Read Ebook: Saratoga and How to See It by Dearborn R F

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From the date of its discovery to the present time this celebrated spring has been the center of attraction at Saratoga. Its name has become a household word through out the land, and the whole civilized world are its customers.

The simple and tasteful Doric colonnade over the Congress, and the pretty Grecian dome over the Columbian were erected by him. Dr. Clarke realized a handsome income from the sale of the water. He died in 1846, but the property continued in the hands of his heirs, under the firm name of Clarke & White, until 1865, when it was purchased by an incorporated company, under the title of "Congress and Empire Spring Company." The capital is ,000,000, and the company is composed of a large number of individual stockholders. The present proprietors of Congress Spring have contributed not a little to the beauty and attractiveness of this favorite watering place.

Properties.

When taken before breakfast the water is a very pleasant and effective cathartic. Drank in moderate quantities throughout the day, it is a delightful, wholesome beverage, its effects being alterative and slightly tonic. It is successfully used in affections of the liver and kidneys; and for chronic constipation, dyspepsia and gout it is highly valued. It has been employed in cases of renal calculi with decidedly beneficial results.

Crowds gather round the fountain in the early summer morning to win appetite for breakfast and life for the pleasures of the day. Old and young, sick and well, everybody, drinks, for the Congress fountain is as much the morning exchange as the ball-room is the resort of the evening.

Prof. G.F. Chandler, the leading chemist in America, says: "The peculiar excellence of the far-famed Congress spring is due to the fact that it contains very much less iron than any other spring, and that it contains, in the most desirable proportions, those substances which produce its agreeable flavor and satisfactory medicinal effects; neither holding them in excess, nor lacking in anything that is desirable in this class of waters."

In submitting a new analysis Prof. Chandler writes,--"A comparison of this with the analysis made by Dr. John H. Steel in 1832, proves that Congress water still retains its original strength, and all the virtues which established its well merited reputation." Higher authority there is none.

Bottling the Water.

COLUMBIAN SPRING.

In Congress Park, under the Grecian Dome, near the Congress spring, Congress and Empire Spring Co., proprietors.

History and Peculiarities.

This spring was opened in 1806 by Gideon Putnam. The water issues from the natural rock about seven feet below the surface of the ground, and is protected by heavy wooden tubing. It is the most popular spring among the residents of Saratoga. The escaping bubbles of free carbonic acid gas give to the fountain a boiling motion. Large quantities of the gas can easily be collected at the mouth of the spring at any time.

Properties.

Only from one-half to one glass should be taken at a time. When taken in large quantities or before breakfast its effects might remind one of that great race in northern and central Europe,--the Teutonic . A peculiar headache would certainly be experienced.

Though containing but 3.26 grains of iron in one gallon of water--Prof. Chandler's analysis--it is an evident and remarkable fact that the water thus weakly impregnated has a most perceptible iron taste in every drop. Is it much to be wondered at, then, that a mineral which has so extensive a power of affecting the palate, should possess equally extensive influence over the whole system? Many minerals in a dilute state of solution may pass easily through the absorbents, while in a more concentrated state they may be excluded. Carbonic acid gas, for instance, when diluted is readily inhaled, but when concentrated acts in a peculiar manner upon the wind-pipe so as to prevent its admission. So the happy medicinal effects of these iron waters seem to consist--to some extent--in the minute division of the mineral properties so that they are readily taken into the system.

THE CRYSTAL SPRING

Is under the southern extremity of the new hotel. The proprietors have named it the Crystal Spring from the crystalline appearance of the water, which does not rise to the surface, but is pumped up from a depth of several feet. It was discovered in 1870 by experimental excavation. The characteristic, and to many disagreeable odor of sulphuretted hydrogen, is readily perceived. Sulphur veins, or iron pyrites, are found in all sections of this valley; one of the most provoking problems of the owners of the springs being to keep their fountains from a sulphur taint, the quantity and quality of which is not considered beneficial, while it injures the sale of the bottled water.

The Crystal Spring is somewhat alterative in its therapeutic effects.

THE ELLIS SPRING

EMPIRE SPRING,

Situated on Spring avenue, at the head of Circular street, and near the base of a high limestone bluff, in the northerly part of the village, a few rods above the Star Spring, and about three-fourths of a mile from the Congress. Owned by the Congress and Empire Spring Company. O.H. Cromwell, Superintendent.

History.

Mineral water was known to trickle down the bank at this point ever since the land was cleared of its primitive shrubs. It was not till the year 1846 that the fountain was taken in charge. The tubing is eleven feet, and fits closely to the rock. Messrs. Weston and Co., the early proprietors, made extensive improvements in the grounds surrounding, planting shade trees, etc., and during the past year the opening of Spring avenue has rendered the place more attractive.

Properties.

The water of this spring has a general resemblance to that of the Congress. In the cathartic effects of the two waters the difference is scarcely appreciable, although from the presence of a larger quantity of magnesia in the Congress, its operation is perhaps somewhat more pungent. The Empire is highly esteemed for the treatment of obscure and chronic diseases requiring alterative and diuretic remedies. It is also recommended as a preventive or remedy for the diseases natural to warm climates, especially intermittent, gastric and bilious fevers, dysenteries and disorders of the liver. The directions for using are the same as for the Congress.

EUREKA MINERAL SPRING

Is situated on Lake avenue, and on Spring avenue, about a mile east of Broadway, and a few rods beyond the Excelsior Spring. Eureka Spring Company, proprietors. A.R. Dyett, Esq., President.

