THE PINEHURST OUTLOOK.
PINEHURST.
A New England Village Among
the Southern Pines,
An Eden of Rest and An Ideal Place for
Health and Recreation.
The return of every winter necessarily
brings to many minds the consideration
where they can pass the next live or six
months with the least inconvenience and
the greatest benefit to their health.
Increasing experience of climatic condi
tions and influences shows that a vast
number of chronic maladies acquired in a
comparatively severe climate are stayed
in their course, and not infrequently
altogether arrested by judicious change
to more favorable external conditions.
To decide on the location affording
these conditions is a task that takes con
siderable time and thought, but, as in
every other case where alternative prop
ositions of apparently similar value are
placed before us, we are naturally influ
enced by the experience and testimony
of others who have had to solve the same
questions.
The climate of Pinehurst, North Caro
lina, has been often compared by its
admirers to that of the Piviera, the
famous European health resort, but it
possesses, in reality, many features which
render it far more desirable as a place of
rest and recreation, in the pursuit of
health or in its maintenance. The clim
ate of liiviera is not by any means a per
fect one. Jt has a heavy rainfall and
many rainy days. The transition from
day to night temperature is sudden and
considerable, damp and chill evenings
succeeding to hot and dry days. It can,
and does, freeze there, though not often,
and it is tormented by some of the fiercest
and most disagreeable winds that blow.
In some parts, as at Nice and llyeres,
clouds of dust make life a burden.
None of these drawbacks are met with
at Pinehurst. The climate of the section
of the country surrounding this lovely
village is mild and soothing, and its won
derful effects are noticable in the cheer
ful manner of the favored ones whose
better judgment has led them to select it
for their winter quarters.
The village proper, which stands at an
elevation of 650 feet above the sea-level,
identical, bye and bye, with that of the
famous llomburg, covers a area of 125
acres, and lias been laid out literally
regardless of expense, but under the most
skillful supervision, and with a constant
view to its chief object, which is to pro
vide a delightful resting place for those
who are worried either by physical ills
ui meniai anxiety. Jtatner may arise
from various causes, but the cure is the
same; perfect rest, agreeable surround
ings, cheery and refined society, and
above all, the sweet restorative of nature,
the best physician of all. The unique
feature of Plnehurst's management and
one that has added immensely to its
cheerfulness and popularity is the rule
against admission of consumptives. The
assoeiationwith those thus afflicted is
not only very depressing but is a source
of danger to those who have an heredi
tary tendency toward tuberculosis.
Among the chief adjuncts that go
towards making a health resort out 01 a
winter resting-place must tirst be men
tioned pure air. The air of l'ineiiurst is
drv, for the village is located on deep
sandy soil, securing perfect drainage.
fhe drinking water is of the purest,
being brought from deep wells to the
surface by pipes driven forty feet into
the ground, whence it is pumped to the
town reservoir. Chemical analysis shows
it to be drinking water of exceptional
quality. So highly is it prized for its
beneficial effects in cases of kidney
trouble, weak digestion, etc., that quan
tities of it are sent North.
Another prominent feature is the
gently-stimulating air that brings "heal
ing on its wings."
To those who have not as yet attained
any marked degree of convalescence,
Pinehurst will prove a curative agent of
inestimable value. Owing to the free
dom of the climate from rapid and con
stantly recurring changes of frost, rain,
mist and mild weather, the invalid spends
the greater part of the day in the open
air, and scarcely knows what confine
ment within doors means. The long
spell of propitious weather enabling the
full influence of the genial atmosphere to
act on his frame, his bodily vigor returns,
and he finds himself able to enjoy a fair
amount of exercise, whether walking,
riding or driving. The functions of
digestion and assimilation are improved;
the standard of nutrition is raised;
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absence of that dampness which so fre
quently harasses the residents of the
Northern States.
