Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-01-02
The Hot Springs Of Arkansas.

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manent inhabitants, and transient popu'
lation of inyalids sometimes as numerous
as its residents. II is dropped into mar
row de(ile of the Ozark Mountains, never
intended by nature, Gf nature ever has in
tentions) for the site Of town. In Yer
mont the location would be called ravine.
In the Rocky Mountains it would be called
Il canyon. With skillful engineering ii
might have furnished space for a very mar
row guage railway, by encroaching on the
channel of the creek and cutting into the
base of those spurs of the mountains. In
the natural state more than this wouldn't
have seemed possible. Yet a town Of
cheap, ricketv, small wooden buildings,
has grown up along the ravne, and street
narrow, and in other respects wretched
enough to make travelling punishment,
contends with the brook for the right OF
way through the gap. A quarter of n mile
north of the Hot Springs Mountain the
sides of the ravine grow less precipitous,
the one ravine becomes two, Gf that is pos
>bie, J there is better chance to anchor a
house on the hill-sides, ard Typographical
ly the town improves, as it does in small
degree in the character of its buildings.
At the hotel where we are, it is possible TO
see he sky, without resting ones hat rim
on his shoulders. Sunrise and sunset are
separated by an interval of several hours,
and mornings and evenings do not succeed
each other as rapidly rs in other parts of
the valley.
1t is not singular, hcwever, that II town
should have grown up here. The fifty or
more hot springs, varying in temperatures
from 500 to 1909, which are found in the
channel of the creek and on the mountain
east of it, and which have undoubted heal
ing power, would build up town any
where. They are ancient in reputation,
and are supposed to be the fountain of
youth sought by Ponce de Leon; and after
ward fernando de Soto made voyage in
pursuit of them more than three hundred
years ago, penetrating the wilderness rs
far west us the Mississippi, where he died
disappointed and broken hearted. The
Indians knew their virtues, but it is not
recorded that their longevity was increased
thereby, though they should have been
made better by them, as they gave them
no excuse for the absence of that cleanli-
ness which is said to be next to godlincss.
Something over half century ago they
began to be known to the present race of
white men, but as they were remote from
settled portions of the country, and not
until the building of railways west of the
Mississippi, easily accessible for invalds'
their extended reputation is comparatively
modern. Now they are advertised by the
letters OF travellers, the narrated expert
ences of those who have been cured by
their use, by articles in magazines, and by
circulars of railroads whose traffic is large
ly increased by the winter travel in this
direction; and their reputation is likely to
be increased, and quite possibly to become
as permanently famous, rs that of the
Springs at Bath, England, or Baden
Baden, Germany.
The waters are abundant, greatly beyond
any present use made of them, and can be
carried considerable distances in pipes
without being so far reduced in tempera-
ture as 10 be unsuited for bathing. 1t is
doubtful, however, whether any bath is as
good US would be one in the native foun
tain, where the temperature conld be en-
dured, as at least some of the qualities of
of the water are lost in removal to any
distance. A trough through which the
water runs soon becomes incruStcd with a
mineral deposit, and l have seen one such,
at least IN inch thick, said to have been
made in two years; and one of the indus
tries of the town is the preparation and
sale of u variety Of trinkets cncrusted, and
thus apparently petriied by being suspend
ell under the drip of those waters. The
principal minerals found by IN analysis OF
the waters are ulphate and carbonate OF
lime and sulphate and carbonate of soda.
although iron, magnesia and arsenic are
present in most, il not all the water. The
diseases partially or wholly removed ly
bathing in, and drinking the waters, are
rheumatism, paralysis, neuralgia, torpid
livers, alterations and in1ammations OF
the skin, govt, catarrh, syphilis, indeed
nearly all diseases but pulmonary con
sumption are claimed to yield more or less
to the treatment, and there is no doubt
that many persons who have tried nearly
every known remedy elsewhere without
benefit have been cured here; and the
completeness and suddenness of the cures
remind one Of the New Testament &C.
counts of miraculous healing.
The town has resident population o.
$500, half of it colored, and like the popu.
lation of other southern towns. The hotels
have not yet put on the magnfcence o.
Saratoga or Newport. but answer the needs
of invalids very well, and ut prices varying
from ten to twenty-five dollars week
The agriculture of the country about
it is capable of any,-is not yet developed
and supplies are brought largely from st
Louis, more than four hundred miles from
here. When the United States government
gets through its adjustment of the titles tc
the land here, "a commission being now
in session for that purpose undoubtedl the
town will rapidly improve in appearance
and the present unsightly and cheap build
ings be replaced by better structures. The
government proposes to make rescrva
ton of Hot Springs Mountain, thus keep
ing control of the springs, but allowing
the waters to be taken to bathing house.
for n reasonable rent; and the commits
sioner8 have large discretionary powers il
laying out streets, and making the new
city which is sure to be here in the neal
future. Very many of the men in bushes,