No. 649		[1831]							Title: Upset Waters
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After paying a relatively quick visit to Troy, New York, Henry Tudor and
his coach-mates set off to the north to visit Ballston Spa, passing
through the villages of Lansingburgh and Waterford (the latter he would
have reached by the four-span bridge built in 1804, then the only bridge
across the Hudson River north of New York City; it was covered in 1814).
It was also here in Waterford that brothers Thomas Jefferson Eddy and
George Washington Eddy (today we’d probably call them T. J. and G. W.
Eddy) began manufacturing printers ink and lampblack in their Franklin
Iron Works. About this time they also opened their Mohawk & Hudson Iron
Foundry and Machine Shop  a little further along the Erie Canal where they
created a huge variety of cast iron products, from stoves to fire
hydrants. Of course the canal also came in handy for shipping their
products in both directions; at this point primarily over to the nearby
Hudson and then to dealers and distributors down in New York City.

Tudor’s coach approached their next destination - Ballston Spa. He had not
been overly impressed with the scenery on the way from Troy. “. . . for
some miles . . . the country, in every direction, wears an aspect of great
barrenness; and the roads were so extremely bad, that we were several
times, though in the month of July, in danger of being upset. Though I am
not so unreasonable as to expect that the roads in America should be
smooth and almost polished, as are those in England . . . yet I certainly
looked for something better than I found in traveling to so fashionable
and crowded a resort as the Springs.”

“Towards dusk we alighted at the Sans Souci Hotel at Ballston Spa.” It
would seem that the place might have gone a bit downhill since it opened
28 years before Tudor’s arrival. Back in 1803, when it had been built by
Nicholas Low, it was the largest hotel in the U.S. In the intervening
years it had hosted U.S. presidents, governors and senators, as well as
many wealthy travelers, presumably not “in danger of being upset”. Our
British Odysseus was not overly impressed.

“The principal hotel or boarding-house, which is formed entirely of wood,
is spacious and commodious, but very indifferently furnished; being
destitute of carpets, and the chairs and chandeliers being of rather
ordinary appearance.” Despite his feelings the Sans Souci would be around
for another 56 years before being demolished to make way for some
nineteenth-century urban renewal. In the meantime the establishment would
no longer afford the degree of elegance it had once known, partially
because of the multi-tasking commercial tendencies of founder Low. The
condition of the mineral springs did not impress him either. Around the
circumference he noted “fair ladies” tasting the waters while standing
around in dirt and mud”. He remarked to the attendant that his trade might
increase if he would whirl a mop around the margin of the spring once in a
while. He did not record any reply that may have been returned.

After a stay of a couple days he did go on to the springs at Saratoga –
seven miles away -  and was more favorably impressed. “The contrast
between the two places is, beyond any doubt, very considerable. The fine,
spacious street or avenue, ornamented by shady trees, on the sides of
which are erected the various hotels and boarding-houses, exhibiting a
very handsome and imposing appearance, gives an air of importance, of
gracefulness, and animation, that I found altogether wanting at Ballston.
Here, I felt that a stranger might pass two or there weeks very agreeably
. . . “

“In short, Saratoga is what I expected to find at Ballston; but having
found it a one of the places, I remained quite satisfied, and left it with
entire good wishes that the medicinal advantages of its waters might be
most fully reaped by all the invalids, and increased alacrity, from the
salubrious effect of the air, be given to those who were already well.”




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QUOTE
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The U. S. Congress, perhaps?

“Speech lies halfway between thought and action, and often substitutes for
both.”

Poet and critic John Andrew Holmes

Quoted in Pete Seeger’s book “The Incompleat Folksinger”
(New York, Simon & Schuster, 1972)



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TODAY’S URL
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Tudor particularly mentioned two hotel – Ballston Spa’s Sans Soucci and
Saratoga’s United States Hotel.

An image of the Sans Soucci can be seen at
http://ballstonhistory.angelfire.com/images/souci.jpg

A postcard image of the United States Hotel is at:
http://www.cardcow.com/123893/united-states-hotel-saratoga-new-york/



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It Still Waves !!!
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© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte