USA > North Carolina > Buncombe County > Asheville > Maloney's Asheville, N.C. city directory [serial] 1899-1900 > Part 3
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Medicinal Herbs
Statesville, N. C., has the largest medicinal herb warehouse in the world. It is not generally known that there are more varieties of plants in Western North Carolina than anywhere else on the continent.
Asheville is now approached by rail from the north via Salisbury, N. C .. and Morristown, Tenn., from the east via Salisbury, from the south via Spartanburg, Railroads S. C., and the west and northwest both from Murphy, N. C., and Mor- ristown. Tenn., thus giving egress and ingress in every direction. All these lines are under the control of the Southern Railway, which is doing much in the upbuilding of this section and will make any reasonable con- cessions to those who desire to establish bona fide manufactories on its lines, and bona fide settlers in other lines of work may expect the same liberal treatment from this wideawake system.
A Word of Advice
Such is a bird's-eye view of Western Carolina, of which Asheville is the capital. geographically, educationally, socially and commercially. Excursion rates can always be had to Asheville, and those interested in any- thing pertaining to this city or section should either come here and see for themselves, or address, for more detailed information, the Secretary of the Board of Trade, or Ticket Agent of the Southern Railway.
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Springs arkansas
THE CARLSBAD OF AMERICA :
Owned by the United States Government
and under its direct, supervision .
On April 20th, 1832, the United States government, by Act of Congress, set apart and dedicated to the people of the United States, 2,560 acres of land at Hot Springs, Ark., as a National Reservation, not to be entered, located or appropriated for any other purpose than its development into a great American sanitarium of the first rank, where those afflicted with disease could find relief, and be cared for during their stay in a manner commensurate with their condition in life. There were at first many obstacles in the way of a successful accomplishment of this pur- pose, by no means the least of which was the absence of necessary transportation facilities. The establishment of direct railroad connection with all parts of the country, in 1874, disposed of this difficulty, however, and since that time the develop- ment of Hot Springs has been rapid, sub- stantial and even wonderful. In fact this charming resort of the Ozarks is, today, the peer of any health resort of the Old World and immeasurably the superior in every respect of any of its American con- temporaries.
The pre-eminence of the Hot Springs of Arkansas is due to the following facts: 1. The unquestionad value of the waters, which is recognized the world over and proven by three-quarters of a century of practical results.
2. The official endorsement of the United States government, which owns these springs, and, through its properly appointed officials, superintends and directs the distribution of the waters, regulates the method of using them, and even fixes the maximum charges for their enjoyment, thereby protecting the people from extor- tion and placing the means of relief within the reach of everyone. It should be
noted also, in this connection, that the government has erected and maintains on the Reservation, for the benefit of its invalid soldiers and sailors, the most thor- ohly equipped army and navy hospital on the face of the globe. It has also ex- pended, and is now expending, vast sums of money in improving and beautifying the reservation, transforming the surroundings into a delightful park, with every accessory of beautiful scenery, superb drives and unlimited facility for recreation and amusement.
3. The matchless climate. Nestled among the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, in latitude 34 degrees and 31 minutes north, and at an altitude of about 1,000 feet above sea level, the climate of Hot Springs challenges comparison with that of any resort in the world. The skies are as clear and beautiful as those of Italy, while the temperature never reaches an extreme in either direction which renders it un- comfortable. The surrounding hills and mountains are covered with a dense growth of luxuriant forest trees, among which the pine largely predominates, its balsamic aroma contributing materially to the purity and healthfulness of the air. It is the home of the mistletoe and of the holly.
