From the date of its discovery to the present time this celebrated spring has been the center of attraction at Saratoga.  Its name has become a household word through out the land, and the whole civilized world are its customers.

At one time Mr. Putnam had three large potash kettles evaporating the water.  The salts thus precipitated were sold in small packages to the amount of several hundred dollars.  It was not long, however, before it was discovered that Congress water was not obtained by re-dissolving the salts, as might have been expected if the nature of the water had been considered.

About the year 1820, Dr. John Clarke, the proprietor of the first soda fountain opened in this country, purchased the Congress Spring property.  By him the water was first bottled for transportation and sale, and to him the village is indebted for much of its beauty and attractiveness.

The simple and tasteful Doric colonnade over the Congress, and the pretty Grecian dome over the Columbian were erected by him.  Dr. Clarke realized a handsome income from the sale of the water.  He died in 1846, but the property continued in the hands of his heirs, under the firm name of Clarke & White, until 1865, when it was purchased by an incorporated company, under the title of “Congress and Empire Spring Company.”  The capital is $1,000,000, and the company is composed of a large number of individual stockholders.  The present proprietors of Congress Spring have contributed not a little to the beauty and attractiveness of this favorite watering place.

[Illustration:  CONGRESS SPRING.]

Properties.

When taken before breakfast the water is a very pleasant and effective cathartic.  Drank in moderate quantities throughout the day, it is a delightful, wholesome beverage, its effects being alterative and slightly tonic.  It is successfully used in affections of the liver and kidneys; and for chronic constipation, dyspepsia and gout it is highly valued.  It has been employed in cases of renal calculi with decidedly beneficial results.

Crowds gather round the fountain in the early summer morning to win appetite for breakfast and life for the pleasures of the day.  Old and young, sick and well, everybody, drinks, for the Congress fountain is as much the morning exchange as the ball-room is the resort of the evening.

Prof.  G.F.  Chandler, the leading chemist in America, says:  “The peculiar excellence of the far-famed Congress spring is due to the fact that it contains very much less iron than any other spring, and that it contains, in the most desirable proportions, those substances which produce its agreeable flavor and satisfactory medicinal effects; neither holding them in excess, nor lacking in anything that is desirable in this class of waters.”

In submitting a new analysis (which appears elsewhere) Prof.  Chandler writes,—­“A comparison of this with the analysis made by Dr. John H. Steel in 1832, proves that Congress water still retains its original strength, and all the virtues which established its well merited reputation.”  Higher authority there is none.