The location of the spring is in the midst of very romantic and picturesque scenery, embracing a beautiful park of some twenty-five acres. Since the water was analyzed the fountain has been retubed, and its quality improved. It is serviceable in dyspepsia and all diseases and affections of the liver and kidneys, and is classed among saline and cathartic waters.

It resembles in taste and appearance the other Saratoga waters. The New York office of the Eureka Spring Company, for the sale of their bottled water, is at No. 7 Hudson R.R.R. Depot, Varick street. Mr Benj. J. Levy is the agent.

Within a few steps of the Eureka, and belonging to the same company, is the White Sulphur Spring and bathing-house. The water of the White Sulphur Spring is an hepatic water of an excellent character, possessing, as the company claim every essential element to render it equal for internal use to the best White Sulphur waters in this State, and far superior to most of them. The company have erected a commodious bath-house, containing fifty bath-rooms, with every convenience for warm and cold baths, at a moderate price.

Frequent omnibuses convey passengers to and from these springs for 25 cents, passing the principal hotels.

THE EXCELSIOR SPRING

Is found in a beautiful valley, and amid most romantic scenery, about a mile east of the town hall. The principal entrance to this spring is on Lake avenue, about half a mile east of Circular street. Another route is via Spring avenue, by which we pass a majority of the other springs, and also the Loughberry water-works which supply the village of Saratoga Springs with water from the Excelsior Lake by the celebrated Holly system. Just before us, as we reach a point where the avenue turns towards the Excelsior, is the fine summer hotel known as the Mansion House, and the pretty cottage residence of Mr. Henry Lawrence.

History.

Properties.

Exportation of the Water.

After a refreshing draught from this sparkling and delicious fountain, let us not fail to examine the proprietors' peculiar and very perfect method of bottling and barreling the Excelsior water by its own hydrostatic pressure. Since last season a handsome brick bottling-house has replaced the ancient wooden structure. Entering this bottling-house we find our way to a capacious and well-lighted cellar, in which we discover a perpendicular opening some ten feet in diameter; this proves to be a circular brick vault, in whose depths the process of filling is performed. Twelve feet below the surface of the spring a block tin tube conveys the water into reservoirs placed at the bottom of this vault. These reservoirs are strong oak barrels, lined with pure block tin in such a manner as to be perfectly gas-tight, and furnished with two tubes, one quite short and the other extending from the top to the bottom of the reservoir. Then, by filling the reservoirs through the long tube by hydrostatic pressure, the air is excluded, while the gas is not allowed to escape. When sold on draught, it is necessary simply to connect the long tube with the draught tube, and the short tube with an air pump, when the water can be forced out by the pressure of the air, and will flow forth sparkling and delicious as at the spring, without being re-charged with gas.

Having concluded our investigation, and tarried to notice the MINNEHAHA, UNION, and other springs which bubble up in this immediate vicinity, we have now the choice of continuing along the banks of a winding stream to the Eureka and White Sulphur Springs, or of returning by the way of Lake avenue. But should we prefer the healthful exercise of walking, we may dismiss our carriage and stroll into those magnificent woods that border the hill and valley for half a mile between Excelsior Spring and the village. Through them there is a wide and shady path, well known to visitors who love the picturesque, and along its winding way is found the shortest walk to the center of the village.

The beauty of this region would seem to indicate it as the proper site for the future Central Park of Saratoga.

THE GEYSER SPOUTING SPRING

Is about a mile and a half below the village, on the Ballston road, and near the railroad. Business address, "Geyser Spring."

History.

This wonderful mineral fountain was discovered in February. 1870. There had been indications of mineral water in this neighborhood, which had been noticed for a long time. The building which is now used as a bottling-house, and beneath which the spring was found, was used as a bolt factory. The proprietors, Messrs. Vail and Seavy, determined to bore for a spring. They were successful, and when they had reached a point 140 feet below the surface rock, they struck the mineral vein. The water immediately burst forth with vehemence, and the marvelous phenomenon of a spouting spring was established.

The orifice bored in the rock is five and a half inches in diameter and 140 feet deep. The tubing is a block tin pipe, encased with iron, eighty-five feet in length and two inches in diameter. The diameter of the orifice of the tube is three-eighths of an inch. The tube is firmly secured at the bottom, and "seed bags" are filled in around it, so that all the water and gas is compelled to enter the tube, thereby preventing the possibility of adulteration. The fact that the spring is located 140 feet beneath the solid rock renders it free from all impurities of surface waters.

Peculiarities.

The water is thrown up by the action of its own carbonic acid gas, with great force, producing a fountain jet very attractive in appearance. The height of the fountain is twenty-five feet. A portion of the stream is allowed to flow through a hollow globe of glass, and large bubbles of gas of a bright pearl color rising in rapid succession through the water, form a beautiful addition to the attractiveness of the fountain. The curious will find an opportunity to obtain a sniff of pure gas at a wooden tube, near the bottling room, where water is drawn for bottling.

It is noticeable that when a portion of the stream is allowed to flow through another tube to the bottling-room, the fountain spouts to an unusual height.

Properties.

During the two years since its discovery the water has been introduced all over the Union, and is now to be obtained in the principal cities of America and Europe.

A beautiful ravine, cascade and lake, and a sulphur spring also are in the immediate vicinity south of the spring. Seats are provided and the pleasure seeker will find a few hours in this locality a delightful recreation. The Geyser Spring is one of the chief attractions of Saratoga, and no visitor should fail to see it and taste its sparkling water.

THE GLACIER SPOUTING SPRING,

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