Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-09-03

Cuo uCUlo lSlbuuS COVefeu WIFI MOSSoS
and watercress; to see the birds skim
ming over the water, chasing the scar
let and pale blue snake feeders. The
water cress and white rats. like tho
lawn soil, were imported; but, un
like the soil, they have increased a
thousand fold. The native grass is
buffalo, not very pretty at this season
but still very fattening to the cattle.
Dwarf sunflowers follow both sides
of the streams and ravines, while white
poppies grow seemingly right out of
the rocks. The prickly blush stem of
the poppy exudes sticky orange
yellow fluid, which will some
day be utilized as permanent dye, to
judge from my fingers after gathering
some to press.
There are two and sometimes three
private cars standing on switch just
below the bridge, and they, with their
colored porters in white jackets, caps
and aprons, help to make the scene
picturesque.
Ii the ladies who complain of a lack
of men at summer resorts could only
be here, they would be satisfied, as it
is the men who lack a dancing part
ner. Tho hotel verandas are wide and
long, extending around two and one
half sides of the house. The recess
used by the dancers, is. forty feet
square.
1t is perfectly correct here to ask
your acquaintance if he or she has had
"a bath, which, of course would not be
proper thing in Evansville polite So
ciety.
Swimming in the plunge bath is the
favorite amusement, passengers being
carried back and forth in the hotel
carriages free of charge. The plunge
is two hundred feet long and t.fty wide
and eight feet deep in the deepest
place. At a meeting of the medical
fraternity here three years ago there
were five hundred physicians and sur
geons in the plunge bath at one time
and the scent of ether fingered long in
the valley. Days when it is cold
enough to sit around the open fire.
place in the hotel office, we can go to
the plunge ami see the steam arising
from its surface and feel comfortable
in the dressing rooms in our bathing
suits. All this heat comes from the
natural water.
The medical properties of the warm
springs here were known to the In
dians before the coming of the white
man to this neighborhood.
The highest peak in the near vicinity
is Battle Mountain, within walking dis
tance of the hotel. On my doubling
the story of a three days fight between
the Grow and Sioux Indians having
been fought OH its summit for pos
session of the springs, an old gentle
man near informed me that he was one
of a company of seventeen men who
fought the Indians on neighboring
hill, showing that they do not confine
their battles to the valleys. Col. Nc
Gillicuddy, who surveyed this district
before Custer was sent by Grant to stir
up a quarrel with the Indians. corrob-
crates the statement that the Indians
actually came here every fall to take
their annual baths.
A tally-ho coach leaves the hotel
every day for u trip to the Wind cave,
the cave being SO named because the
temperature of the air iu and outside
its entrance varies so greatly that
door must be closed behind you, leav-
ing you in absolute darkness. before
the candles can be lighted. Each per-
son carries his own candle and must
wear old clothes, for the surprise in
store for you makes you forget to hold
your candle i'll Il vertical position, and
you reach the outer air ornamented by
tallow polka dots. The temperature
of the cave is 4S degrees, being de-
grees less than that of Mammoth Cave,
Kentucky.
The young society girls of the hotels
wear mountain suits, consisting of high
boots and short skirts; not that they
climb very much, but it is always we'll
to be prepared and then they are so be-
coming.
The shirt waist is worn to breakfast
and lunch, but at dinner time one has
q chance to display smart clothes.
The guests are composed of Chicago
physicians, Omaha editors and their
wives, Deadwood statesmen, Sioux City
lawyers, Texas cattle kings, Iowa and
Nebraska ranchers, railroad lords who
travel in private cars, Missouri bankers,
Pennsylvania pleasure seekers, tired
/, of the nameless eastern resorts, and in
fact many from the north central
states, who come to breathe the pure
mountain air. There ate all kinds and
classes Of tourists, from limping rheu-