The Ocala evening star., 1915-02-06
SPICY DESCRIPTION
Of HOT SPRINGS
Continued from Yesterday

InClFlqu2l drinking cup-lt IS very
strict about this. At first you may be
bashful about appearing in public
places swinging your tin cup, thereby
flashing the suns rays in the eyes
Of innocent bystanders, but you soon
get over the feeling and swing your
tinware as jauntily as the rest of
them when you see that everbody's
doing it. Those who don't carry cups
carry bottles. | make bold to say
that Hot Springs has the worlds
greatest bottle-bearing population.
They have cunning little wire handles
to carry them with, though the large
sizes are borne in the family baby car
riage or billy goat wagon. Each Hot
Springer has his favorite cold water
spring and he likes to get the water
fresh from the spring three times
day, so he takes his bottle to the
spring or sends his wife or one of the
children.
Leaving out gin mills and movies,
which are sandwiched along the main
thoroughfare like the nigger likes ksS
streak er lean, streak er fat, the most
popular places of indoor recreation
are cold spring water caberets. Some
of these sport as much fumed oak
furniture, Hollandaise, and as many
fussy little things in silk, madras and
majolica-ware, hung and stuck about
on the walls as the latest and best
of our beer buffets. They have music
too, the best in the world, delivered
from the balcony at the back, where
the talking machine unwinds. "All
you want to drink for a nickle" is
the sign that gladdens your eye as
you enter and are seated in a comfort
able chair at a large round table by
courteous attendant who fills large
glass with the sparkling water and
leaves the big pitcher on the table
to tempt you to your fate. After
you drink your first glass, it seems
foolish to be paying beer prices for
water, so you drink another to keep
the average down. You keep on re-
peating until you find yourself in
water-logged and sinking condition,
Walking back to your boarding place
you slosh badly and make the 'never
again" sign for water jags.
But, after all, taking the hot baths
furnishes the chief pursuit as we'll
as the main tonic of conversation in
Hot Springs. The bath is taken once
q day-the conversation is served at
all hours.
The prevailing method of hydro
therapeutic performance is to selct a
doctor from the certified list, tell him
your troubles and get from him
bath chart specifying the tempera-
ture Of the water, the exact number
of minutes you stay in the tub, in the
vapor closet, under the shower and
in the cooling room. You will per-
haps, wonder why they call this the
cooling room, for it is hot as blazes,
and wrapped from head to foot in a
hot sheet, layed out on a wicker
couch and covered from chin to toes
with fuzzy blanket, your humidity
increases rapidly from dew to driz-
zle, then to pouring rain. After con-
sulting your doctor, you confer with
your bath attendant-in most cases
a bronze Hercules in sleeveless cot !
ton shirt, very decollete, flowing cot
ton trousers and Chinese slippers,
who will tell you, as the muscles play
along his arms like fish worms, that
you must provide yourself with bath
robe, bath mitt, two bath towels,
one cake of white CASTLE soap,
drinking glass. a pair of toe hold slip
pers and show up promptly at ten
thirty the next morning. They are
very particular about details in Hot
Springs and strong for the regular
order. If, in the innocence of your
first few days you should inquire
what would happen if you bathed at
90 degrees instead of SO, or if you
stayed n the tub sixteen minutes in
stead of fifteen, or if you fingered in
the sweat room p instead of Il an
hour, wore sneakers instead of flap
slippers, used Pearline instead of Cas-
tile, dried with smooth instead of
corrugated towels, and reniged on
the Little Red Riding Hood bathrobe
you will qualify for the poor fellow,
his mind has weakened under his
troubles class. Some day somebody is
going to break loose, copper all the
bathing bets in Hot Springs and win
fame that will stack up alongside that
of the man who ate up all the little
pellets in the homeopathic cabinet at
one sitting and Dragged about it all
the following week.
Concensus of chemical opinion as
II II