Saratoga and How to See It

A large and commodious bathing-house, containing fifty bath-rooms, with excellent and ample accommodations and superior facilities, affords warm and cold sulphur water baths. They are a real luxury.

This completes our list of the important springs. Mineral water of considerable merit has been found in several other places in the village and its vicinage, which, if situated elsewhere, would doubtless excite marked attention and popularity, but in the midst of Saratoga's brilliant galaxy and in the absence of any distinguishing peculiarity, they possess at present "no name."

As an alterative, the waters should be drank in small quantities at various intervals during the day. As their alterative effect is from the absorption of the water, the quantity taken should be small.

The chalybeate or tonic waters are liable to cause headache when taken before breakfast. They may be used with benefit before or after dinner and tea. Only from a half to one glass should be taken at a time.

The diuretic waters should be drank before meals, and at night, and should not be followed by warm drinks. Walking and other exercise increase the diuretic effect.

Attention to system should characterize the use of these as of other remedies.

It is impossible to give complete and invariable directions for drinking any of the waters.

The experience and necessities of each individual can alone determine many things in regard to their use.

It is advisable to consult some experienced resident physician.

A moderate use of the waters will be found most beneficial.

The enormous quantities of water which some persons imbibe at the popular springs is perfectly shocking, and can only be injurious. It is no uncommon occurrence to see persons drink from five to ten glasses of Congress or Hathorn water with scarcely any interval, and the writer has heard of a lady who swallowed within a few minutes fourteen glasses of one of the springs. It is to be presumed that her thirst was satisfied, as no further account of her has been given.

Those who are taking a course of mineral water will usually find their appetite increased thereby.

Frequent bathing in mineral water and otherwise will be found beneficial.

Raising the temperature of the spring water, by placing a bottle of it in boiling water, makes it more efficacious as a cathartic, and is said to remove the iron. Heating the water makes it better for bathing purposes.

FOOTNOTE:

If the Saratoga waters are really what they have the reputation of being—and certainly no one who has witnessed their effects can deny their wonderful power—the purity of the water which is supplied to invalids, at a distance from the springs, becomes a matter of the utmost consequence.

"The fashionable and the rich," writes an eminent divine, "who fill these splendid saloons, are not alone the people for whom the beneficent Creator opened these health-giving fountains; but they are also those who occupy the sick chambers in all parts of the earth, who have never seen Saratoga, but who are relieved and comforted by its waters."

Personally the writer has found in several cities more or less difficulty in obtaining the genuine water. He therefore offers a few suggestions on the present mode of exportation.

Very little of the water sold on draught by druggists is genuine. Several instances have fallen under the immediate notice of the writer, in which druggists have obtained the photographs and trade marks of a certain spring, by the purchase of a small quantity of water, and then manufactured that which they sold on draught; and instances are numerous in which druggists have overcharged consumers for the bottled water.

We cannot too strongly urge those who wish to obtain Saratoga water pure and fresh, to send direct to the spring whose waters they desire.

To the Superintendents of springs we suggest the supplying of the waters through grocers, who can best handle both the barreled and the bottled water, and will be most likely to sell it in its purity. It should be made a staple article, and its merits as a beverage and a preventive of disease brought to public notice. The use of the water increases the appetite, and grocers would find its extended sale would be an advantage to their business.

We believe our country would be better, and biliousness, dyspepsia, fevers, and a long range of diseases more rare, if the natural waters which God has provided were to become a standard article in our groceries.

SARATOGA AS A WATERING PLACE, ITS HISTORY AND PECULIARITIES.

• Battlefield,
• Ballston,
• Bemis Heights,
• Benedict's Sulphur Spring,
• Chapman's Hill,
• Circular Railway,
• Columbian Spring,
• Cohoes Falls,
• Congress Park,
• Congress Spring,
• Corinth Falls,
• Crystal Spring,
• Diamond Spring,
• Drs. Strongs Turkish Baths,
• Ellis Spring,
• Empire Spring,
• Eureka Spring,
• Excelsior Grove,
• Excelsior Spring,
• Excelsior Lake,
• Geyser Spring,
• Glass Factory,
• Glacier Spring,
• Glen Mitchel,
• Hagerty Hill,
• Hamilton Spring,
• Hathorn Spring,
• High Rock Spring,
• Indian Encampment,
• Indian Spring,
• Lake Lovely,
• Lake Saratoga,
• Luzerne,
• Marble Works,
• Pavilion Spring,
• Putnam's Spring,
• Race Course,
• Red Spring,
• Saratoga "A" Spring,
• Seltzer Spring,
• Star Spring,
• Stiles' Hill,
• Surrender Ground,
• Ten Springs,
• Trout Ponds,
• United States Spring,
• Verd Antique Marble Works,
• Washington Spring,
• Wagman's Hill,
• Water Works,
• Wearing Hill,
• White Sulphur Springs,
• Y.M.C.A. Rooms,

Photographs of the above can be had of Baker & Record.

For the location of these places see map.

No charge is made to visitors for the use of the waters, except a trifling fee to the "dipper boys," and even this is at the option of the visitor.

The question "where to spend the Summer?" is usually discussed by paterfamilias, anxious mammas and uneasy children long before the summer solstice drives them from the pent-up confines of the busy metropolis to the pure air and quite recreation of country life. Many will visit the seaside, some will climb the mountains or explore the forests. Fashion, in most instances, determines the place of resort, and has fixed on certain localities, or courts of its acknowledged leaders, where not to have been seen at least is to have been buried for the season.

One place has held through the many years the highest rank, both from intrinsic merit, and from an unfluctuating devotion of the fashionable world, and has been aptly termed "The Queen of American Watering Places."

The village of Saratoga, where dwells the benign goddess Hygeia, in the midst of her far-famed waters of life and health, is pleasantly situated within the heart of a broad stretch of varied table-land, in the upper part and near the eastern boundary of New York.

The History

The first white visitor who is known to have drank from these "rivers of Pactolus" is no less a distinguished person than Sir Wm. Johnson, Bart., who was conducted hither, in 1767, by his Mohawk friends. At that early day America could boast of little in the way of aristocracy, and it was not till 1803 that the career of Saratoga, as a fashionable watering place, was inaugurated. In this year, when the village consisted of only three or four cabins, Gideon Putnam opened the Union Hotel, and displayed his primitive sign of "Old Put and the Wolf."

It was Putnam's ambition, when a boy even, to build him a great house, and in his time the Union Hotel, then 70 feet long, seemed to him doubtless comparatively as large as the present Grand Union seems to us.

It is not necessary for us to follow Saratoga through its misfortunes and its successes, its fires and its improvements, until it has reached its present reputation and attractiveness.

Year after year the water wells up its sparkling currents; year after year a little paint and plaster new-decks the great caravansaries; year after year belles blush and sigh away the summer, or, linking their destinies, rejoice or repine at leisure; and year after year, for a short four months of sequence, the little town swarms and rejoices with merry glee.

From New England and Boston the shortest and most direct route is via Rutland and Fitchburgh. This is the only route that run Palace cars through between Boston and Saratoga.

Distances.

• Albany, 38 miles.
• Boston via Rutland, 230 miles.
• Philadelphia, 274 miles.
• Washington, 412 miles.
• Chicago, 841 miles.
• White Mountains, 322 miles.
• Boston via Albany, 250 miles.
• Troy, 32 miles.
• New York City, 186 miles.
• Niagara, 311 miles.
• Lake George, 45 miles.
• Montreal, 202 miles.
• Quebec, 392 miles.
• Rutland, 62 miles.

Is naturally a place of special interest in any watering place. Visitors are no sooner settled in their summer quarters than they become interested in the incomings and outgoings of their fellow men, watching eagerly if perchance any old acquaintance may turn up. The contrast between city and country life in this respect is noticable. Those who, amid the race for wealth in the cities, can scarcely afford a nod to intimate friends, here greet a slight acquaintance even with a friendliness and cordiality undreamed of in the busy town.

The station at Saratoga is elegant and tasteful, facing an open square, adorned with fountain and shade trees. It is built of brick, with elaborate iron trimmings from the Corrugated Iron Company of Springfield, Mass.

Large enough to possess a fixed population of some 9,000, it has double, and perhaps treble, this number in the visiting season; with elegant and costly churches, mammoth hotels and metropolitan stores, affording everything desirable, from a paper of pins to the rarest diamonds and laces, it has been called "rus in urbe"—more properly, urbs in rure.

The principal street is Broadway, miles in length, ample in breadth, and, for the most part, shaded with a double line of graceful elms. Its extremities are adorned with beautiful villas. The Fifth avenue of the place, where the handsomest residences are located, is Circular street, east of the Park. Beautiful dwellings may also be found on Lake avenue and Franklin street. The streets are thronged with a gay and brilliant multitude, engaged in riding, driving, walking, each enjoying to the utmost a facinating kind of busy idleness. But by the time the tourist has glanced at all this he will be thinking of clean napkins, and will be interested to know what may be afforded in the way of

About 15,000 visitors can at one time be quartered in the gay watering place, and consequently to pen up all the fashionable flock within the limits of so small a town, requires no little tact. During August, Saratoga is always full, crowded, squeezed.

