The text describes Druskininkai, located in Grodno Governorate. The history of the place is recalled, connected with the search for salt deposits in the times of Sigismund Augustus. In the 1830s, efforts were made to bring a mineral water plant. Residences of, among others, the Czetwertyńskis, Lubeckis, Oginskis and others appeared in Druskininkai at that time. Among others, J.I. Kraszewski, Władysław Syrokomla and Stanisław Moniuszko also stayed in Druskininkai (Source: "Tygodnik Illustrowany", Warsaw 1877, Series 3, T:4, p. 65-66, after: Digital Library of the University of Lodz).

A modernised reading of the text

Druskininkai mineral water plant.

Druskininkai, located in Grodno guberniya and Grodno poviat, on the rivers Neman and Rothnichanka, 38 versts from Grodno, 17 versts from the station of the St. Petersburg-Warsaw Poreče iron road - forty years ago a small village, today a clean, tidy town of over 300 houses, originally took its name from the Lithuanian word "druskas" meaning salt. Druskininkai belongs to ancient Lithuanian settlements dating back to pagan times; in the Teutonic Knights' chronicles it is mentioned under the name Salseniki, from the word "sak" (salt), and it was a place of frequent visits and stops by the Teutonic Knights when these monk-knights plundered Lithuania with sword and fire under the pretext of spreading the light of the Christian faith.

Druskininkai mineral springs, as healing springs, have long been known to the local people, and since they were helpful in their various sufferings, they became popular and famous in folk medicine. During the reign of King Stanislaus Augustus, as well as at the beginning of this century, the area was often searched for deposits of kitchen salt. In 1829, the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University drew attention to Druskininkai waters as a medicinal agent, and the first chemical analysis of these waters was made by Ignacy Fonberg, a distinguished professor of chemistry at Vilnius University.

In 1837, the governor of Grodno, Mr. Grzegorz Doppelmayer, made efforts to establish and properly equip the mineral water plant in Druskininkai, and these efforts were successfully completed in a very short time. For a sum of money set by the government, bathrooms were built, the mineral springs were cleaned, treated and tidied up, several decent houses were built, and a committee under the leadership of the Grodno governor was formed to set up the mineral water plant; a full-time doctor, apothecary, feldsher and the plant manager were also appointed. Wealthier citizens of the governorate, namely Reverends Czetwertyński, Lubecki, Ogiński, and Messrs. Lachnicki, Hłasko, Borzęcki, Kiersnowski, Siwicki, erected, at considerable expense, very fine houses, a residence hall, theatre, hotels, inns - and here, in just three years, a fairly extensive town was formed, in a pretty village, surrounded by a pine forest, green with gardens and a great number of silver, Vistula and pyramidal poplars. Voluntary donations were used to build a brick church and a synagogue for the Old Believers; civil and military hospitals were established at the expense of the government; one of the senior local officials built an Orthodox church at his own expense. Voluntary donations were used to set up an asylum for Christians of all denominations and also for Jews.

As the public began to gather in ever-increasing numbers, a large foksal was built in the pretty village on the Nemunas River, with galleries for strolling in the rainy season, rooms for concerts, dances, a library, a reading room, a restaurant, billiards and so on.

For twenty-five years Druskininkai was government property, under the management of a committee, before it became private property. The number of sick people, and with them also healthy people, who came just to pass their time pleasantly, increased more and more. The largest number of people gathered here came from the Lithuanian, White Ruthenia, Podolia, Volhynia and Ukraine, while it was very rare to meet anyone from St Petersburg, Warsaw or any other distant imperial province. So the whole company gathering for the waters, made up in large part of our compatriots, seemed to be one family. They were treated, and together they had a lot of fun, maybe even too much; thus one of the tourists who travelled at that time considered Druskininkai not only a health resort, but also a very comfortable place for Lithuanian summer carnival. In the company of Druskininkai, which gathered at that time, there often met many eminent doctors, professors of the former Vilnius University, and various people of higher education and useful work, and thus of great merit to the country. Our genius writer J.I. Kraszewski spent here the whole summer in 1847 to recuperate his health, and with his description of Druskininkai, entitled "Druskininkai, a literary and medical sketch", he greatly contributed to spreading the necessary information about Druskininkai all over the country.

For three years, from 1844 to 1847, a magazine called "Ondine of Druskininkai springs" was published here, with two issues per month during the summer season, devoted to medical observations, history, statistics, archaeology, poetry, and also fiction, in which well-known writers and new workers in the field of national literature took part. Teodor Narbutt, the distinguished author of the History of Lithuania, published in 12 volumes in Vilnius, often stayed here, and, devoting himself to historical and statistical work, as well as domestic archaeology, took an active part in the publication of "Ondine". Mr Adam Kirkor, a frequent visitor to Druskininkai, who was the publisher of Teka wileńska and the editor of Kuryer wileński in the most glorious times for the latter, also rendered great services in this field.

Stanislaw Moniuszko with his whole family spent many summers in Druskininkai, where he received the warmest welcome. The concerts, consisting only of Moniuszko's works, performed with talent by the Italian Achilles Bonoldi, were always very much appreciated by everyone. A few fresh Moniuszko pieces were born in Druskininkai, and the talent of the master became louder and louder all over the country, before he received full recognition in Warsaw. Stanislaw Moniuszko's noble heart, always filled with Christian love, received many pleasant impressions here, which were evoked by the extraordinary sympathy of his compatriots, and the wonderfully tender melody, even of his smaller works, such as: "Flowers", "A Singer in a Foreign Land", "Maciek the Insane", etc., and still in the concert hall of Druskininkai echo pleasant, and together and painful memories resound in our memory.

