter year. Boys and girls who romped
together there as children gradually assume the
and those who drank the waters quarter Of q
century ago for govt now do so simply for auld
lang syne. Sit on the porch ut the Spring or the
American House and watch the people as the v
troop by. Everybody knows everybody else, and
you might fancy that few hundreds OF the quleter
and more respectable residents OF New York and
Phadeiphla (of whom the summer hotel popula-
ton here is largely composed) had combined to
form Utopia from which any harsh, unhealthy
and ungatnly element was to be excluded. Here
are scores OF old gentlemen who avow their ale
glance to the sulphur Springs with all the generous
| enthusiasm with which the man who has taken
SELF q an '0id SUBSCRIBER scores Of young
men alternate with them who believe in
the baths and the rotations as regiously as IN the