The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-06-05
A MEXICAN MUD-BATH.
Natures Doctor-Shop in the Far
West.
Burro Riding Over Mountain Trails-A Para
disc in the Heart of the Rockies
Trout Springs Wonderland
special correspondence OF INC CONSTITUTION.

| special correspondence OF Inc constitution.
LAS VEGAS, N. M, May 26.-The Zuni In
dams founded the little town of Las Vegas
| Hot Springs, near here, long before the Ameri-
can continent was discovered by Sebastian
Cabot, or Christopher Columbus, or Amerigo
Nespucci, or whoever really did discover it.
The town OF Las Vegas, proper, signifying "the
like after the Atchison. Topeka and
Santa Fe railroad built through to Albu-
querque, and constructed their little branch
road over to the Hot Springs several miles from
Vegas. This town is lively enough but not par
ticularly acknowledgements when the tourist
is hungry, the big railway eating house, be-
ing here. But at the Hot Springs one might
easily imagine he had been translated bodily
into tairyland. The little hamlet snuggles close
down under the mountains where it is shell
tered from every storm. 1t has, therefore, a
climate peculiarly its own, which serves as an
attraction in addition to the wonderful hot
springs which bubble up in fifty different
places, and some of which smell lille--well, the
place that Bob" Ingersoll says does not exist.
Almost every southern state has its hot
| springs, and, i'll addition to several places of
this kind, Georgia has her own Incompatible
and unrivalled Hillman electric shaft but
| when it comes to genuine cures Las Vegas can
show up some pretty tall stories Most of the
cures are effected by the mud batbs which are
| a novel feature. The patient is plastered over
from head to foot with extremely hot mud,
made by mixing prairie loan with the hot min
eral water. The nose, mouth, eyes and ears
are left uncovered. He is then placed in a
tub of the mud and left there half an hour,
after which his dirty coating is scraped off.
A shower bath of the hot water fol-
lows, then q plunge in a tank of it:
after which comes the massage by profess
sonal; half an hours siesta-the patient
sleeping, wrapped in sheet, in room tho
temperature of which is about ninety-eight de-
| grees-and after this another rubbing. If
rheumatism survives this treatment long the
patients only hope for relief lies in suicide
Tho hot mud draws out pain wonderfully
soon, and these mud baths are now taken by
tourists, some of whom come from the remote
ends Of the earth-cripples when they arrive,
but robust in health when they leave, thanks
to this wonderful remedy of Dame Natures
concoction.
The hot springs came to BIO discovered in a
very singular way. The buffaloes first found
the spot, and came there every year to drink
the water and to wallow in the warm mud.
Rowing Indians from the Zuni settlement at
Santa Fe noticed the beaten trail made by the
buffaloes and followed it to the springs. They
drank of tho iron water where it had cooled,
and also of the sulphur and chalybeate. They
found out its medicinal value and, as early as
the middle of the fourteenth century, they be-
gan bringing their aged and sick braves and
squaws to lave and drink here. For two hun
dred years-until after the Spanish con-
quest of Mexico and the settlement of
the Spanish in this region-Tas Vegas was
the principal sanitarium of the Zunis When
the Catholic priests first learned of the cura-
tive powers of the hot springs they bottled
some of the water and sent it by peon messen-
gers, pest haste, to the Spaniards in old Mex
leo, who were then suffering from the small
poX. So great was the faith of the Indians in
the efficacy of this water Us a cure-all that the
priests were led to take this trouble. Whether
the water after its journey across the desert
plains to the Mexican capital, effected cure
| or not history does not record.
After the buttaloes came the Zunis; after the
Indians the priests and Spanish settlers, ana
| after them the United States soldiers who made
| q 'tbocuito1 cannnp here n far hack 1S1H a
few years later the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe railroad secured the spot They laid
out beautiful park, with lovely lawns, trees,
fountains and flowers, and lighted it with hun
dreds of incandescent lamps, They built a
hotel more elegant in its appointments than our
own famous "Kimball, - and then they did
the best thing of all-secured the very finest
| cooks to be had for money, and competent
and experienced manager. The result capti-
Yates the traveller, and those who come for
day remain for a week, often for a month.
Outside of New York there is no such service
or cooking; indeed the very best in New York
is not better. What an oasis in dreary des-
ert of railway eating houses between Kansas
City and Los Angelesl
The hotel dining room is novelty in its
way. The finish is in dead white and Georgia
pine-brought here from Darien, down on the
Georgia coast. The windows are of stained
glass, the floor polished or waxed. In each
and every window is a bower of vines and
blooming flowers, wherein are hung scores of
golden cages filed with canaries, who trill and
carol the whole day through, flooding the
house with their joyous melody. What can
be pleasanter of a morning than to be awaken
ed by the clear and liquid tril of birds aud tho
soft FLASHING of many fountains? Everything
is made to conduce to feeling of perfect rest"
and in this the designers have succeeded be-
yond their fondest expectations, for here, as
in no other fashionable resort, may be found
an isolation from care that must be born of the
blue skies, the sunshine and the eyer-blooming
flowers
The electricity in the air astonishes visitors.
The elevation of Q, 800 feet above the sea tends
to increase the electrical conductivlty of every
thing in the house. People who move rapidly
across the parlors, shutting their feet never so
lightly over the carpet feel decided shock on
touching another persons hands or garments.
Sparks can be brought from the tips of ones
fingers with very trifiing exertion. This is
thought to help rheumatic sufferers very mate
riallyyand to cooperate with the hot baths in
effecting permanent cures.
The one great dissipation at the springs IL
burro riding to some of the high cliffs near by,
from where magnificent views of the ''Inesas,"
the distant Rockies and the glinting waters Of
the GallInas may be obtained. 1t requires no
special skill to ride burro, although to
do it with grace is somewhat diff
cult of achievement. The patient, sad-eyed,
misunderstanding little creature is usually so
small that man, sitting astride him finds it
somewhat uncomfortable to keep his feet from
touching the ground. The smaller the burro
the greater his capacity for carrying load. 1t
may seem absurd to think Of man weighing
two hundred and fifty pounds riding burro
that would scarcely "tip the scales at two
hundred, and yet the thing is by no means inn
possible--in fact it is hardly uncommon. Wo-
men take to burro riding more naturally than
men and they soon fall quite in love with the
long-eared, fuzzy little brutes.
Following a mountain trail on burro-back is
an experience not to be missed. The trail from
the Phnnixlhotel TO Trout Springs is one Of the
favorites. The distance, round trip Is twelve
fnilpg and IL fa<Qa urppigelV a HaV-tWplVp
hours-to make it ON q burro. You first climb
hill so steep that it seems almost incredible
an animal thus loaded can ascend IL. AS
you near the summit throbbing of the
temples, the purple faces Of your companions,
the quick, short breathing Of the beasts, tell
you that the elevation is close npon 5000 feet.
Now the trail leads down, this time along the
edge OF a deep, dark rayine, where a single
nsstep would land you three thousand feet
below. The rocks here are precipitous, and
beneath. in The little canY0n. flows the green