4 The moderate altitude. At all health resorts the question of altitude is a most vital one. If too low, the danger of malaria is ever present, a most se- rious one to those weakened by the ravages of disease. If too high, the well known effect of high altitudes in quickening the respiration and the action of the heart, pesents a complication to be dreaded even more than the effect of malaria, and especially is this true where hot baths are administered. as such baths themselves produce exactly similar results, which, when intensified by the atmospheric condi- tions referred to, form a combination that few invalids can successfully resist. It Is a fact, recognized by life insurance companies, that the respiration which in a moderate altitude is considered normal at from eighteen to twenty-two per minute, Is increased to a normal of from twenty-five to twenty-eight in high altitudes: also that the heart's action keeps pace in proportion with the respiration. Another thing, the humidity of the atmosphere in a moderate altitude ranges from sixty-five to seventy-five, while in a high altitude it is reduced to from thirty-five to forty- five, with the result that a person emerging from a hot bath in the former takes from thirty-five to forty minutes to cool off, while in the latter, owing to the rapid absorption of the moisture hy the dry and hungry atmosphere, the process occupies but fifteen or twenty minutes, too ranid to be safe and even producing deleterious results. For these reasons, in the high mountain resorts. hot baths are given only at rare intervals, while at a moderate altitude they may be taken every day with advantage. Hot Springs enjoys the desired happy medium of altitude, and in this it is not approached by any other American resort. Its elevation of about 1.000 feet, and the absence of marshy ground and stagnant water, give absolute free- dom from malaria. and while not high enough to affect to an unhealthy degree the action of the respiratory or secretory organs, it does insure a pure. stimulating at- mosphere and an agreeable moderation of temperature the year round.
5. It is a resort for all seasons of the year. The impression has largely pre- vailed, especially throughout the North and East, that Hot Springs was purely a winter resort. This is due, doubtless, to its location In one of the Southern states. Nothing, however, could be more erroneous. In fact, it is as an all-the-eyar-round resort that Hot Springs is gaining its greatest fame. In his report to the secretary of the interior for 1894. the superintendent of the reservation, Mr. William J. Little, says: "I give it as my unqualified opinion that the late spring and summer and the ently fall are the most favorable times to visit Hot Springs for a course of treat- mont, especially if treatment is desired for rheumatism or any blood disease. Hot baths and drinking hot water in hot weather mean sweating, and sweating pro- duced by the hot water of Hot Springs means cleansing the system of these diseases if they be present, and this may be more readily accomplished in summer than in winter.". It must not he inferred from this that the heat of summer months is opppressive tor even unpleasant. The warmest days are always tempered by the refreshing "mountain breezes which blow constantly, and the nights are invariably cool and pleasant.
Highest temperature for the year 1894, 94; lowest, 23; mean average for the year, 72. Total number of clear days. 298; rainy days, 62; cloudy days without rain, 5.
Additional evidence that Hot Springs is a desirable summer resort as well as winter resort Is found in the presence during this season of large numbers of the best Southern people from every section of the South, who select Hot Springs for their summer outing in preference to the resorts farther north. The Arlington hotel, open the year round, affords ample and luxurious accommodations at any season, and opportunities of amusement and recreation are always presenting themselves. i
FROM DE SOTO TO DIAMOND JO.
BEING A DISSERTATION ON THE HOT SPRINGS OF ARKANSAS, HISTOR- ICAL AND LEGENDARY: WHO FOUND THE SPRINGS; HOW THE WATERS BECAME HOT AND WHO LAID THE THE RAIL OF THE FIRST ROAD.
With an empire on which the sun never set Spain was mistress of the world, when by right of discovery the American continent was hers, and her claim was from pole to pole. Cuba and the islands of the Indies were her naval stations whence sared her ships carrying explorers and conquistadores to the greater continent which all but became hers by conquest. The empire of the Montezumas had been destroy- ed. the kingdom of the Incas demolished, and the country from Mexico to Peru be- came Provinces of the realm of Spain and the millions of people were the vassals of the Spanish king. Cortez, master of Mexico, and Pizarro in Peru, left in the great empire of the north rich fields for adventure and conquest for other feet to tread and other hands to gather. As in the countries of the South, so in the North gold had been the goal, but there had gone abroad throughout the earth the fame of a spring whose waters brought youth to the aged, smoothed the wrinkles into rosy tints again and brought its bathers perpetual boyhood.
Ponce de Leon heard of these wonderful waters when he came with Columbus, he was younger then, gold and adventure had made him a sailor, but in after years
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when he was governor of Porto Rico and the weight of years had bowed his into an old man's form, he bethought him of the story of the spring of perpetual youth and started out to find it. He sailed with three ships from Porto Rico in March, 1512, but lazily dallied through the voyage, landing on this island and then on that, finally reaching the coast of Florida on the 29th of March, Easter Sunday, Pascua Florida, as the Spaniards call it, and thus gave the state its name. The search for the fountain of the magic waters began at once, the natives led the old don a lively chase, up the Oklawaha's crooked course to Silver Spring, where the waters were crystal clear and deep enough to float his ships, but their placid sur- face was not imparted to the wrinkles of the searcher after youth and beauty.
