The famous watering-place, Saratoga, is a comparatively small town
upon a level and somewhat barren plateau. A short distance north of
Saratoga Lake, with a boulevard and electric road connecting them, is
the shallow valley wherein are the famous mineral springs. Their
virtues were long known to the Iroquois, and when the renowned French
explorer Jacques Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence in 1535, searching
for the "northwest passage," the Indians on the river bank told him
about these springs and their wonderful cures. The Mohawks, who had
these waters in their special keeping, regarded them with veneration.
In August, 1767, their great English friend and adopted sachem, Sir
William Johnson, who is said to have been the father of a hundred
children, was suffering from re-opened wounds received in battle, and
the tribe held a solemn council and determined to take him to this
"medicine spring of the Great Spirit." They carried him on a litter
many miles to the "High Rock Spring," and he was the first white man
who saw it. His strength was regained in four days, and he wrote
General Schuyler, "I have just returned from a most amazing spring
which almost effected my cure." This spring, coming out of its conical
rock reservoir, much like a diminutive geyser, and then called the
"Round Rock Spring," was the first one known. There were occasional
visitors during the Revolution, and the cutting of a road some time
afterwards from the Mohawk through the forests to reach it, opened the
place to the public. To-day, Saratoga is an aggregation of some of
the greatest hotels in the world, with many smaller ones and numerous
cottages. There is a permanent population of about twelve thousand,
often swollen to fifty thousand in August and September, the "season."
A shallow valley contains most of the springs, around which the town
clusters, with extensive suburbs of wooden houses, groves and gardens.
The valley is crossed by the chief street, Broadway, a magnificent
avenue, one hundred and fifty feet wide, with spacious sidewalks
shaded by rows of grand old elms and, in the centre of the settlement,
bordered by enormous hotels. The greatest of these is the famous Grand
Union, a vast structure of iron and brick, fronting eight hundred feet
on Broadway, and having over two thousand beds, the largest
watering-place hotel in the world. A garden and park are enclosed by
its spacious wings, and here fountains plash and bands play, while the
visitors promenade or sit and gossip upon the extensive piazzas. Its
front piazza, spreading along Broadway, is eight hundred feet long and
three stories high. Its dining-hall is two hundred and seventy-five
feet long and sixty feet wide, the largest in existence, and seats
seventeen hundred people at table. The United States Hotel, north of
the Grand Union, and Congress Hall, across Broadway, are also enormous
caravansaries, and in busy times these three hotels will accommodate
over six thousand guests, the cost of running each of them for one
day being $7500 to $10,000. Everything in these gigantic hotels is
arranged upon a scale of splendor and immensity almost requiring a
railway train to take the visitor about them.
Many of the twenty-eight mineral springs of Saratoga border Broadway
or are near it, and the most noted, the "Congress" and the "Hathorn,"
are on either side of Congress Hall, thus being easy of access. The
geologists say these springs rise from a line of "fault," which brings
the slaty formations of the Hudson River against the sandstones and
limestones that are above. They are generally muriated saline springs
of about 50° temperature, the Congress Spring having about the
strength of Kissingen Racoczy, but a milder taste, while the Hathorn
Spring, its great rival, contains more chloride of sodium and iron.
Some of the springs are chalybeate, others sulphurous or iodinous, and
all are highly charged with carbonic acid gas. The Saratoga Seltzer
resembles the seltzer of Germany, and the Geyser Spring is so highly
charged that when drawn from a faucet it foams like soda water. The
waters are both tonic and cathartic. The "High Rock Spring" bubbles up
through an aperture in a conical rock composed of calcareous tufa,
which has been formed by the deposits from the waters. This rock is
four feet high, with a rounded top, in the centre of which is a
circular opening a foot in diameter. The depth of the spring from the
present top of the rock is thirty-two feet. The waters used to
overflow occasionally and increase the size of the rock by the
deposits, but a tree was blown down and cracked the rock, since which
the waters will only rise to about six inches below the top. A pagoda
covers it, beneath which water is ladled out to the thirsty. The
Congress Spring is in a tasteful park, having this and the Columbian
Spring under an elaborate pavilion. This Congress Spring was found by
a hunting party who went through the valley in 1792, and named it in
honor of a member of Congress who was with them. To this park go the
crowds in the morning before breakfast to drink the waters, which are
freely furnished either cold or hot, and music plays while the people
drink glass after glass. Each pint of Congress water contains about
seventy-five grains of mineral constituents and forty-nine cubic
inches of carbonic acid gas. It is cathartic and alterative. The
Columbian Spring has much more iron, and is a tonic and diuretic. The
Hathorn Spring is in a large building adjoining Broadway, and was
found when digging for the foundations of a new house. It is a
powerful cathartic, containing nearly ninety-four grains of mineral
constituents and forty-seven cubic inches of carbonic acid gas in each
pint, and it is also a tonic and diuretic. The chief medicinal
rivalries of Saratoga have been based upon the respective merits of
the Congress and Hathorn waters, and great controversy has at times
been thus inspired.
