The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-11-18
"How much ?"
''7hree bottles" replied Hope, modestly.

,, "Oh, my graciousp says the bewilder
l youth-"How very ill she must be p
And he went.
t We must not omit the baths in our lea
, taking There are warm ones and cold ont
and two springs of which to drink. We h;
rather "drink only with our eyes" as we a
not addicted to mineral water, but the Fat
have decreed otherwise. 1t was in descriptit
Of these Springs that young man made Il
following brilliant effort. He never lived
complete it. His genius burst the fleshy BON
, which confined it and we buried him near tt
Spring. We shall have the following boui
in companion volume to Edward Eyere
Hale's Man Without A Country" and call
the MAN With A Liver"
~ am quartered in one of row of hig
stopped two-roomed cottages built on a blu
some little distance from the main buildings
the Healing Springs Hotel. My immedia
neighbor is tall, angular, gloomy looking
tangled bearded man. He is the sole and orr!
inal owner of liver. Now there is nothin
singular physiologically speaking, in posses
ing liver. 1t is luxury in which the NEAR
est and most impoverished citizen can indulg,
But there be livers and livers. There be mil
and inoffensive livers known neither to tl
community nor the medical fraternity; an
there be livers, which, like the ghost of Bar
\ quo, will not down-turbulent and seditiou
ivers, that break up families and destroy citiel
My neighbours liver is of the latter class. TIL
liver itself is really my neighbor. Th
man is simply a sort of foOtman and append
age of the liver 1t has taken the man TO
years to every mineral spring in Virginia.
demanded Black Sulphur water. For tw
days it gorged black sulphur water. Then
seized the man in its demoniacal clutches an,
demanded the waters of the Blue Alum. TIL
man packed his little trunk, and through
heat and dust, and long weary rides, b
brought it to the Blue Alum. 1t took singh
sup OF the Blue Alum, when it flew in pas
sion that made the man crazed smashed thing
with its little axe, and bawled for the spark
| ling waters of the Little Bitter Salt and Greer
| Chalk with its debilitated hotel and car-sprins
steak. After one day of Graco-Roman wrest
ling with the green chalk and indestructiblt
| steak, it seized the man and demanded TO bt
plunged in the Red Hot Boiling Little Heller
and Blazers Spring Howling with pain as il
out of the Imperial bath of the underground di
vinity, who is engaged in roaming up and down
this mundane sphere in an indefinite go-as-
you-please, it hurried him off to this pleasant
and agreeable retreat to cool off. The poor
man wants to stay here. He likes it as every
body does. But he can't stay. He has heard
his liver swearing all day and night. 1t has
been whining and complaining even across
the stoop to his neighbors. Tonight the liver
owner is solemnly and slowly packing his
trunk and folding away his household gods.
Tomorrow, the liver has ordered him to spend
at the Big Roaring Cold Birthstone Lucifer
Sparkling Chrysolite Lowell Bitter Sweet Lit
tie Salt Iron Spring.
Turning up the road we peep in the ten-pin
alley, where the balls are never idle, and here,
too, is the billard-hall. Thrust aside in cor
ner is disused billiard-table looking as if it
had stepped out of one of Hans Christian An
dersen's stories. Its green top is moth eaten,
its pockets of silk network are faded, its ma
hogany scratched, silver mountains furnished,
and its gorgeous enamel of blue and gold ara
besaues is dimmed There mnst be some ro-
nance connected with it" we unused aloud.
"Col. Evans, of Richmond, made a carom
on that table, pocketed all the balls, and
treated every one to champagne" said some
one, laughing, "and that is all ever heard
remarkable about it."
It looks as if it had come down from the
sixteenth century, when Bill Kew first drove
his three pawnbroker's balls round the counter
with yardstick, and first a prince among
billiard tables after vicisstudes is thrust aside
at a country hotel, like WORKOUT Beau
Brummel. The old table is worth VISIT
Perhaps it will tell you more than it did me.
A short distance beyond the hotel grounds
is the little church with, its scanty fur
nishings and its painfully bright blue pulpit
cushions, with God is Love" in orange en-
broidery. There is but one monument in the
church-yard of some stranger from Savannah
who died here twenty-three years ago. Death
seems to have passed the the place by ever
since.
At the door of an opposite cottage is a curl
osity in the shape Of fuschia-a real fuschia
tree about four feet tall with spreading boughs
bent low under the weight of nearly hun
dred and fifty pendant bells of coral and pur
pie
And now we turn back to the ballroom.
Good bye to the ballroom, hardest OF all to
say!
Here the denizens of the Hot and the Warm
and the Healing Springs assembled together to
see the Tableaux Vivants, the success Of the
season. Here Col. Evans read us an original
poem, and here we listened to Miss MagilPs
readings and Rotations. Here we have had
germans-also blind mans buff. Once the
room was peopled with ghosty phantoms on
the occasion of sheet and pillow case party.
All summer, as somebody said, we have had
a bat and BALI 1t is passing strange that the
nocturnal and retiring bat should leave his
native woods to wander "in the mazy,' in
the ballroom. Can naturalists explain the
phenomenon? What CONSERVATION attend
GU Vic uL0bluS VI llo ouohy Do
ries of shriIl shrieks-a patter of frightened
feet-a Tapping of handkerchiefs over devoted
heads We should offer a vote Of thanks to
the bat for giving us never-failing "sensa-
ton" We killed him regularly every night,
but he always "resurrected' in time for the
next evenings performance, or else his name
was Legion!
From this balcony our musicians have fid-
died and harped and blown untiringly through
the long summer evenings. And where is
there band which can play the Turkish
Patrol" like unto our band Yea, verify,
and were they not pressed into the service by
ardent SWANS for serenades. and did not the
midnight groves re-echo with their watch
on the Rhine" and "Chimes of Normandy
Outside these ball room windows the negroes
have watched untiringly every evening, first to
arrive and last to leave, though they have to
stand on tip-toe upon stones and bricks to OBJ
tain view of what passes beyond the high
windows. Even during pouring rains they
have kept their positions for hours. 1t gives
one pang to think that are there upon this
earth some lives SO barren of all enjoyment
that after days work. recreation is found on
ly in the distant contemplation of others
pleasure.
Tennyson's Dream of Fair Woman
Such shadowy pageant floats before our
memory now of those who have glided in the
waltz, romped in the reel, raced in the racket
and danced the Cuban and Saratoga in this
ballroom! But why should we separate the
ladies from their cavaliers For such
there were, of knightly presence, and SC
they pass before us, two and two-all who
made circle of the pleasantest, brightest most
charming peoplein all the Old Dominion. And
SO the vision fades away-"all, and are gone
the old, familiar faces"
Dear and kind friends, goodbye, goodbye
The correspondent must pack the carpet bag
leave the shade of the "umbrageous grove
for the dusty highway-and the genial host
for the cold, cold world M. V. D.
Healing Springs, Sept. 9th, $780,
Henry Watterson enjoys the distinction o
being the only Democrat of prominence who
had the courage to speak the truth about Gen
.eral Garfield, and to stick to it during the en-
tire campaign. Now that the fight is over he
AM l. =. Al --.l~o