News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-08-26
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS.
DESCRIPTION OF THE TYPICAL
SOUTHERN HEALTH RESORT.
Its characteristics in Former Times
Situation OF the Springs-The
Hotel and Cottages.

ITS characteristics in Former Times
Situation OF the Springs-The
Hotel and Cottages.
Charles Dudley Warner gives in Iar-
rer's Magazine, the following entertain
ing description OF the White Sulphur
Springs, the well-known Virginia health
resort:
The White Sulphur has been for the
better part of a century, as everybody
knows, the typical Southern resort, the
rendezvous of all that was most char
acterist;c in the society of the whole
So"th, the meeting-place of its poiti-
Clans, the haunt of IFS bellies, the arena
of Cayety, intrigue and fashion. If
tradition is to be believed, here in years
gone by were cOncocted the measures
that were subsequently deployed for the
Government of tine country at Washing
ton, here historic matches were made,
here beauty had triumphs that were the
talk of geneI ation,s here hearts were
Rr9ken. at o ball and mended IN Lovers
~s#lk, ana here fortunes were nightly
lost and Won, 1t must have been in its
material conditions a primitive place in
the days Of its greatest fame Visitors
came toit in their carriages and unwieldy
fourth rse chariots, attended by troops
of servants, making slow but most en-
joyable pilerimages over the mountain
roads, Journeys that lasted week or a
fortnight, and were every day enlivened
by 10Y al adventure They came for tho
season Thep were all of one social order,
and needed no introduction; those from
Virginia were all related to each other,
and though life there was somewhat
in the nature of picnic, it had its
very well defined and ccremonious code
of etiquette In the memory of its old
habitues It was at once the freest and
the most aristociatic assembly in the
world. The h tel was small and its ar
rangements primitivei good many Of
the visitors had their own cottages, and
the rows of those cheap structures took
their names from their occupants. The
Southern Presidents, the Senators and
Statesmen, the rich planters, lived in cot
tages which still have historic interest
in their memory. But cottage life W; IS
never the exclusive affair that it is else
where; the society was one body, and the
hotel was the center.
Time has greatly changed the White
Sulphur; doubtless in its physical aspect
it never was so beautiful and attractive
as it is to-day, but all the modern i'm
p~ovements have not destroyed the char
acter of the resort, which possesses u
great many of its primitive and oldtime
peculiarities.
Briefly, the White is in an elevated and
charming mountain region. so cool, in
fact, especially at night, that the
."season" Is practically limited to July
and August, although l am not sure but
quiet person, who likes invigorating
air, and has no daughters to marry off,
would find it equally attractive in Sep
tember and October, when the autumn
foliage is in its glory. In green roll
ing interval, planted with noble trees
and flanked by moderate hills, stands the
vast white caravansary, having wide gall
leries and big pillars running round three
sides. The front and two sides are ele-
waited, tie galleries being reached by
flights of steps, and atfording room un-
de-neath for the large billiard and
bar rooms. From the hotel the
ground slopes down to the
spring, which is surmounted by a
round canopy on white columns, and be-
low is an opening across the stream to
the race-track, the servants quarters, and
atne view of receding hills. Three sides
OF this charming park are enclosed by the
cottages and cabins, which back against
the hills, and are more or less embowered
in trees. Most of these cottages are built
in blocks and rows. some single rooms,
Others large enough to accommodate a
family, but all reached by flights of steps,
all with verandas, and most of them con
nected by galleries. Occasionally the
forest trees have been lest, and the gal
leries built around them. Included in
the premises are two churches, a gam
bling house, couple of country stores,
and postotiice. There are none of the
shops common at watering places for the
sale of fancy articles, and, strange to say,
Bowers are not y etS.-.,.'.-s.~.-N'y 'e.
ted, and very few are ever to be had. The
hotel has a vast dining room, besides the
minor eating-rooms for children and
nurses, large ball room, and a drawing
room of imposing dimensions Hotel
and cottages together, it is said, can lodge
fifteen hundred guests. The natural
beauty of the place is very great, and
fortunately there is not much smart and
fantastic architectu to interfere with it.