Saratoga has the largest and most extensive hotels in the world. There are in all from thirty to forty, and in addition to them numerous public and private boarding-houses accommodate large numbers of guests.

Extending from Spring to Congress street, with a front on Broadway of 416 feet, and reaching with its two mammoth wings 300 feet back, it is architecturally a perfect beauty. The rooms are large and elegant. The halls are ten feet wide, and broad, commodious stairways, with the finest elevator in the country, render every portion readily accessible. A front piazza, 20 feet wide and 240 feet in length, with numerous others within the grounds, and a promenade on the top of the hotel affording a charming view, contribute to render the house attractive. The dining halls, parlors, etc., are superb and ample, and everything about the house is on a scale of unequaled magnificence and grandeur.

The proprieters have endeavored to incorporate into this hotel everything that can afford comfort and pleasure, at whatever expense.

The cut of Congress Hall will give some idea of its outlines, but fails to do it justice. It must be seen to be appreciated, and when seen commands the unqualified admiration of the beholder. It was erected in 1868, by H.H. Hathorn, Esq., the proprietor of the old Congress Hall, and one of the most influential citizens of Saratoga.

The capacity of this house is greater than that of any other in the world. Some idea of its immensity may be formed from the following statistics: Length of piazzas, one mile; halls, two miles; carpeting, twelve acres; marble tiling, one acre; number of rooms, eight hundred and twenty-four; doors, one thousand four hundred and seventy-four; windows, one thousand eight hundred and ninety one; the dining room is two hundred and fifty feet by fifty-three feet and twenty feet high, and will accommodate at one time 1,200 people.

Music on the lawn at nine in the morning and at three and a half in the afternoon. Hops every evening; balls on Tuesday evening.

During the present year this hotel has fallen into the hands of Messrs. Breslin, Gardner & Co., of the Gilsey House, N.Y., gentlemen who are unsurpassed as hotel managers.

"The new hotel," erected by Dr. R. Hamilton and Mr. C.R. Brown, is located on Broadway, directly opposite Congress Park, occupying the ground swept over by the immense conflagration which consumed the Crescent, Park Place and other hotels last September. Untiring energy has been manifested in its construction, and it is without doubt one of the most perfect summer hotels in the world. It is a tasteful and elegant structure, adding very much to the beauty and attractiveness of Saratoga. The citizens may well be proud of it.

The exterior of the house is most imposing. It is five stories in height, with a French roof, and has a front of 340 feet on Broadway, and 200 feet on Congress street, and by a far-reaching wing in the rear incloses quite a little park.

Although at the present writing the hotel has not been opened to the public, we learn that it is the purpose of the proprietors, Messrs. Hamilton & Brown, gentlemen of experience and enviable reputation as hotel managers, to conduct it on a very liberal scale.

The table will be made a special feature. Epicureans may rest assured that

"Whatever toothsome food or sprightly juice
On the green bosom of this earth are found,
Will be there displayed."

That it will be a popular and well patronized resort is unquestionable. In its elegant furniture the house surpasses all others, and it has the further advantage that every room has a spacious clothes press, and is supplied with hot and cold water.

Is patronized by a very aristocratic and select class of guests. Its location is very picturesque; and within its inclosure, magnificently circled by elms and covered with a superb pagoda, is the celebrated Washington spring.

On South Broadway, a few steps beyond the Clarendon, is well patronized by a wealthy and cultivated class of guests. A very pleasant piazza surrounding the front of the house, and a pretty lawn and cottage in the grounds, are attractive features of this summer hotel. The house has a home-like appearance and a delightful location. Improvements and additions are now contemplated, to be completed before next season, which will render this one of the most beautiful summer hotels in America.

As our space is too limited to give each an individual notice, we present below an alphabetical list of all the hotels and their proprietors, good, bad and indifferent—several on the American plan, and some on no plan at all. "Pay your money and take your choice."

Josh Billings says a good hotel is a good stepmother. It is is not often that one has the opportunity to select his stepmother, but certainly it ought not to be impossible to make a good selection from this long

Is beautifully situated in a grove in the eastern part of the village, on what was formerly called Temple Hill.

Rev. Chas. F. Dowd, A.M., a graduate of Yale College, is the principal.