"Beyond, to the westward, toward the setting sun." was all the Indians would tell, and led the Spaniards to Wakulla, under the shadow of the Tallahasse hills- here, too, the waters were beautifully clear, but the swarthy skins were still brown when they bathed, and this was not the spring they sought.
"Beyond, to the westward, toward the setting sun," was still the answer. Disap- pointed and discouraged Ponce de Leon returned to his ships and sailed away, re- turned again in 1521, was met by hostile savages and in a battle with them received a poison arrow that caused his death soon after his return to Cuba.
Then came DeSoto, a younger man, in search for nothing in particular, but for anything he could pick up, not caring whether it was a gold mine or a fountain of perpetual youth. He was rich, he had been in Peru with Pizarro and had his share in the ransom of Atahualpa, so he could lend money to the king, which he did, and was made Adelantando of Florida. He was young, but recognized the fact that he would be older, and while in search of new honors and adventure, he might find gold and incidentally the spring of perpetual youth.
A quarter of a century had passed since Ponce de Leon came and went when De Soto's ships anchored in Espiritu Santo Bay on the west coast of Florida, the bay now called Tampa. They were good Indians at Tampa, but in the interior they were bad, and De Soto found that it was to be Peru over again if he was to get anything-nothing daunted he set out with his little army of five hundred men and two hundred horses in the year 1539. It was a splendid force of men that had marched behind De Soto under the banner of King Charles V. of Spain at the mus- ter of San Lucar in old Spain, and with the story of Peru fresh in their minds sailed away, light hearted, and dreamed away the days that passed so slowly on the sum- mer seas ere they came to Tampa bay; dreamed of gold, of fortunes made and youth renewed-now the long, tedious voyage was over and the march began that was to make their dreams come true.
As Cortez found an interpreter on the coast of Mexico in the person of a Span- iard held captive by the Indians from a former expedition, so De Soto found an- other, Juan Ortiz, who had for many years been a slave of the Indian king, Hirri- higua, but more a devoted slave of King Hirrihigua's daughter, who had saved his life, of course, a la Pocahontas, and under whose sweet influences he had learned the language of her people. Ortiz became the guide and interpreter of De Soto.
The Spanish chief had lost none of the cruel disposition evinced in the conquest of the Incas of Peru, and as Oveido says, "was very fond of the sport of killing Indians." He made them, men and women, carry his baggage, work about the camp and find food for his men and horses, forcing one chief to go as far as the tribe of another, then sending him back, but the carriers trudged on until they died; Pence the news of De Soto's coming was not good news, and his path was not strewn with roses.
An old man of "La Louiiane," embracing the territory of Florida, Georgia, part of the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana shows the route of De Soto's march. He passed very near Silver Spring and Wa- kulia, and must have halted to try the efficacy of the vey beautiful waters of those springs, and he may have heard of the gold of Dahlonega, since his route turned northeast soon after he passed Wakulla and led him through the hills of north Georgia; thence De Soto marched in a southwesterly course and came to Mobile bay, where he rested, then going north, leaning westward, made the discovery of the Mississippi river at the Chicasaw Bluffs, between Helena and Memphis.
No gold had been found, but there was news of the fountain of youth, with the further information that the waters were hot and that these hot springs were just beyond the great river; all preparation was made for their quest. There was a grand review of his followers In bergantins made and launched onthe waters of the mighty river. It had been more than two years since the muster at San Lucar, an ocean had been crossed and a continent traversed in weary marches, half his men had fallen by the way, but the review on the river was a picturesque cele- bration of the grand discovery.
Ortiz was dead, but their adversities had been a teacher of language to De Soto and his soldiers. They crossed the river near the lower Chickasaw Bluff in June, 1541, and pushed into the wilderness of Arkansas. Again there was news of a shining metal, and for the time the search for the fountain of youth was forgotten and the route of march was northwest; besides, the savages were jealous of their knowledge of the hot springs, and it may be that they invented the story of gold, as it was found that the "shiningmetal " was only of a baser sort, and the Span- iards were led on to the discovery of the lead and zinc mines of Missouri. The march was bitterly opposed by the Indians, whether it was in the direction of the healing waters or the shining metal, but more jealously guarded the hot springs, and harassed the soldiers at every step.
