hen 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.

Bottling the Water.

It should be remembered that the water of this spring is sold in
_bottles only_. What purports to be Congress water for sale on draught
in various places throughout the country is not genuine. The
artificial preparations thus imposed upon the public may have a
certain resemblance in taste and appearance, but are frequently worse
than worthless for medicinal purposes.

COLUMBIAN SPRING.

In Congress Park, under the Grecian Dome, near the Congress spring,
Congress and Empire Spring Co., proprietors.

[Illustration: COLUMBIAN SPRING.]