Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-05-07
AKRON
Visitors Are at hot
Springs.
Nasa,...
Judge Grants Descrip-
ton Of the Resort
Will be Interesting to the Demo-
Gratis Readers.
10 the Editor of the Democrat:

Although the role of newspaper cor |
respondent is quite out of my line, |
perhaps modest penful from "a
stranger in strange land" may not
quite fail TO provoke the ghost Of a
smile at your table.
With characteristic perverseness I
selected "A Briday-it was April 26th-l
for leaving home, the snow drifts be-
ing still deeply in evidence under the
lee of the fences. We struck the Wa
bash at Auburn Junction, Ind. the
same evening, and the ride from
thence to St. Louis was such as was
TO have been expected over that finely
equipped and admirably run road.
The Wabash is travelling made easy in
every sense of the word.
We tarried "a day at st. Louis,-not
missing dinner at Tony Pfaus's
restaurant, an inexperience in which
leaves life but half lived as any
Akron German who has ever been
west of tho Mississippi river will tell
you.
Saturday evening we left over the
Iron Mountain route line which is
4
speed and accommodating service will
justify and sunrise found us in Cen
trail Arkansas. Snow banks and for
bidding skies had given place to
: growing cotton and corn, to forests
bursting into full leaf, to ground car
s petcd with flowers and to the soft and
: balmy air of a Southern spring.
At Malvern we left the main line
of the Iron Mountain, and the ride Of
30 miles over "Diamon1 Joes" road
to the Springs WIS n winding around
I pine-clad hils,--all the while climbing,
: through region Of dense forests for
the most part, slashed with tumbling
brooks running into the headwaters
! of the Onachita river.
This place has been so often de-
I scribed that l can say nothing new
5 in regard to It, 1t is the county seat
{ and pretty much everything else, so
: far as the eye reveals--of Garland
5 county, and is credited with $4,000
people, many of whom are sojourners
I only. It's altitude is 1000 feet above
tide water, but being itself built in a
mountain valley, the surrounding hills
are much higher. These latter are
outlying spurs of the Ozark range
and everywhere above the lower lev
els are sufficiently covered with pine
to give out that resinous odor so CRATE
{ full to weak lungs and asthmatic con
- sttutions.
& The prlncipal,--on may say the only
~ business of the place il bathing ant
" being bathed. Bathing Is both activ,
u and passive. Like the former denizen'
70 Of Cheyenne, OF whom the traveller
=" said they were all either drunk, getting
over being drunk, or just agolng t.
~ get drunk, the wayfarers here are al
70 ways either going to the bath, bathing
20 or coming back from the bath. Th
oa universal matutinal salutation Is no
ao Good morning, how do you dOT bu
I" Good morning, have you had you
W bath," and the sudorific topic quit
" monopolizes the conversation of the sc
" journcr aforesaid, to the exclusion O
=. the weather, politics, the races an
- prize fights.
30 And this Ii not so much to be woI
" dered at, when one considers how muc
" OF natures pharmacopoeia is stored II
in the bowels of these hills, and hoy
" bountiful Is the output for the healin
=, OF the afflicted. Along the base of tn
a. Hot Spring Mountain, which form
co the eastcrly side of the one m;tin stree
% of the place, there burst out II spring
90 within the length of three quarters {
- milo the daily outflow of which
NA ~
"a tai and having temperature of frol
% % to l57 degrees, Fahrenheit.
% 1t has Il curious look in the mornin
90 for one To see the housewives con
CO out. -tea-kcttle in hand, TO the sire,
W hydrants to get water already bollo
" TO order and waiting only the inSr
dients of tea OF coffee to make IL
brew complete.
=, These II springs are now all enclose
a. except one; that, the largest, Is net
a. the center of the mountain, and Is h
~ the government kept pcrpctually ope
o. with drinking conycnlences handy b.
4" in order that the weary pilgrim ma
q always slake his thirst at nature
prlneval source in the rock.
- 1t is said that De Soto visited tn
= place, drawn hither by the high repu
In which the springs were even the
eS held by the aborlgines. But in al
event, for century past 1t as bet
the resort OF the afflicted from a
W. over the country. For n long tim
however difficulty of access, distan'
- from civilization, want Of accomm
Y dations, and, above all, the continu
strife arising from disputed owne
The ship of the springs themselves, eith
ysr ,9p kept the public away, or exclude
be them from the benefits to have bee
=, expected from their use, 1t was II
o'. until Congress took the matter in haI
for the purpose of finally acquirll
an exclusive title in the governme
md that shot gun law was abrogated her
wn and II became safe for people to obta