COLORADO FOR INVALIDS. 315 



may not be out of place to give a few brief details. A first-class rail- 

 road ticket from Chicago to Denver costs thirty-seven dollars ; a berth 

 in the sleeper is eight dollars ; meals are seventy-five cents apiece. 

 Hotel accommodations in Denver range from two to four dollars a 

 day. Comfortably furnished rooms can be found at from twelve to 

 twenty dollars a month, and good board costs from five to ten dollars 

 a week. These are not bottom figures, but are means. House-rents 

 and servants' wages are somewhat higher than in the East. 



The invalid having determined to come to Colorado, the question 

 then arises as to the best place for him to go. This is a point of 

 considerable importance, and one in regard to which very erroneous 

 advice is frequently given by physicians unacquainted with the State. 

 For instance, it is not an uncommon thing for Eastern physicians to 

 advise their patients to go into one of the parks in mid-winter, when, 

 in point of fact, the snow would be lying so deeply on the ground in 

 these places that it would be impossible to get into them, and cer- 

 tainly very injudicious for an invalid to attempt it. As a broad rule 

 it can be stated that the best points in Avhich to winter are the towns 

 situated at the junction of the plains and foot-hills. In the summer 

 the invalid will do well to go into the mountains, to such places 

 as Estes Park, Manitou Park, Poncha Springs, Wagon-wheel Gap, 

 Georgetown, or Idaho Springs. 



The most available towns for the invalid who has to earn his sup- 

 port are Denver and Pueblo, but there is a moderately wide field from 

 which to choose when health and comfort, and not money, are the main 

 considerations. Colorado Springs combines so many favorable condi- 

 tions of climate, good accommodations, pleasant society, and natural 

 objects of interest, as to render it, in addition to its sanitary condition, 

 an almost ideal resort for phthisical invalids. Six miles to the west of 

 Colorado Springs, nestling among the foot-hills at the base of Pike's 

 Peak, is Manitou, the so-called "Saratoga of the West." Its winter 

 climate is mild, but it is chiefly a summer resort, as its large hotel 

 accommodations, its iron and soda springs, its baths and drives, make 

 it exceedingly popular. These springs furnish a lai'ge flow of agree- 

 able drinking-water of real medicinal value. The soda-spring water 

 resembles the Apollinaris, while the " Iron Ute " carries, in addition 

 to the carbonates of soda, lime, and magnesia, a pei'centage of iron 

 sufficient to give a marked reaction to the prussiate-of -potassium test. 

 At Poncha Springs there is an abundant flow of a hot chalybeate 

 M'ater, containing in addition salts of sulphur, soda, lime, and mag- 

 nesia in solution. The mean temperature of these springs is 150° 

 Fahr., and they are considered to be very valuable in the cure of 

 rheumatism and kindred troubles. The natural location of Poncha is 

 one of the finest in the State, and it must in time become one of the 

 well-known resorts. At present the hotel accommodations are meager 

 and insufiicient. Idaho Springs is a popular resort, adapted to both 