Wladyslaw Syrokomla often visited Druskininkai, and each of his visits resulted in a long series of dinners, evenings, picnics and various ovations for him. On Syrokomla's first visit one of his most beautiful dramatic works "Kacper Karlinski" was staged in Druskininkai theatre. The content of the drama impressed everyone and the author was showered with flowers. In 1861, Syrokomla's last visit to Druskininkai was celebrated with a dinner to which many people of various nationalities and social classes wished to be a part. During the toast in the poet's honour, our humble village lyrical poet, with unfeigned gratitude and exuberance, spoke with the following words: 'I accept your kindness, although undeservedly, and a thousand tender feelings chill in my soul.

It is not to me that this glorious honour is due, But to the cause I serve, but to the Polish song. I am unworthy of the priesthood of this great sanctity, Though a song of infirmity has spilled from my breast, I have not yet been able to sing of all the love that my heart burns towards you and Lithuania. I accept your kindness like a brotherly encouragement, As a debt that I owe to my land. May I worthily fulfil my sacred mission And equal my merits with your praises. The songs that I have in my mind and in my heart, It is a hymn to sing in the common temple! I sing only one, though on a different note: Long live our Lithuania! Long live the Lithuanians!

Theodor Tripplin, a highly educated physician, talented travel writer and novelist, also visited Druskininkai more than once, and, diligently following the efficacy of its mineral waters, described them from a medical, historical and statistical point of view, while in the company gathered at the waters he tried to find some of the more outstanding models for his humorous novels. Many people later found in these novels a moral photograph of themselves. Recently professors of St. Petersburg, Kharkiv, Kazan and Warsaw universities visited Druskininkai. The late professor Hirszfeld several times sought relief from his sufferings here; some professors of the Warsaw University also stayed here: Holewiński, dean of the Faculty of Law, Brodowski - of the Faculty of Medicine, and the distinguished professor of surgery, the excellent operator Girsztowt, publisher of so many works, writings and medical content, sparing no hardship and work for medical writing in his native language throughout his life.

Mrs Eliza Orzeszkowa, the only one working in the field of national literature in our province at the present time, having sought, several years ago, the necessary rest after her work, as well as the improvement of her failing health, was welcomed with real pleasure and kindness by all our compatriots gathered at the waters. Mr Apolinary Kątski and many young Polish artists similarly always experienced a brotherly and hospitable reception in Druskininkai; that is why we used to, and even now still do, have a considerable number of various concerts every year. The Druskininkai stage has always contributed a lot to the enjoyment of the company gathered in the town. More often than not, artists from the stages of Vilnius, Grodno, sometimes Warsaw, and even Lviv, gave us excellent performances of comedies of everlasting memory by Fredro, Korzeniowski, Bogusławski, Chęciński, or original Polish dramas.

We also had a Polish opera from Vilnius for a couple of seasons. The most distinguished actors on the Druskininkai stage were Mr Surewicz, Mr Deryng, Mr Nowiński, Mr Malewski, Mr Dąbrowski, Mr Zelinger, Mr Chelmikowski, Mr Nowakowski, and, among the women, Mr Lenkowska, Ms Markowska, Ms Markowska, Mr Dąbrowski, Mr Dąbrowski, Mr Zelinger, Mr Chelmikowski and Mr Nowakowski. Lenkowska, Majewska, Markowska, Nowińska and Rostkowska. The construction of the St. Petersburg-Warsaw railway in 1862 and the transfer of the Druskininkai water plant to private ownership shortly afterwards completely changed its appearance and the physiognomy of the gathering society. Due to easier communication, many people now come here from St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Moscow and even from more distant imperial governorates. The new owners of Druskininkai, who sometimes spared no expense for the various improvements to the facility, also contributed a great deal to the ever-increasing number of bathing guests.

The last chemical analysis of Druskininkai waters, carried out by the Imperial Pharmaceutical Society in St. Petersburg, classified them as iodine-bromine brines, the most similar in composition to Kreutzna waters abroad. The unquestionable efficacy of the waters, proven by my own and many other doctors' experience of thirty-five years, has been proved in scrofulous pains, arthritis, rheumatism, paralysis, in pains of the digestive organs, female and nervous organs; their use is harmful in all chest, heart, scorbutic pains, as well as those connected with significant emaciation of the body.

The expanding network of railways was making it easier and easier to get to Druskininkai, as it took only 2 and a half hours to get there from Grodno, 5 from Vilnius, 7 from Kaunas, 8 from Minsk, 10 from Warsaw, 22 from St. Petersburg, including the time needed to travel 17 versts by stagecoach or carriage from the St. Petersburg-Warsaw station of the Poreče iron road to Druskininkai. Last year (1876) there were 5 546 visitors; of this number 2 411 were treated. A total of 58,630 of all baths were given, and of this number 3,000 were given free of charge to the charitable institutions and 10,000 at half price to the charitable institutions. In the charity house for Christians, without distinction of religion, 65 persons were treated, in the same house for Old Believers 318. The number of practising physicians was 6, the number of patients treated was 7, and the number of visitors to the institution was 18.