DeSoto chose the search for gold rather than the fountain of youth, and marched up the bank of the White river; he was led into a wilderness of impene- trable swamps where savage Indians lay in ambush at every turn. Near the present town of Jacksonport, a bloody battle was fought, in which the Spaniards were de- feated; the march south abandoned and a further advance made along the banks of the White river and an attempt made to ford it at another point, and, although opposed by a large body of Indians, they were defeated. De Soto rested here a while and further news of the gold in the northwest was brought to him, the march to the supposed gold fields was resumed and the hot springs for the while forgotten. The Indians' gold was only zinc. the course was turned southward again and the search for the spring of the wondrous waters resumed, only to be hindered by the serious sickness of the intrepid leader of the band.
De Soto fell ill and was taken to the wigwam of a friendly Indian chief. This chief had a daughter whose beauty was the talk of the forests for miles and miles around about, and as a princess of the blood her hand was sought by the young chiefs of the tribes far and near, but Ulelah was a coy maiden, and up to the ar-
rival of De Soto was heart-whole and fancy-free. The pages of history and fic- tion are strewn with the wrecks of disappointed hopes of lovers whose barks have been cast upon the rocks of a handsome man ill in the house of a sweetheart, and the young chiefs looked not with favor on De Soto's indisposition and sojourn in the tepee of Ulelah's father.
De Soto was fair to look upon from an Indian's point of view, and Ulelah was smitten with his manly beauty and became at once, ostensibly, his nurse, glad in her heart, probably, that the Spaniard was sick, because she knew of a cure that was sure; she knew where the hot springs were, and would take him there when his illness required it. In the meantime she could be near him, minister to his wants and care for him tenderly. While her father searched the forsts for roots and herbs with which to brew a healing potion, Ulelah gathered flowers and brought cool water from the brooks near by, thus to cheer him and to cool his fevered brow. De Soto's illness lingered, but withal if he had been better he might have lingered long- er in these romantic shades and with such a ministering angel. The state of things was pleasant for all except Ulelah's lovers, and they dared not speak without the old chief's word, for his guest was his friend while he stayed.
L'lelah told her patient of the wonderful spring in the valley of vapors, the No- wa-say-non that the Kanawagas found and took their plague-stricken people to; told him how that many years ago when the world was young, the waters of the mystic spring where cold in the valley Man-a-ta-ka, the place of peace, where wars ceased to be and warriors laid down their bows and arrows to take up their stricken brothers and help them to bathe in the waters that the Great Spirit had with his warm breath turned from cold to hot for their healing; told him of the peaceful valley where no man was ever slain; no life of bird or beast ever taken; where all might come and put down the burden of human ailment.
Ulelah told De Soto of this and often entreated her father to take him to this famous mountain, but still the old chief delayed and Ulelah pleaded all the more; at last after many days her favor was granted and the journey commenced. De Soto was carried through the forests on a litter, Ulelah walked by his side and pushed away the too-obtruding branches that might brush her lover's face; was ever near in all the weary walk, to cheer him with her kindly smile and encourage with some new story of the wonderful waters that would make him well again.
At last they came to the valley Man-a-ta-ka, the place of peace, to the springs No-way-say-non, the breath of healing. Ulelah brought the water for her lover to drink, and the old chief carried him in his arms to the pools of the health-re- storing waters, that he might bathe and be well again. Soon De Soto was able to walk about under the trees that grow in the valley, leaning, perhaps, somewhat upon on Ulelah's pretty shoulder, and walking, perhaps, somewhat near her side as he passed around some rugged rock on the mountain side. This was observed partic- ularly by a young chieftain, upon whom Ulelah had looked with some favor before De Soto came, and who had followed her here and watched with a jealous eye the Spaniard's returning strength, till one day with uplifted tomahawk he sprang from behind a bowlder and sought to strike his rival dead; the weapon trembled in the air, then dropped from his withered, palsied hand, harmless to the ground, ringing out the Great Spirit's decree that no blood should be shed in this valley of peace.
