The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-10-03
Killing Time in Saratoga.

I time, all one has to do IS to stand still
and time slips by you, faster than you
wot of, faster than you wish. You do
nothing in particular, perhaps, indulge
in no diversion but getting up is neces-
sary, eating is duty, and going to bed
at some hour of the night is fashionable;
so, before you know it, one day is gone
and another is tapping on. But for
amusement, what would you have any
where other than we have here? There
are bowling-alleys for ladies and gentle
men, and couples can go there and in
| dHlge In the flowing" to their hearts
content, and come away better for the
exercise by far. But it is not necessary
to bowl merely because You go the al
leys; some couples go to "bowl, others
go to "spoon," and nobody seems to
notice the difference. Then there are
two Indian encampments, with shooting
galleries and butts for bow and arrow
practice at both. The guns in use are
what Cockney would probably desig-
nate as hair-guns with 'air-triggers, and
the target is woman i'll Scotch costume
who drums, rabbit that keels over, and
a lion that roars, if you hit the bulls
eye. Paulina was excessively anxious
that her papa should make the lion
roar, and to please the child took a
shot at it. didn't make the lion roar
exactly, but take pride in recording
that made an old gentleman, who pos
| ted himself in what he seemed to con-
slider safe position, few rods away
| on the right of the target, howl most
| fearfully. This was better than hitting
nothing. The archery business is meant
for ladies, but they do very little of it.
| II T.
much in the practice of archery, having
found by experience that the few arrows
that get away from the bow generally
stick in the live Indian who attends, in
stead of in the stuffed one that is osten-
sibly shot at. Women, 1 notice, shoot
| bows and arrows very much as they
play whist-having drawn the arrow
back, they hold on to it just as they do
to trump, and won't launch it; if they
| do let one go by accident it generally
hits the wrong party in the wrong place.
After the ladies have practised half
hour, the attendant Indian from dis
tance might be mistaken for a porcu-
pine, all quills, But the passion that
little girls have for bows and arrows is
strange; it almost passes that for dolls.
Paulina urged papa to buy her an
ers is rather encouraged by the Sarato-
gian sentiment; but in this case it SEEM
ed to me unadvisable that I should be-
come an accessory before the fact. But
baskets and such things are innocent
and harmless, and OF these both en-
campments will sell you as many as you
wish to buy. But is is only the old en-
campment- that boasts of Beautiful
Indian Girl" This dusky damsel is one
of the pillars of the camp, for the young
men all invite her to shoot, and Sarah is
never beaten. It would surprise you to
know how many arrows this young lady
can put in the target at cent apiece In
the course of an afternoon. But my
surprise has been awakened by some
thing stranger to which my attention
was called. Sarah has g. grandmother
in camp, an aged, respectable, and /
Will venture to say, virtuous female;
she sits behind the counter all day long,
and ! do not hear any young men ask
ing her to shoot with them. Neither do
they seek to engage her in conversation,
notwithstanding their avowal of an ar
dent ambition to learn Indian, and the |
palpable fact that the good grandmother |
has more Indian in her, and, from the |
seventy or eighty years of practice she |
has had, should talk it better than |
Sarah. But there are many very strange |
things in life. Then we have besides |
the circular railway, a lot of wooden |
horses that revolve around common
centre to the lascivious pleasing of
hurdy-gurdy, giving their riders an op-
portunity to spear iron rings from a
post and bear them triumphantly away
on the point of a skillet. Or you can
have q weigh for five cents, if you've a
will to. Or you can have your fortune
told. Or you can walk out to the battle
ground. Or for ten cents you can get
some boy to pound you over the head
with club for as many minutes. There
is no end, in fact, to the amusements
which Saratoga offers to visitors. Then,
in the early part of September, so close
upon us, there is to be regatta, which
ought, whether it does or not, to draw
people from all parts of the country, for
there never was better course than the
lake offers, and some good pullers are
entered for it. It has been rather cool
for two days back, and this morning a
good many guests left. Each to his lik-
ing, but this weather suits me exactly.
And if people only knew it, September
is the pleasantest month of the year to
be at Saratoga or anywhere else. That
there are fewer here in that month is
one of the principal reasons which
makes it more enjoyable, for better ac-
commodations are to be had at the ho-
tells, and you are not iostled about and
trodden under foot by the multitude.
But the majority seem of different way
of thinking, and generally stampede to-
gether. And now that the guests begin
to thin ont and business becomes less
pressing, I suppose the proprietors Of
the principal hotels go to writing certi-
fcates again of the skill with which
their corns were cut by the champion
corn-cutber of the village. For these
certificates of theirs, written in the
early spring, probably, when business
was dull, are the most displayed arti-
cles that strike your eye on opening the
Saratogian at the breakfast table. Now,
since corn-curers are looming up as pub
lie benefactors, I'll furnish prescrip-
ton that will cure the worst corn going,
if it be faithfully followed, and / don't
want a c. -rtifcate from the cured, either.
A ten-cent stamp will do for me, if
grateful convalescents insists on send
ing something. Listen Pare all around
the corn with very sharp knife, and be
careful to draw no blood. ct is better
to soften the corn somewhat with warm
water before beginning to operate.) Pre-
pare salve of pure white wax, mutton
tallow and resin, in about equal parts,
and anoint the corn well with this at in
tervals during the day. On retiring to
bed at night, draw the thumb of an old
kid glove over the troubled toe, cutting
a hole in it sufficiently large to permit
the corn to protrude. Tie piece of
black silk thread carefully round the
corn. Now wrap the toe well up in a
strip of red flannel, saturated with
mixture in equal proportions of turpen-
tine and sweet oil. Then amputate the
toe below the first joint, and if you set
it on fire your corn will disappear at
once. Or, if you throw it out of the
toe and all, and Appleton's dog
comes along and thinks he has got
good thing, and chokes in endeavoring
to swallow it, that is his misfortune and
not your fault, and two nuisances are
got well rid of at once.
The Anchor line of steamers is ex-