Evening star., 1901-10-14
lTALY'S HEALTH RESORT
CURES SAID TO BE WROUGHT AT
sALsOMAGGIORE.
Ten Thousand Persons Make an An
nual Pilgrimage to the
Waters.
From the London Chronicle.

From the London Chronicle.
Only the wise few among English and
Americans have heard of Salsomaggiore,
where ten or twelve thousand people of
all classes (mainly Italians) come every
year to be cured rather than amused. Here
for generations men. women and children
have been healed Of almost every kind
Of i'll which flesh is heir to, and no fuss
made about 1t. The cures have not been
attributed to supernatural agency, for they
are almost old as the rolling vine-clad
hills that shelter the town. Our old friends
the Romans knew and used the briny wells;
and the Guelphs and Ghibellines fought
over these strongly smelling prizes. But
let come down to our own day. Gouty
and rheumatic people arrive in the village
PROSTATE and go away cured; SO do feeble
children and sckly ailing women; SO also
do overworked nervous men of every rank
and calling. 1t is a wonderful place.
But you want to know where it is? Well
1t is only two hours from Milan, and
thirty from Charing Cross. Borgo San
Domino is the station (on the main line to
Bologna: and curious little steam tram
runs along the road from Borgo to Salso
Salso grows upon you. nesting in the smiI-
ing valley Of the Po. at the foot of the
Emiien Apennine The marvellous salso-
iodic waters are the strongest in the world
in lithium and stontium, and are besides
exceedingly rich in iodine and bromine.
Remarkably Productive Waters.
When you arrive at the hotel you are
taken in charge by the resident physician:
for one Is very properly not allowed to
play with the cure at Salso. If the in
discriminate drinking of water at other
cure resorts is dangerous, the thing would
be the death of you at Salso-where you
don't drink the waters at all; You battle
and you inhale. The doctor sees you and
lync 1,,.ll<.
to be of such strength and temperature,
and you are either to inhale in the big,
misty saloon, or else by the getto diretto-
a Jet OF steam. sucking bottle of water
and spraying 1t into your mouth and throat.
And now, having lunched and listened to
the band in the big cool vestibule, let us
go and see the village. "A pity you will
say. about those factory chimneys." They
are not factories. Everything here Is con-
nected with the waters. They have null
tipiicity of uses. They yield gas with which
to light the town; they yield petroleum
which yields profit. and they yield masses
of table salt which does not, for it must
be handed over to a monopoly-loving gov
ernment, which pays for the commodity
much what 1t pleases. In one of the sup
posed factories you will see fiendish-look-
ing men standing on the brink of shallow
pits OF boiling brine, raking out huge heaps
of snow-white salt They are looked after
by soldiers. just as though they were coin
Ing gold or polishing diamonds.
You meet crowds of the Roman and
F1orentine noblesse, with sprinklngs of
Milanese and venetians. They even come
from far-away, Naples. There are the car
riages of the Borromeos and the Pallava-
cinos. and there, too. is a cabinet minister
from Rome. Signor Guido Bacelli, not far
from the great Tamagno. who has been
trying the direct spray. There are car
riages everywhere. for every one drives.
especially in the afternoon at 8. when the
sun has sunk below the lovely hills The
coachmen are a flaming mass Of scarlet
and gilt. and they take you by devious
turns up to hoary castles perched on dar-
Ing summits-Bargone and Scipione, Taxi
ano and Vigoleno. From these anci .n.
strongholds. lost In wilderness Of plae and