Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-10-15
AT THE BLUE LICK.
Life at q Famous Resort i'm Kentucky
Some Poker-Ilaying on the Quiet.


Some POker-playing on the Quiet
Says letter from Blue Lick Springs:
The people of the south know very lit
tie OF this famous old resort, except as
they gather their information from
books. They have read of the ''dark
and bloody ground" and the names
of Boone, and Kenton, and Simon Cir
ty, the renegade. are familiar to them,
but only as shadows, not rs real hu-
man beings. Yet within a hundred
yards of where l write Boone had his
salt kettles, and in less than half
mile of this house the battle of Blue
Licks was fought between the whites
under Boone and Kenton and the In
dianS from the Shawnee towns in Ohio
near where Chillicothe now stands.
Every square foot of earth here is his
toric ground and welded to a memory
of heroism.
Before the war this was a great re-
sort for southern people and the ground
on which the Arlington now stands
was occupied by hotel which was the
finest building of the kind in old Ken
lucky. Old man Throckmorton kept
the hotel in its palmy days and Henry
Clay never thought that his vacation
was well spent if he did not put in the
drives about here, and they were then,
as well as now, the best in the State,
were gay with the equipages of south
ern gentlemen of the old school who
came hundreds of miles with their own
carriages and horses and servants to
drink the waters and to play poker.
Their wives and daughters drank the
water and the ole gentlemen contented
themselves with mint juleps and the
poker table. In the matter of poker
playing Mr.. Clay and John G. Brock
inridge were both said to be very pro-
fcient, and neither of them were at all
backward when the juleps were passed
around. ThrockmOrtOn, too, was a
typical host, and never let the game
flag nor the glasses get dry for the
lack of replenishment. There has been
some poker played here since, but on
the dead quiet you know, for gambling
is now felony in Kentucky. Yet i
saw game some years ago with
United States Senator and some other
distinguished Kentuckians in it which
lasted all night, and | have heard that
there is a pretty adventures at the
springs now who took in a fair share
of good money from some rich young
sters hailing from Florida, over a game
nominally conducted ''only for fun.
you know" She told me, naively
enough, speaking of the young men:
''They were very polite to me, and
played as if they wanted me to WIN"
They had plenty of money, and | sup
pose thought they got value received !
for what they lost in the pleasure of |
her society.
The water of the Blue Lick spring
has very great med cal virtues, and is /
barreled and shipped all over the coun-
try. Every old topper knows the vir- /
tues of glass of ''Blue Lick" next /
morning before breakfast But the
taste of the exported article is abom- /
Unable, while if taken fresh from the |
spring it is rather pleasant than other |
wise, and it is certainly much more |
efficacious when taken fresh. After il |
has been taken from the spring even /
an hour it loses much of its consti- /
tuent virtue, and people who drink it /
at a distance from here generally put /
a little salt in it. But when fresh it /
needs no addition to its strength, and |
they do say that bath of it will fresh /
en- up man who is just on the verge |
of iim-iams until he feels like 2-year-
old colt in a bluegrass pasture. | /
don't know how that is, but man who /
follows each drink of Bourbon with
glass of fresh Blue Lick water can |
drink as much as he pleases and never
get intoxicated. OF course that pre-
supposes that his liquor is pure. If /
he drinks Mononghehala or Cincinnati |
''bush-head, nothing short of a dose |
of fresh hell-fire could counterfeit its
effects, on the principle of ''smila |
similibus curantur." But the genuine /
Kentucky liquor and the Kentucky |
Blue Lick act together like a charm.
The spring is in the midst of
marshy spot where the mud is crusted |
with salt, where the oozy water dries \
up from it in spots. There is n good 4
walk to it, however, and a handsome /
pavilion around it tagged with stone.
The water bubbles up IN the midst of
a rock-walled octagon about six feet
across and about the same depth. The .
fountain is clear and beautiful, the
water being so transparent that the .
smallest article on the bottom can be .
clearly discerned, and in color it is
bright, blnish green, becoming per-
fectly clear when dipped up. Bubbles .
of gas are constantly coming to the .
surface in squadrons, giving the
spring the appearance of an etferves- .
cent pool of soda water, such as have .
seen in the Rocky mountains about /
Manitou.
The color of the water and the fact
that buffaloes came to lick the salt .
from the surface in the olden time gave
the place its name of Blue Lick, and .
the river which flows past is called the
Licking because all along its banks
for miles similar salt springs are found.
This was the great salt-making place .
for the early hunters of Kentucky, and .
many of Boones most narrow escapes /
were made while boiling down the .
water here to get salt for curing his
game. The Indians used it for the
same purpose, coming here from all .
parts of Ohio to get their supplies of
salt. As might be supposed, it was a
popular summer resort then, and .
much more dangerous to white man
than now, when his only enemies are
the female visitors, and their objective
point his pocket-book rather than his
scalp.