The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-09-25
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS.

The Charming Mountain Rendezvous OF
the Exclusive Society of the South.
The White Sulphur has been for the
better part of century, as everybody
knows, the typical Southern resort, the
rendezvous of all that was most charac-
teristic in the society of the whole
South, the meeting-place of its poll
ticians, the haunt of its bellies, the arena
OF gayety, 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 the country at Washing.
ton, here historic matches were made,
here beauty had triumphs that were the
talk of q generation, here hearts were
broken at ball and mended in Lovers
Walk, and here fortunes were nightly
lost and Won 1t must have been in its
material conditions primitive place in
the days of its greatest fame. Visitors
came to it in their carriages and un-
wieldy four-horse chariots, attended by
most enjoyable pilgrimages over the
mountain roads, journeys that lasted
week or fortnight, and were every
day enlivened by joyial adven-
ture. They came for the sea-
son. They 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 ceremonious code Of
etiquette. In the memory of its old
hdbttlteS it was at once the freest and
the most aristOcratic assembly in the
world. The hotel was small and its ar
rangements primitive; good many of
the visitors had their own cottages, and
the rows of these cheap structures took
their names from their occupants. The
Southern presidents, the senators and
statesmen, the rich planters, lived in
cottages which still have historic in
terest in their memory. But cottage
life was never the exclusive affair that
it is elsewhere; the society was the 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 inn
provements have not destroyed the
character of the resort which possesses
great many of its primitive and old
time pecularities.
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 | am not
sure but quiet person, who likes in
vigorating air, and has no daughters
to marry off, would find it equally at
tractive in September and October,
when the autumn foliage is in its glory.
In green rolling interval, planted
with noble trees and flanked by moder-
ate hills, stands the vast white caravan
sary, having wide galleries and big pill
lars running round three sides The
front and two sides are elevated, the
galleries being reached by flights of
steps and atfording room underneath
for the large billiard and bar-rooms.
From the hotel the ground slopes down
to the spring, which is surmounted by
round canopy on white columns, and
below is an opening across the stream
to the race-track, the servants quarters,
and a fine view of recedng hills.
Three sides of this charming park
are enclosed by the cottages and
cabins, which back against the hills,
and are more or less uncovered
in trees. Most of these cottages are
built in blocks and rows, some single
rooms, others large enough to accom-
modate a family, but all reached by
flights of steps, all with verandas, and
most of them connected by galleries.
Occasionally the forest trees have been
left, and the galleries built around them.
Included in the premises are two
churches, gambling house, a couple
of country stores, and a post-oilice.
There are none of the shops common
at watering places for the sale of fancy
articles, and, strange to say, flowers
are not Systematically cultivated, and
very few are ever to be had. The hotel
has vast dining-room, besides the
minor eating-rooms for children and
nurses, a large ballroom, and a draw
ing-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 architecture to in
terfere with it Charles Dudley Var.
ner, IN Ha5per'S Magazine.