There are other noted springs--the Hamilton, a mild cathartic; the
Putnam, chalybeate, and having a bathing establishment; the Pavilion,
a cathartic; the United States, a mild, agreeable tonic; and the
Seltzer, rising through a tube several feet high, over the rim of
which it flows, a sparkling and invigorating drink. The Empire closely
resembles Congress water; the Red Spring is charged with much iron;
and the Saratoga "A" Spring is a mild cathartic. Then there are the
Saratoga Vichy, Saratoga Kissingen, Carlsbad, Magnetic, Imperial,
Royal, Star, Excelsior, Eureka, White Sulphur and Geyser Springs, most
of them in the outskirts. The Geyser spouts twenty-five feet high, is
deliciously cold, and exhilarates like champagne. The Glacier Spring
nearby was found by sinking an artesian well three hundred feet; its
waters spout high above the tube, and are powerfully cathartic. There
are six spouting springs, the Geyser being the best known; but of all
the springs of Saratoga, the waters of barely a half-dozen are much
used. The Congress, Empire and Hathorn Springs send their bottled
waters all over the world. The springs are all wonderfully clear and
sparkling, most of the waters pleasant to drink, and it is such a
Saratoga fashion to go about imbibing and tasting these waters of
rival virtues, that the visitors sometimes get into a plethoric
condition that becomes uncomfortable if not dangerous. But the springs
are not the chief attraction of Saratoga, and in fact the veteran
visitors do not partake of them at all, but freely confess that they
come not to drink the waters, but to see the life and be "in the
swim," for in the season the crowd at Saratoga, unlike anywhere else,
includes the leaders of all sets. The proximity of the Adirondacks
gives the bracing ozone of mountain air, and in the cosmopolitan
throng is generally included the best the country can show of fashion
and wealth. It is a great place for holding all kinds of conventions,
and many are the political, corporation and stock-jobbing schemes
hatched on the great hotel piazzas. It is also famous for dresses and
diamonds, and wonderful is the elaborateness of millinery, gowns and
jewels. The glitter of diamonds dazzles at every turn as they sparkle
under the brilliant electric lights illuminating the evening scene. It
was said not long ago, in a description of Saratoga, that if the Grand
Union Hotel should ever perish in the height of the season, with all
it contains, the future explorer who might delve in its ruins would
come upon the rarest diamond mine the world ever knew.
Upon Saratoga Lake is the famous restaurant where "Saratoga chips"
were invented and are served, this route being a favorite drive for
the people who attend the numerous conventions, for whose use an
elaborate Convention Hall has been erected on Broadway, seating five
thousand persons. On the western shore of the lake, just where the
Kayaderosseras River flows in from Ballston, is pointed out the
battlefield on which the legend says that in the days of the warlike
Mohawks and fierce Mohicans they had a deadly combat, a thousand
warriors being engaged, when suddenly the Great Spirit sent a
miraculous white dove over the lake and battlefield, having such an
effect that the conflict ceased, their tomahawks fell useless at their
feet, and they smoked the calumet of peace. To the northward of
Saratoga is the extensive Woodlawn Park, the home of the late Judge
Henry Hilton. Ten miles northward is Mount McGregor, rising twelve
hundred feet and giving a magnificent view. It was here that General
Grant was taken in his last illness in 1885, and the cottage in which
he died is now the property of New York State and open to the public.