St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1890-06-28
A COUNTRY WATERING PLACE
IN THE "OLD SOUTH"

the English people, one is forcibly i'm
pressed with their conventionalism in So
cial customs and usages through great and
varied change in government. They seem
to have clupg. with pertinacity to social
customs and usages long, long after the
| laws to which these customs were sequent
ceased to be statutory. The Scotch seem
equally tenacious of the social forms and
habitudes peculiar to themselves and
watch with jealous care lest they lapse
into disuetude. Many kings and queens
of two Dynasties had welded the British
scepter since England and Scotland had
| apparently become one country, when the
Highlanders, adopting a social autonomy
certified themselves people with man
ners and customs unique by the chieftains
and their clans, in the tartan, marching to
the wild notes of the pibrooch at Cullodon.
Even the French, versatile and idolizing
the new, would deprecate the social revo'
luton that would advance the tendencies
of society p0ri pasu with the political
evolutions of State-and indeed the Gaul
of the days of the Directory differed little
in actions, thought and amusements from
his countrymen who shouted Uive te Roi,
to the Grand Monarque. These contrast
strikingly with the rapid placement of
social customs and usages which one OBJ
serves among the people who once made
their homes in the rural districts of the
United States. One has to reason aprioTi
to assign a cause for this. Coexistent
with and dependent upon the proprietor
ship of slaves, our customs have passed
with slavery into oblivion. That brief
period of time, little more than two dec
AIDES, has effected this notable change
affords matter for reflection. Perchance
the reader of to-day may find something
to interest or amuse in tracing with me
the decadence of these cherished customs.
The dewy freshness and greenery every
where-the fragrant and balmy air of
summer-woo me to choose for theme
an institution so inseparably blent with
this dolce far nsentG season it seemed in
by-gone years part of the joy it brought
the country watering place of the "old
South" The medicinal and curative
properties of the bold spring of sulphur
water found in the northern portions of
Alabama in it's earliest settlement were
known to the Indians. This region, now
SO rich and attractive in minerals, was
looked upon with far less favor than the
beautiful cotton lands whose wealth lay
SO to speak, upon the surface-and could
be materialized by our peculiar institution,
slavery. Remaining almost tenantless, its
inexhaustable treasures covered by forest
and Dosage where mingled copse and
glen, in many shades of green with violet
hills and mist-covered mountains-watered
by bold springs and mountain streams,
where the antlered monarch of the forest
drank in the security of wildness. Blount
Springs, in North Alabama, whose ettca-
cious and curative powers are unsurpassed
lies at the base of the Alleghanies, at
times seeming almost inaccessible, but
they are approached by rough mountain
roads.
Talladega Springs. with waters not
inferior to Blount, lies farther South
where hills assume the dignity of noun
tains. Twenty miles away from the last
mentioned, in the wooded hills of Shelby
county with water less impregnated with
sulphur, are three bold springs a few feet
distant from one another For this def
cheney in sulphuric strength, Nature,
seemingly in compensative mood, placed
them in a glen whose charming smoothness
and beauty rivaled parks where art has
supplemented Nature in making these
attractions. Near the center of lawn of
perhaps forty acres, in sill its native wood
land loneliness, the three sulphur springs
gurgled up through marble hydrants
splashing into basins of the same mate
rial, whence the water was conveyed
through cedar aqueducts to the marble
baths.
Some eighty yards to the North two
chaly beate springs stood ready to exert
their well known tonic and astringent
properties, while at an equal distance east
from the sulphur springs broad white
marble steps led down on four sides, by
four steps, to marble basin always over
flowing with cold, pure, healthfu1 blue
limestone water.
On a slight eminence at the west of the
lawn stood the hotels. Broad clean walks
leading from the hotels to the various cot
tages formed the East, North and South
sides of square, the hotels making it
complete on the West. The lawn ex-
tended in broad margin of green beyond
the buildings to the Enclosure, whence the
hills rose-with much of the beauty, but
with little of the wildness of mountain
scenery-forming Gordon around the
glen. The whole was densely shaded by
forest trees-loftY oaks and shadowy elnls
AS they grew in beauty and variety when |
the Indians lighted council fires beneath |
their outrageous foliage. More fortunate
in the taste of its original owners than it's |
rivals, Blount and Talladega, the hotels |
combining convenience and commodious- |
ness. with their long, shaded galleries, |
formed background to the lawn quite in |
harmony with the scenery. The white |
washed cottages, of four rooms each. were
extremely picturesque, with their little |
chimneys, suggestive of early autumn |
comfort, just peeping above their fiat roofs |
in the cool foliage of low oaks.
The white curtains moving to and fro In
The breeze from the windows that over
looked the bit of intense green that sepa-
rated them made one realize the delicious
,oolness of this perfect summer climate. |
And that virtue SO nearly allied to godli-
aess was made conspicuous in them by the
scent of fresh whitewssh. Two pavilions.
possibly placed on the lawn by hand of
ess taste than the one that made the
original Improvements, marred the other
wise harmonious beauty of the whole.
These were placed where the sick might
est and where these who had chat light
hat never was ON land or sea- in their
yes might find q trysting place. Then
here were no schools of art where the
darys and Lucys of the e.old South" might
earn that architectural incongrnities ex-
sted in the roofs and walls Of these white
Washed arbors and there are many reasons
or knowing they found the sweet old
tory, told in the soft voices and the chaste
anguage of the gentlemen of the "old
'outh, none the less sweet that they lis
ened amid environments SO inartistic.
from the last five years of the s.forties"
ntil "sixty- one," Alabama enjoyed I'M
sual prosperity and became the cotton
tate par excellence of the South. Fami-
les found trouble largely exceeded pleas
re in travelling in the Northern States as