The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-09
HOT SPRINGS IS A
CITY OF CONTRASTS

tails? The springs are now closed in
with masonry, so that their precious con-
tents shall not be spilled, there being but
one exception, and around that exception
the pilgrims gather and admire and
drink and talk about the yapor that
drifts from the surface and the green col
or of the pool in the shadows, and, having
tasted Of it with more or less COM
FUNCTION, they sigh, as people sigh who
have lifted a load of duty from their
chests and go back to other places and
drink something to make them forget
the lack Of taste.
CITY OF CONTRASTS
The side Of the valley that the springs
come from belongs to the United States
and the other side is Arkansas, and you
wonder that Arkansas isn't ashamed of
itself nights. The dividing line is a shad-
ed avenue, bordered with grass on the
American side, and with shops, rifle
ranges and that Kind of thing on the
Arkansas side. The rifle practice is sort
Of disturbing. You stop to look in at a
window and admire the Indian goods or
the bric-a-bracs that are bought as
momenturns when bang goes a gun at
your ear and you jump and say to your
self, "They have found me, after all, -
and look yourself over to see where It
door, where a fellow with a SLOUGH hat
is pegging at rows of bottles hanging on
strings in irregular lines along the face
of a cliff. The view from the upper edge
of that cliff, when the sun is shining
| on it, is a show. 1t fairly blazes with
broken bottles When the biologists of
the pulmonary epoch come upon these
deposits, lying unconformab1y on pri-
mary rock, won't there be a batbbling?
Won't there be displays of learning?
Won't most of them insist that the glass
is obsidian, produced by volcanic action2
Just wait and you will hear some dis
sertations on these old whisky holders
that will make you uncertain what sort
of an age it was you lived in.
The shooting is most persistent in the
place they call Happy Hollow, at the up
per end of the avenue Here you find the
cheap photograph man and the Indian
with burro, who will let you ride for
dime or quarter, and will lend himself
to photography if you want TO be taken
in the act of being attacked by a native
in the wilds. Happy Hollow is the mid
way of ---e place, and what is a summer
resort without a midway? Summer re-
sort? No, believe I am wrong there:
The valley of vapors, as it is inaptly cali
ed, for you see no vapors unless you
stand beside the only open spring. offers
good living all the year round The aver
age temperature in January is Sc degrees
and in August "a degrees. Unless the
weather recorder is a falsifier the highest
point reached by the Thermometer is a.
or 6 degrees less than In New York, to
say nothing of the humidity which in
New York is probably worse than any
where else in the world The lowest
point was q degrees and the yearly aver
age Y. OF clear days they claim about
300 year and the general health in spite
or shooting galleries and specialists, is
excellent. The death rate among the resi-
dents is seven to the thousand and
among visitors a little over eleven to
the thousand. This higher rate for
strangers is not attributed to the quality
of Arkansas liquor, but to the fact that
SO many of the strangers bring their
diseases with them, and do not shane
them, off. Hotel bills have been known
to work cures in some of the larger
American resorts, even v mere hot springs
are not. The invalid on receiving his &C
count has rushed whooping into the
street and has f1eC. by the first train. One
man who escaped from a Florida tavern
was heard gleefully shouting, ''Hooray!
I've saved my grip!" and of course YOU
have heard OF the other one in another
FLORIDA hotel who on getting his bill
SdIu W the clerk, ''GueSS again? I've
got more than that
In the evening you play progressive
cr1ppage, or something, in the hotel par
iors and listen to the band from O'Clock
10 >, the women guests on one side of
the nan, rocking in cane chairs and the,
men on the other side of the hall snooIx
ing in cane chairs. And each side looks
unutterable- things at the other side AS
1900 people visit Hot Springs every wear
the population is constantly Changing
OF course, and again, the men have to go
rack ana earn more money every little
while. 1t IS g hospitable place is Hot
Springs. There was a man on the train
the first in the morning and he was
after me before l had my face washed
with an urgent request that should go
and live at his house. It would cost only
81 a day, he said, and he solemnfy as
sured me that if ] didn't like it. I needn't
stay. l thought it was awfuny kind of
him.
CLUBS WELCOME STRANGERS.
With IT'S picturesque situation, it's
sweet air laden with the doors of pines
its parks, its bicycle roads, it's interest
ing !nvallds, its swell hotels, it's army
hospital, the best appointed in the world:
its hills with their fine drives and paths
and grateful outloeiks, its shops and
shows, its hot and cold water Hot
Springs has claims on the attention of
the public and is not bashful about urg-
ing them. Until within few weeks it