The story does not end as in the fairy tale, where "they married and lived happy ever afterward." Old Davilla's daughter, De Soto's wife, was far away in old Spain, but sufficiently near to prevent a pleasant denouement. History leaves us groping in the dark as to Ulelah's fate, and we cannot say whether she married a plumed and feathered chieftain or gave to some lofty cliff the name and title of "Lover's Leap," from whose top she plunged when, since De Soto went, life was not worth living.
De Soto had found a spring whose waters, if indeed they were not the waters of perpetual youth, were a panacea for all the ills the flesh is heir to, and he hastened away to tell the world about it-a wonderful tale, he thought, was his to relate, but he was not to come again to his native land-he died on he march and was buried beneath the waters of the great river he discovered. His companions took back to the civilized world the story of his achievements and recorded for De Soto and his intrepid band two of the greatest discoveries in the history of the world-the Mississippi river and the Hot Springs, of Arkansas.
One of the followers of De Soto, a Portuguese calling himself "a Gentleman of Elvas," says of his chief: "The governor rested a month in the province of Cayas, in which time the horses fattened and thrived more than in other places in a longer time, with the great plenty of maize and the leaves thereof, which I think was the best that has been seen, and they drank of a lake of very hot water, and somewhat brackish." The record shows that in 1541 he was ten days in coming down from Caligoa, a village in northwest Arkansas, to the province of Cayas, going from one tribe to another, as he had done in all his march from Tampa, probably because he could learn nothing from one tribe he went to another, or exhausting the able- bodied in carrying his baggage he went to the next for his carriers.
Thus is the record clear that the white man was at Hot Springs more than three hundred and fifty years ago, but there is a lapse in that time of two hundred and sixty years, when a survey of the Hot Springs country was made under the direction of the United States government by Lewis and Clark, who descended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Red River, up that stream to the Ouachita, thence up to Hot Springs creek to the Hot Springs ..
In 1807 Manuel Prudhomme built the first house at Hot Springs; by 1812 the first visitor had arrived; in 1820 John Millard built a double log cabin for the entertain- ment of visitors, which may be called the first hotel at Hot Springs. In 1829 the number of visitors began to increase, and in 1830 Asa Thompson erected the first bath house and the first real hotel. Though the fame of the waters had brought many a health-seeker even as far back as the old Spanish days.
Many attempts have been made by various and sundry persons to pre-empt the lands around Hot Springs, but they have remained the property of the United States since the treaty with the Quapan Indians in 1818, and prior to that time, be- ing within an Indian reservation, could not be pre-empted, the spurious claims of Spanish grants having been repudiated, and under the title obtained from the em- peror of France, Napoleon I., in the purchase of Louisiana, the right to the property is acknowledged to be vested in the government of the United States.
On the 20th of April, 1832, Congress passed an act setting apart four sections of land, 2,560 acres, as a reservation for the exclusive use of the United States, which settled forever all claims or pre-emptions, a decision that a terrible earthquake has falied to shake-this is not a simile, but a fact; in 1811 there was a violent earthquake near New Madrid, Mo., which submerged some lands belonging to settlers; the gov- ernment granted to the losers of the land, warrants to locate on any unoccupied
lands that had been surveyed and to which there was no title held by any Indian tribe.
These warrants were called "New Madrid Floats," were transferable and one of tlem having come into the possession of Col. Elias Rector, of St. Louis, in 1820, he tried to float it in the waters of Hot Springs, for your St. Louis man is cognizant of a valuable article when he percieves it, and to Col. Rector it appeared a safe in- vestment in this warrant if he could locate it at this particular spot in the Ozark mountains. His plans, however, were not successful; the long and expensive litiga- tion did not close until 1875-6, when the Court of Claims and the Supreme Court decided the case in favor of the United States and settled forever all claims to the lands of the Hot Springs reservation. The Government owns many reservations and parks, thoughout the country, but this is the only one in its class, the only one that the government has held as a sanitarium. There are many hot springs, warm springs and springs of healing waters within the boundaries of the United States, but they have not been reserved for the people-then the very fact of the reserva- tion of the Hot Springs of Arkansas places them pre-eminently above all others.
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