The regular graduating course occupies a period of four years, and embraces many of the studies pursued in our colleges for young men, while every facility is afforded for the more modern and artistic accomplishments. The endowment is found in the fact that during the long summer vacation the building is opened as a summer resort.

We take pleasure in speaking of this house because it is unique in its character, and is one of the features of Saratoga. A guide book is not the place to discuss systems of medicine. Suffice it to say that the doctors, while regularly educated physicians, make use also of the varied resources of hydropathy, and of a wider range of remedial appliances than can be found in any similar institution on the globe.

The Institute is open throughout the year. As a summer home for people in health, it fully meets the wants of those desiring first class accommodations. There is no appearance of invalidism about the house, and its remedial character in no respect diminishes its attractions. Its table is superior, and its patrons are the religious aristocracy of the land.

Are commodious and built with special reference to the visiting population. They are ministered to by resident pastors of culture and repute, and their pulpits are filled during the season by distinguished divines from all sections of the country.

The Methodist Society have the most elegant and conveniently located edifice. It was dedicated the present year, and is situated on the north side of Washington street, just above the Grand Union. It is built of brick with sandstone trimmings, and cost $116,000. Rev. J.M. King is the pastor. Residence Phila street.

The Episcopal church is nearly opposite the Methodist, a recent edifice of stone most pleasing in its architecture. Rev. Dr. Camp is the rector.

The Presbyterian church is a large brick structure, some little distance up Broadway, and beyond the new Town Hall. Rev. Mr. Newman, pastor.

The Baptist church is a brick edifice on Washington street, near the railroad. Rev. E.A. Wood, pastor.

The Congregational church is directly over the Post Office, on Phila street. Rev. N.F. Rowland, pastor.

The Second Presbyterian church meets in Newland Chapel on Spring street, near Temple Grove Seminary. Rev J.N. Crocker, pastor.

The Free Methodist chapel is on Regent street.

A list of the services, and the hours of holding them, is published every Saturday in the daily Saratogian. The Saratogian is the "old established" paper, and seems to be as firm in its foundation as the rock from which the Saratoga waters issue. Eli Perkins informs us that Saratoga was named from the Saratogian. Col. Ritchie is one of the spiciest editors to be found.

The hall and reading-room of

Are located on Phila street, nearly opposite the Post-Office. Daily prayer meetings are held from 10 to 11 a.m.

While not exorbitant, as at Newport and other watering places, the prices of real estate in Saratoga, as might be expected, are somewhat higher than usually reign in villages of its size. The value of real estate is enhanced very much yearly; the average rise, for several years, has been about ten per cent per annum. The size of the village and the number of the resident population—now about 9,000—is constantly increasing. Numerous and costly dwellings are being erected on almost every street. The village thrives, and it may be confidently hoped that, with its numerous and peculiar attractions, this beautiful valley will ere long become the center of a vast population. Educational institutions and manufacturing interests should flourish here.

As a permanent home, Saratoga is delightful and attractive. The climate is excellent. The home society is very pleasant, and uncorrupted by the flash and glitter of the summer carnival.

At one portion of the year the most distinguished, cultivated and wealthy of our own country are gathered here—and sight-seeing can be done at home and on our own door-steps. The many blessings which follow in the train of wealth and culture are found here. Travelers from other climes who visit our country seldom return until they have drank from these celebrated fountains. An opportunity is afforded in the various pulpits of the village to listen to the most eloquent preachers of the day. The schools are good, and presided over by persons of skill and experience.

Those of our readers who desire more particular information in regard to real estate and permanent or transient homes in Saratoga, are referred to Messrs. Wm. M. Searing & Son, of Ainsworth's block.

The most fashionable drive is the new Boulevard to the Lake. Until recently there have been few attractions beside the gay and brilliant procession of carriages with their fair occupants and superb horses.

The drive is four miles in length, with a row of trees on each side and one in the middle. Carriages pass down on one side and return on the other.

No sooner have we turned by the Congress Spring than we are in a long level reach of plains, dotted here and there with trees of pine and fir, with a few distant hills of the Green Mountains rolling along the horizon. It is a city gala at the hotel, but the five minutes were magical, and, among the trees and rural scenes upon the road, we remember the city and its life as a winter's dream. The vivid and sudden contrast of this little drive with the hotel is one of the pleasantest points of Saratoga life. In the excitement of the day it is like stepping out, on a summer's evening, from the glaring ball-room upon the cool and still piazza.