While Pinehurst is a place where the
healthy can confirm their robustness,
and the sick can hope to become quickly
convalescent, the advantages to those
who are actually recovering from an ill
ness when they arrive there are rapidly
manifested. The great danger of relapse
is known and feared by all physicians,
and valetudinarians have to be very care
ful that they do not incur, or run the
danger of incurring, a return of the ail
ments from which they are recovering.
Open-air exercise is invariably of great
benefit to such, and here, in Pinehurst,
they can sit out under the blue skies, or
walk about out of doors almost every day
during the winter with pleasure and
comfort, breathing in the tonic and
healthy tissue is formed, and morbid
deposits are absorbed and eliminated.
The temperature of Pinehurst is, on the
average, twenty degrees higher than that
of Boston, a fact of the greatest import
ance to those who are threatened with
lung or bronchial trouble, and the safety
from the severe and biting atmosphere of
the North is a strong inducement to the
residents of New England and Canada to
visit this Southern Elysium, and breathe
for a time the health-giving and health
restoring breezes of this favored spot.
The resinous outpourings of the sur
rounding pines, from which the village
takes its name, possess wonderful cura
tive and healing properties, and the fact
that no cases of pulmonary consumption
have ever originated in this locality, is
the best proof of this.
To regain health, or to preserve good
health, if we are blessed therewith, we
require not only pure air, pure water,
good food and good lodgings, but con
genial surroundings. These are all found
in Pinehurst, the latter perhaps to a
greater extent than in any American or
European health resort. Sunday services
are conducted by ministers of different
denominations in the forenoon and by a
rector of the Episcopal church in the
afternoon. Everything that the mind of
man could conceive has been done to
provide rational and harmless sources of
amusement for the guests. There are
golf grounds, that are admitted by the
leading experts to he unsurpassed by any
in the North; facilities for croquet,
bicycle riding, tennis and in fact, almost
every form of out-door sport. A hall
with stage accessories affording fine facil
ities for amateur entertainments, excel
lent roads for walking, riding or driving,
a fine bowling alley, etc., etc., make up a
location which combines all the advan
tages of a sanitarium with the best pleas
ures of a residence in Southern Europe
or Italy.
Apropos of the place just mentioned,
while it cannot be denied that great bene
fit has often been obtained by those who
have visited the chief resorts there sit
uated, yet it is apparent that, when we
consider the preliminary fatigue and
annoyance of a journey thither, the
game is frequently not worth the candle.
The principal objection to persons in
delicate health undertaking a long sea
voyage is the uncertainty about the influ
ence to which he or she may be exposed ;
while on land, the traveler is, to a great
extent, his own master, and has power
to control the surrounding conditions,
lie may regulate the day's journey accord
to strength or inclination, he may linger
in such places as have agreeable associa
tions or environments, he may hasten
over those of an opposite character ; but
when once embarked upon a voyage,
whether he find himself crowded in a
dark close cabin, lying on a narrow hard
shelf, port-holes rigidly closed and the
atmosphere he breathes poisoned by
noisome odors, the rain pouring on deck
making escape from his prison, even for
a few minutes, impossible; when he feels
he would give all his worldly possessions
for a breath of pure air, or a few hours'
cessation from the perpetual din of the
engines within and the waves without;
he is perfectly helpless, he must go
through it, day after day and night after
night, until the weather changes or the
voyage is ended. This mania or fad for
seeking abroad and under conditions of
supreme difficulty that which lies at our
very doors, and can be obtained with
ease and safety, is hard indeed to explain
or account for.
Here, within a day's journey from any
part of New England, is a city of refuge
for those oppressed by constitutional
delicacy. It covers 6,000 acres of hind,
purchased by and marvelous Iy laid out
under the direction of the owner. Here
he has provided a resting-place for the
weary, where at trifling cost and without
incurring any of the risks or dangers
above referred to, they may recuperate
the failing forces of nature, build up
strong constitutions, form delightful
acquaintances, enjoy many kinds of
rational amusement and recreation, and,
in a word, be perfectly happy. Let the
letters published in this and former issue
of The Outlook bear witness how well