Year: 1872

A sketch of Spa rs it is.


Correspondence of the London Echo.


AS full as an egg. My lodgings
perched on little hill, step from thu
town, overlooking pine woods, are il
great request-so says my landlady
Three gentlemen seem to have slept il
my bed last night. / thought it nigh
have been the peculiar soap of the coun
try, or the aroma of the mineral wa
ters, or-never mind what; in such ful
season washing of, say pillow-cases,is per
haps little slurred over. But the three
gentlemen, they are gone. ! am certain
they did sleep in my bed last night
felt as if they had. A lady and two
daughters seemed to have turned W
lately. There was a sitting-room-s
sofa; they implored to be let in; could
they sleep on the doorstep? lmpossi
blel They were let in; they slept on the
sofa, it was small; poor sofa


If you wish to be robbed just now
come to Spa-one small bedroom atany
decent hotel, ten francs. For more rea
sons than one, fix upon your hotel and
engage room, or you may
make an expensive though not grand
tour when you arrive. If you do not
get down and settle at the first hotelyo
stop at, your cabfare is exactly doubled
You have no redress. AT Spa, as else
where long ago, every one Except the
visitor) does what is right in his own
eyes, with the usual results. We, the
visitors, are simply treated as geese who
have to be plucked. Well, / am sorry
to say that many of us are geese, and ]
have no hesitation in. declaring that
we are all sure to be plucked. Yet
Spa somehow puts us into good hui
NOR. 1t is like Luchon-like Baden
like dozen other gambling places. But
everybody knows Spa; a long alley Of
trees, a town of hotels and lodgings,
unsecluded walks for unsecluded
lovers, winding up and down the
valley hills, smelling sweet with fir
cones, and shady with frs and plane
trees and the water bubbling out of a
pump in the middle of the town, and
bubbling from light springs in the neigh
borhood-and a charming drive of two
hours or more is well spent in visiting
the cool and glacial fountains which
have given the name of Spa to so many
other nasty waters all over the world.
Instead of ordering dinner at your ho-
tel, drive out and dine at one of these
springs in the cool wood-why not be
overcharged and enjoy yourself? You
are sure to be overcharged any way; but
about dinner time, | confess my instinct
was TO get away from the table d hote OF
the table-doters. The girl with long
nose and puffy hair powdered in front,
and the mother with eyes everywhere
and mouth always full did not take
70 them. The other girl Of twenty five,
dressed for sixteen, with her thirty years
old sister dressed for twenty, and the
corpulent mother less dressed than
eitber-but BAH the table d'hote types
are too well known. The people got up
Ike proyisions for the market-and such
a marketl-sre marriages ever made
here? Who do these ladies dress for
we do not speak of tho casual tourist
but the settler for the season, OF even
for the year. Is the meeting OF the We
ters favorable to Hymen2 Well, we look
at the gentlemen.-are they favorable
to Hymen2 Under the circumstances,
these questions are beyond us. So are
the mysteries Of the table d'hote and
table-daughters at Spa We bought the
visitors list. Need we say that with
hardly an exception the English names
were strange to us. Who, for instance,
is Mr.. Turbin-Fairfex, Of London2 The
name is the startling creation Of the