Near the outlet of the lake, on a bluff fifty feet above the surface of the water, is

One of the features of Saratoga. There is a row of carriages at the sheds—a select party is dining upon those choice trout, black bass and young woodcock. The game dinners are good, the prices are high, and the fried potatoes are noted all over the world. They have never been successfully imitated. Are done up in papers and sold like confectionery. The gayly dressed ladies indulge in beatific expressives as they feast upon them.

Mr. Moon always has something nice expressly for you. When his liability to loss in so doing is considered, his prices will not appear so exorbitant.

Those who with Prior,

"Charmed with rural beauty
Chase fleeting pleasure through the maze of life,"

will be pleased with

It has nine miles of length and two miles and a half of breadth. Many and varied scenes of interest and grandeur occur within this broad range of water and shore. The whole lake is replete with quiet and gentle beauty, striking the beholder rather with admiration than astonishment.

Boating and sailing may be enjoyed upon its waters, and a small steamer, plying from point to point, is at the command of pleasure parties.

Formerly an abundance of trout was found here, and shad and herring were among the annual visitors; but the lake is now filled with the black or Oswego bass, pickerel, muscalonge and perch.

"From whence doth this union arise,
That hatred is conquer'd by love?
It fastens our souls in such ties,
That nature and time can't remove,"

was composed and sang first, upon the placid waters of this lake, by Dr. Baldwin, of Boston, and a party of clerical friends.

That charming author, N.P. Willis, relates in his own charming style the following tradition of Saratoga Lake:

"There is," he says, "an Indian superstition attached to this lake, which probably has its source in its remarkable loneliness and tranquility. The Mohawks believed that its stillness was sacred to the Great Spirit, and that if a human voice uttered a sound upon its waters, the canoe of the offender would instantly sink. A story is told of an Englishwoman, in the early days of the first settlers, who had occasion to cross this lake with a party of Indians, who, before embarking, warned her most impressively of the spell. It was a silent, breathless day, and the canoe shot over the smooth surface of the lake like an arrow. About a mile from the shore, near the center of the lake, the woman, willing to convince the savages of the weakness of their superstition, uttered a loud cry. The countenances of the Indians fell instantly to the deepest gloom. After a moment's pause, however, they redoubled their exertions, and in frowning silence drove the light bark like an arrow over the waters. They reached the shore in safety, and drew up the canoe, and the woman rallied the chief on his credulity. 'The Great Spirit is merciful,' answered the scornful Mohawk, 'He knows that a white woman cannot hold her tongue.'"

Is a mile beyond the Lake House, and one hundred and eighty feet above the level of the lake. A charming view is afforded. Immediately below, the lake presents a mirrored surface of several square miles, while the meadows and table lands on its western shore may be traced with all their simple beauty until they merge into the Kayaderosseras range of mountains.

Which is about three miles beyond, affords a still more extended view. This hill is two hundred and forty feet above the lake.

Six miles north of the village, toward Luzerne, brings to view a fine landscape.

But the most extended view and the boldest landscape may be seen from

On the Mount Pleasant road, and about fifteen miles from Saratoga Springs. Saratoga, Ballston, Schenectady, Waterford, Mechanicville, Schuylerville, Saratoga Lake, Round Lake, etc., by the aid of a glass, can all be discerned from this hill.

Is the euphonious name of an interesting little sheet of water not far from the village on the Boulevard to Saratoga Lake. Though not of very great extent, it has many points of considerable attraction, one of which is a glen on the eastern bank of the lake, which forms an echo, said to be almost as distinct and powerful as the celebrated one in the ruined bastion of the old French fortress at Crown Point.

An interesting locality, revealing a varied landscape, along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, may be reached in a drive of a few miles along the base of the Palmerton Mountain.

A bold cataract in the Upper Hudson, is some fifteen miles from Saratoga, and a mile from Jessup's Landing, on the Adirondack Railway.

A charming hamlet at the confluence of the Hudson and Sacandaga, is twenty miles from Saratoga. It may be reached by a carriage road or the Adirondack Railway. Lake Luzerne, a beautiful sheet of water, on the shore of which the village is situated, affords excellent opportunities for fishing and boating. There are two excellent hotels—Rockwell's and the Wayside. The latter has numerous cottages attached for summer residents. It is owned by B.C. Butler, Esq., well known as the author of an interesting History of Lake George and Lake Champlain, and other works.

Is about thirty miles from Saratoga by carriage road. The Adirondack Railway, and a stage ride of nine miles, is the pleasantest and most convenient route. Travelers can return the same day, if necessary.

There are other and shorter drives in Saratoga, which are very attractive. Spring Avenue, leading to the Excelsior and Sulphur springs and returning by Lake Avenue, is being laid out and will make a beautiful drive.