The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-06-07
AT THE HoT SPRINGS.
Drug Stores aud Doctors The
County Jail---Arkansaw Poverty.

street. L started out once to count
on my fingers, but the fingers ran out
before was half way up the street. IF
man could by any possibility throw a
stone in Hot Springs without hitting
doctor he would be sure to hit the win
dow of drug store. Here in the Ar
hngton hotel the street makes little
curve, running up past the opera house,
neat little theatre, and so straight on
up till it ends at the foot of mountain,
then branching out to the right and the
left, and extending mile or more in
each direction. Then, in every
way you can imagine, north,
south, east and west, and in
all the possible angles between
which are the dwelling houses, all
built of wood, some of them expensive,
some very cheap and none with any
very distinctive features, except that
it is customary 70 build a fine house,
spend few hundred dollars in ginger
bread work about the cornices and
pi.zz.s, and leave the front yard in
state of nature, which here means
state of rocks and dead grass and tall
bushes. Nine houses of every ten in
the town take either boarders, or
lodgers, when they can get them.
Wherever you go you see the sign
staring you III the face:
A Vac AM ROOM.
This invariably means that the build
ing is lodging md that dodgers
are urgently needed; but the announce
ment of "a" vacant room gives it rather
an air of there being constant brisk
demand for places and of one of the
rooms just happening, by great good
fortune, to be vacant. This vacant
room" business is carried to such an
excess that it is a standing joke.
People try to find dodgers for rooms
in sheds, out-houses and garrets. There
was big stove standing for several
days on the edge of the sidewalk in
front of one of the saloons, labeled
'fcr sale" One night the "for sale
sign disappeared and in the morning
the rusty old stove rejoiced in the all
nouncement, "a vacant rcomp Some
joker had stolen a lodging-house sign
and hung it over the stove-pipe. The
joke was so very pat everybody saw it
at once, and there was crowd around
the stove all morning.
doubt whether there is any place of
its size in the world where more curious
things are to be seen. The hot springs,
OF course, are most curious of all; but
there are many others. For instance:
You go down to the railway station and
find neat brick depot, perhaps as fine
and modern building Of the kind as
there is in the whole south. You walk
fifty yards away from it and you come
upon log shanty, perhaps twelve or
fifteen feet square, with no doors in
the walls, and with q rickety veranda
somehow growing out of the roof. You
notice that little bit of window, not
more than foot square, in the front
wall is protected with iron bars. This
leads you to make inquiries about the
baildin'g, and you learn that it is the
Garland county Jail. Curiosity induces
you to walk around the corner of the
| hut to the foot Of a shady wooden stair
way, by which you climb to the ver
anda, where sits the iailer. He in
vites you to enter a garret room in
which you can just stand upright,
raises a trap in the floor, and shows
| you the four or five prisoners con-
fined beneath. When new prisoner is
| brought q ladder is lowered, the pris
oner climbs down, the ladder is with
drawn, and the trap is fastened down
again In this hole the county prisoners
are kept until the county Judge" rides
over on his mule and opens the county
court. The prisoners, when the trap is
opened, look up and gibe the jailer and
visitors, ask for tobacco, crack
Jokes about the weather, and make
as much capital as they can out of this
break in the monotony.
You go 900 yards in the other direc-
ton from the depot and you come to
the old station. Immediately behind
this is high and very steep hill. Visit
it almost any pleasant afternoon and
you will see dozen youngsters climb
ing the hill, dragging small sleds after
them, just as our northern boys do
after snow-storm. These boys seat
themselves on their sleds and come
down the hill like lightning, although
the ground is perfectly bare. The soil
is full of soapstone, or some other
slippery rock, md the boys have sport
tlat nianv Ne York lad has wished
for-tle fun OF ri,.lg down hill In
summer time. Yer o a little further
out and you cone / . .bins where poor
people live, both Whit and black. You
know what poverty is when you enter
one of them, and see that the only fur
niture is bundle of rags for bed,
and the 1lly food such scraps IS can be
little colored shaver in one of these
shanties, one day, munching piece OF
dry bread as if he enjoyed it. He let a
bit of it fall in the ashes, and his
"mammy," who sat on an inverted pail
before the open fire, hunted it up
for him, saving, Good Lawd, honey
; don't waste yer -four bread 'Taint
often yer gets it" You will not
often sit down and talk for ten min
utes with any male person in Garland
county without the conversation run.
ming into knives and pistols and fights
and the gentleman telling you whom
he has licked, or whom he is going
to "lick," or why he hasn't licked
,, him, or why he would like to "lick'
him. But you need not mind this
: because it is all talk. When two mer
really do have fight. even in the way
l have described, it makes great ex
element aud people talk about it fol
weeks.
The waters Ibelieve to be equal te
the Lest that is claimed for them. Fo1
paralysis, rheumatism, and all disorder.
OF the skin and blood they seemed to b,
almost q sovereign cure. If more peo
PIE knew about them peopl,
would come here. And they shoult
!. con:e either in the spring or fall, ant
stay not~less than two or three months
g if ti-ey expect to reap any benefit
: Summer is to hot, winter tee cold
!: They should, of course. keep clear O
t el, runners and go first to one of tn