Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1874-06-12
ORR VACATION IN OLD TIMES,

With every one Of us, who have the
money to spare, school is about to break
UP, and we grown boys and girls that have
been industrious and honest and good, and
gotten greenbacks- greatest OF all
crown certificates, are going to tslke holl- I
day and 60 to the Springs, and some us |
that haven't been any of the three are go
ing there too. Happily, society has not
adopted Fourteenth amendment requir-
ing a man or woman to be free from all
demerit marks before they can go to the
Springs. 1t would thin out the patronage
But it is not Of the Virginia
Springs of to-day we wish to speak, for
enterprising journalism has placed Wa
tering place life so infinitely before the
people, that those who have never seen 1T,
know it as well as those who have spent
thousands in learning it. 1t is of the style
in the olden time which will read strange
ly to the fashionables of this day; as
strangely as it did to us yesterday, when we
found in an obscure corner Of the Licking
ton ssGazette' letter, appropriately signed
ssOld Mortality describing it. Most of
the Virginia Springs commenced life as
:'alum licks," where the game went to
salt. Then the medicinal qualities be-
ing noised abroad, the farmers would
go in July and August and camp out.
One of the most famous Of these in this
part of the country, forty years ago, was
e Strickler's'' at the southern outlet of the
famous "Goshen Pass" AS the crowd
annually increased rough country house
was built in the neighborhood where there
are now the finest watering place hotels in
Virginia. The writer who jots down his
recollections exceedingly well, says that
the visitors of that day generally came
horseback and stopped at the stables at
the end of the lane in front Of the house.
They put up and fed, out of well filled
crib, their own horses. If they felt like
taking wash, they did it at the spring
branch, and dried their hands and faces on
their coat tails. The table was set out in
the front porch and the guests arranged
themselves around it on benches provided
for the purpose. The table was always
we'll supplied with food substantial and
well cooked, and the visitors ate fried
chicken with their fingers, and threw the
bones under the table, and the roasting
ears they ate off the cob and tossed the
cobs over their shoulders into the front
ward When the meal was finished map
kins weren't fashionable them they wiped
their mouths on their sleeves and picked
their teeth with splinter When the
time to retire came, the many, who could
not find beds in the house, slept in the
barn or on the spring house loft and COW
cred themselves with Il horse-rake or a
cheese-press. But majority Of thosewho
attended these Springs camped at the cab
ms on the tsGreen," at the head of the
meadow. These structures were at that
day mostly log huts, built around the base
Of the mountain. Each family had its
own cabin.
When harvest ended, the families load.
ed four-horse covered wagon with bed
or two, few chairs, some pots and pans
and dishes, together with a good supply OF
old hams, dried beef, pickles, and the 9th
Ell comforts of careful housewiferY and
moved out. Old folks, boys and girls, and
the little ones-all went, except one OF two
who stayed at home and took it by turns
in order to see to things on the farm and
to take out twice week cucumbers, to
matoes, green corn. and few chickensfo
extra occasions. The cooking was done
under an arbor, built of forks driven ir
the ground and covered with pine brush
In case of rain, which is frequent il
that regions cansgyw eepqeeraaaRRgg e ada accord
ing to very primitive style. The family
slept in the same room together, except
the young men and their friends who ha(
come to see the girls. They "bunkedo il
the wagons, which were parked on the
green in front of the cabins, There was
but little dressing a d display of toilet
The young ladies took with them theil
Sunday gown and after the breakfast
things were done up, they hung up table
cloth across one corner Of the room anG
dressed behindit, and the historian brazen
ly boasts that it was often his ''fortunen tC
see many very neat pairs of quite healthy
looking ankles, incased in faultless fitting
home-kmit stockings protruding from un.
der these blinds. After the morning work
was over, they each sought amusements
to their tastes. The old ladies usually as
sembled in a neighbours cabin and discuss
ed their gardens, chickens, COWS, their
weaving, and so on, occasionally indulgng
in little gossip, too. The old men met in
squads under the large oaks and talked of
their farms and stock, and other matters
of kindred nature. When tired of this
they would disperse and each one amuse
himself by perusing "Baxter's Saints
Rest" OF sometimes ''Henry's Exposi-
tion'' in the way Of reading The young
ladies would form parties and swing, 60 a
huckle-berrying up the mountains, pitch
dollars-sometimes horse shoes-and firt.
coquette and court, just as they do now,
and always will, when they get together
and get a chance, and the children would
play in the sand in the road, OF wade in
the branch OF the river, separating the is
land around the spring from the main
land. 1t makes a man draw a long breath
of regret when he gets to the end of "Old
Mortality'so description, and wish he had
lived century sooner. When man of
the world turns from reading about the
hot bathrooms, hotter bal-rooms, head
achy champagne, faro emptied pockets,
pretended millionaires, and pretentious So
ciety people, fast manners and faster con-
versation, the handled goods put on the
matrimonial market and the general emp
tiness of modern watering place life-to
the fresh simplicity of the old and young
people who eamped on the ''Greeno forty
years ago, he sickens, of the painted PIANO