The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-06-21
A HISTORY or HEALING
One of North Cardinals De-
lightfuI Health Meccas.
The Famous Hot Springs Nesting Among The
Mountains OF Madison on The
French Broad.
Especial Cor News and observer)

11Ol Springs, ~ ~ JUNE 10
In this age of discovery. progress and
The practical and scientific control OF
natures favor for the needs of man.
kind, it would be about as useless to
attempt to argue away the virtue con-
tanned in one of the we'll tested speci-
fics of nature as it would to declare
that the apple is myth or the apple
tree is as barren as the aspen.
The ills of mankind and natural rem
edies for the relief and cure are a
part of the original plan of things and
they have come along, down the ages
together, hand in hand, the natural
specifics found all around the earth,
the greatest boons to suffering human
ity. North Carolina is peculiarly bless
ed in this particular as in other nat
ural advantages. Her rarest health
mecca perhaps is her famous Hot
Springs located in Madison county
near the banks of the smiling French
Broad This place is far famed; not
because it has been so much heralded
by writer's or historians, but its praises
have been sung by the appreciative
thousands who have been hither and
been healed.
Hot Springs has a history a cen.
fury DID, containing many of the
brightest pages that have ever been
enacted in this beautiful land of the
sky, but it's most interesting, it's most
valuable history is it's history of heal
ing printed in new tint on the pallid
cheek of the visiting invalids and pre-
served in renewed vigor and elasticity
given to the lame, the infirm, the dis
eased this kind of history is still be-
ing made here.
There is much at Hot Springs to
make a sojourn not only beneficial but
pleasant and hence the mammoth
Mountain Park Hotel has large crowds
of guests from one end of each year
to the other. These surrounding
mountains so gorgeously arrayed in
green foliage and the happy valleys are
here always to charm the vision, these
busy breezes gently fan the summer
heat away. This enchanting vine-clad
and flower decked vale. budding and
blooming twixt the crystal rivulet and
the smiling river, the dark majestic
curves of the mountain ranges on
every side. the golf and other pleasure
grounds, the picturesque graded drive
ways, bride paths and walkways up
and down the river banks and over
and around the mountain sides: they
all help to while away the time.
The magnificently furnished hatel, its
comfortable suites of rooms, it's large
and attractive parlors, its dining and
dance halls and long stretches of shad-
ed verandas. its splendid cuisine and
clever considerate management. Ev-
erything i'm general and in detail,
strictly up-to-date, nothing but the
best service and nothing hut the best
to serve it is no wonder that Hot
Springs is attracting large numbers of
the most desirable health and pleasure
seekers all along the line from New
York to New Orleans.
The large number of commodious
marble bathing pools that fill automat-
ically with a health restoring liquid
that is compounded and headed by ma
ture in it's very laboratory where an
inaccuracy is impossible and a mistake
never made for nature does not ex-
pertinent. The daily baths that boil
out OF the system, the impurities that
fade the rose tint from the check and
I'LL the DOuy Will pdiii' II 10 no
lures medicinal liquid possessing as it
bubbles up from its hidden fountain
that combination of minerals that make
it a specific for many of the worst
and most painful ills of mankind.
But nature has not been the only
builder here. She planted splendid
foundations Tor valuable and extensive
development and she spread around
about it an environment simply unsur-
passed. But she left off at a point
that called for hands. of genius, men
with courage with good judgment,
with practical knowledge and scientific
knowledge and with determination to
win. These broad areas of hotel build
ings, bath houses, swimming pools,
spring houses; these acres of green,
shady lawns, flower gardens, play
grounds, were not entirely their own
builders and beautifiers. There was
grit and genius behind it all. 1t took
a man with grlt to run over the vast
1000 acre Hot Springs estate. 1t took
nerve, genius and grit to lay off
plan, and construct these mammoth
buildings, embracing every apartment
necessary to meet the requirements
and Iurn1S1 cOIllIOItS anu lOi
the thousands who We're destined to
come hither, but the times furnish the
man. The place had advanced but lit
tie beyond the crude shape in which
nature left = when in 1862 it became
the property of Col. James II. Rum
Dough. a native of Virginia. 1t was a
bad time there for building or develop
ment The war was raging, but the
broad acres held together till peace
reigned. The bubbling springs Dub
bed on till the war was over.
There was no building, of course,
during the war. Col. Rumbaugh was
on General Kirby Smiths staff doing
service for his country at the 'front.' az
ter he had returned and was about set
Ting down to work that other recon-
struction Kirk war broke out and he
found himself a prisoner of the ia
nous Kirk. Returning again in the
fall of 65 he began to build and beau
tify. Peoplee soon began coming to So
journ at he springs They were en-
tertained by Col. Rumbaugh and his
good wife. The crowds grew as the
seasons passed and new buildings went
up. Additional facilities We're provid-