The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-08-19
OUR CORRESPONDENT IN THE
SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA.
PoNCHo SPRINGS. Aug. 9Th. 1881.

try, the grandeur of the scenery, and
the marvellous engineering skill which
has opened up this great highway of
commerce. where eight months ago
these mountain recesses were undis-
turbed and hushed in the stiffness of
the eternal past. At South Arkansas,
leaving the main line, we whirl along
the valley of the South Fork, up steep
mountain grade and soon reach Poncho
Springs, new town lying in beau
tiful valley, the hot springs being up
the mountain side mile and half
away. Leaving the cars, purposing to
enjoy the baths at the springs, we soon
discovered that the practices of hack
men at Niagara Falls had struck this
beardless city, and that the attack was
dangerous to pocket books generally.
The cheapest way under present quota
tions to secure a conveyance is to buy
it outright. a long winding ascent of
five hundred feet brought us to the cele-
brated hot springs, over one hundred
in number, boiling forth with their
breath of fame from the crest of lava
beds thrown up ages ago by some vol
canic action.
Eggs are cooked by these waters
which are strongly impregnated with
sulphur, iron. magnesia and other min
erals. Invalids are here treated for
paralysis, rheumatism, scrofrfa and
other diseases, and many 60 away per-
fectly cured. The present need is an
infrmary large enough to accommodate
500 patients with good first class
hotel, located on the mountain-side, Civ
ing view unequalled in beauty of
plains, messas and mountains, while in
the distance old Havana, with his mon
arch peaks snow-capped, lift their hoary
heads high into ether by day or night,
thing of beauty and joy forever.
After few days spent at this delight
full spot, we 60 by train to Maysville, a
new mining town, with large and profit
able mineral interests, up the gulch of
the South Fork of the Arkansas. Mr..
George Partridge, of st. Louis, is largely
interested in these mines, being the
owner of the Brighton and other choice
properties. The writer here found Mr..
Pitt Cook and Mr.. Moorhead, of Wash
ingtOn, and their partner, Mr.. Looney
of Baltimore, living on a splendid
rancho, with everything growing in
garden and field most luxuriantly under
a splendid system of irrigation. These
young gentlemen have already made
themselves felt as factors in the grow
| ing future of this young state. Leav.
| ing Maysville we reach Poncho and
begin our ascent around acute curves
over great chasms, grand and awful as
seen from the car windows. Now We
creep slowly along the outside of q
great mountain or pass under CHS
elled "via" through great rocks, mould
ed and shaped in the womb of nature in
the long, long ago. A frail bridge spans q
ghostly chasm. and over it goes the pant
ing engine, while far below dashes, plum
ges and roars the angry waters of Clear
Creek. Up and on we 60 till the shril
whistle echoes and re-echoes through
these mountain fortresses, announcing
MearS' Station, 1000 feet above PonchC
Springs. This is the point of diver
gence of the San Luis valley extension
of the railroad, Sodom in wickedness
where men died with their boots on,
human life being held as no better than
that of big mastiff. Soon in our sky
ward journey Shirley is reached as a
way station. The trip from Shirley to
the top of the Divide beggars descrip.
ton. Neither pen nor pencil can dc
| justice to what we saw as we were
whisked onward and upward creeping
cautiously alongside Of mountains and
over tresselings, up grade of 217 feet
to the mile, while the engine and train
seemed playing hide and seek among
the spurs of old snow-capped Ouray,
lifting his hcary head in the distance
$4,000 feet above the sea.
What sublimity ! and grandeur
On the continental divide, this hoary
old sentinel of the mid-continent stood
watch and ward on creations morn.
We creep upward, and from the car
we count four tracks far down in the
chaSm below, over which we have
passed travelling six miles to make one
in distance, while we sweep on into
a cooler atmosphere and gather our
wraps about us as we come to face old
Ouray covered with snow on the 22nd
OF July. We are now up to timber
line, but what wealth of beauty lies
just below in acres on acres of flowers
that have bloomed ages upon ages,
with no eye to feast on their beauty or
to breathe their perfume but the eye of
the eternal God. A little stream
comes dashing down the rocky sides OF
the great monarch, its waters glisten-
ing in the sunlight like dewy tears
On speeds the train while clouds lay
below us, nesting among crags and
peaks, over which we have passed. A
storm cloud in the distance sends its
artillery booming through mountain
fortresses and craggy peaks, and rain
kisses the mountain sides and valleys
below us, while on and up we speed in
the bright sunlight. Soon we reach a
little park adorned with flowers OF
natures planting and little purling
stream singing its ripping song. The
engine goes laundering on and soon
sends screeching over the Atlantic and
Pacific Slope it's shrill whistle. and we
set foot on the summit where the
waters of the spring are divided and
go purling on their way eastward and
westward. What a sweep of vision
as westward we look down the Toni.
chi valley and the San Luis valley to
the eastward, while. still before us
stands old Ouray, with it's snow-capped
peak 1880 feet above our heads. The
altitude is so great that every one is
painting like dog in from chase.
From this point west to Sargent the
train winds itself down the track again
like cork screw, and we wonder at
the achievements and success of the
grandest railroad accomplishment of
this wike-awake age.
THE CRISIS IN ENGLAND.
MANY wears AGO. Macaulav daclarod