The Hot Springs of Arkansas [pp. 86-94]

THE HOT SPRINGS OF ARKANSAS.
light as makes up half the charm and romance of living among
mountains-a twilight which, as it deepens into the darker shadows of evening, brings with it healthful coolness and wholesome
recuperation from the languor and lassitude engendered by the
enervating heat of the day. For genuine picturesque beauty,
very rarely if any more beautiful valley can be found than this.
Nature, from the'wealth of her vast resources, has scattered here
with lavish hand her richest endowments. These mountain slopes
and their magnificent pomp of woodland and shade, these gorges
and dells, and this stream of unfailing waters, as clear as crystal,
and at intervals leaping in miniature cascades over translucent
rocks-the whole valley, in fact, is a masterpiece of nature's handicraft. And there are the hot springs, those fountains of Egeria,
bubbling up from the molten bowels of the earth, like gold tried
in fire, purified of every noxious substance, and giving healing to
the nations. Nature has done her part. It remains to art and
the hand of man, guided by proper enterprise and the genius of
exalted humanity, to complete the grand work. Let the titles to
the land so long in dispute be settled, and capacious and perma.
nent hotels will be erected for boarding houses, and cottages will
multiply with amazing rapidity, and terraces, arbors and graveled
wallks will invite the visitor to healthful strolls. The facilities for
getting here will be improved. The rough, rocky roads over
shapeless hills and through tangled ravines, shaggy with bush
and brier, and over unbridged streams, which at times cannot be
crossed, will at once give way to wide, smooth and pleasantly
undulating turnpikes and neat and substantial bridges-these
sooner or later, in the resistless march of manifest destiny, to be
succeeded by the swifter steam locomotive. As if some oriental
magic of old, as if the genius of the Arabian Nights had brought
into requisition his creative powers, a new life and energy will be
diffused here, a complete and thorough renovation will ensue, the
number of visitors will be increased a hundred fold, and instead
of being but little known, as at present, beyond the confines of
her State borders, these springs will become famned as par excellence the greatest curative watering place on this continent, if not
in the known world.
"This is near hell, sure!" according to legendary lore, exclaimed one of the first party of government surveyors sent here
long ago, as he stooped down to quench his thirst from what he
supposed to be a cold spring, but the water of which proved to
be scalding hot. It is said the rest came to the same conclusion,
and that thev were not long in beating a hasty retreat from what
they considered a too close proximity to the infernal regions.
Traditionary narratives regarding these springs extend back,
however, to a much remoter period. The Indians called them
the ".Waters of Life," and on account of their healing properties
regarded them as sacred, and in all conflicts with contending
tribes they were respected as neutral ground. It is said that De
87