Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1877 — Hot Springs Arkansas. [ARTICLE]

Hot Springs Arkansas.

Editor Rensselaer Union: Sitting at my blue glass window and looking out upon the beautiful scenery that environs this most wonderful Baden Baden of America, I recall a fondly remembered scene of the long ago on the banks of the Iroquois, in the town of Rensselaer. Clasping the hand of thought I backward wander through the varying changes ot sixteen years to a bright May morning in 1861 when with martial music and flying banners we set out for Dixie—the land of cotton, cinnamon seed, and sandy bottoms —as the Boys in Blue were wont to sing. The retrospection is a sad one, ever bring up the unanswered question: My comrades, where are they? To those who live in Jasper and read The Union a few lines from “way down South” may have some interest.

Hot Springs, from whence I write, is d stined to become the most famous of all the world-renowned health resorts. In 1832 congress reserved fromjsale four sections of land, embracing all of the hot springs. Among the last official acts of President Grant was the approval of a bill disposing <»f this valuable property. President Hayes has appointed a commission, consisting of ex-senator Aaron H. Cragin of New Hampshire, Hon. John Coburn, of Indiana, and exgovernor M. L. Stearns, of Florida, to. carry out the provisions of the bill, and they have entered upon that duty. lUmistdertitg all the drawbacks with which it has had to contend, the growth of Hot Springs is something wonderful. A few years ag? it consisted of a dozen log cabins and a tumbledown boarding house or two: now it is a city of four thousand iiihabitat ts, with the finest hotels in the state; it is lighted with gap; is traversed by a street railway; and its big iron bath house is the finest establishment of the kind on the continent. Then visitors arrived by the dozen in primitive stage coaches, over the roughest roads in christendom; now they arrive in hundreds by railway, the last twenty miles being made over the finest and best equipped narrow gauge railroad in the United States. In 1869 the first printing press was brought to Hot Springs; now there are two well-appointed printing offices and two dailv newspapers here. * The Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians and Roman Catholics each have church buildings, and the Presbyterians are soon to erect one. Of societies the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of ’•Pythias, Independent Order of Bnai Brilh, United Friends of Temperance, and the Young Men’s Christian Association, each have organ-, izatiens. Of lawyers there are a score, and of doctors nearly a hundred. Nearly two thousand visitors are here at present, and hotels, drug stores, bath houses and doctors, are reaping a rich harvest These fountains are indeed a Pool of Siloam to the afflicted, relieving pain and restoring the vigor and bloom of'youth. All diseases are cured or greatly benefited by a use of these Except consumption, lung affections, or diseases of the heart To those looking for netl homes in a mild climate I would say: Try Arkansas. No other state has such diversity of soil. All may besuited. Prairie land, timber land, lowland and upland in abundance can be had at low rates and on easy terms. Northern Arkansas is unsurpassed aa a fruit producing, grain growing and stock raising country. Southern Arkansas is ’belter adapted Io the • cultivation of cotton, but everything else can be grown if only planted and cared for. For grapes, peaches, strawberries, raspberries and . blackberries no place on the continent excel# Arkansas. Thd climate is mild and healthy. The winters are short and pleasant. No grasshoppers to be a burden, and no Kuklux to molest or make afraidIf seeking for a new home, try Arkansas. If in search of health, come to Hot Springs.

May 1«, 18H.

GUY CARLETON.